Paper Promise: The Substitute Bride - Chapter 20: Chapter 20

My life has turned upside down. A few weeks ago, I was just a young girl with a simple dream - to open a bookshop alongside my best friend, Alice. But everything fell apart when I was forced to take my sister’s place in an arranged marriage, paying with my freedom for a debt that wasn’t mine.
Now I’m the wife of a man I don’t know. Rich, handsome, and yet capable of making me feel the most miserable of women. He despises me, and the worst thing is that I have no idea why.
As I descended the stairs, the sound of laughter and conversation coming from the pool indicated that Margareth’s friends had arrived. However, it was something else that caught my attention - a whispered voice echoing from the office. James. He was arguing with someone.
Moved by an instinct I didn’t understand myself, I approached quietly, holding my breath. Something told me I shouldn’t overhear that conversation. But it was too late to back down.
“She’s a girl who knows nothing about life.” James’ voice sounded stiff, cutting.
“I’ve always been against this marriage madness,” Catherine retorted.
“It’s done now.”
“Get an annulment. You haven’t even consummated the marriage.”
“No. No way.”
“If you want to be a married man so badly, then annul this farce and marry the senator’s daughter. They’re rich. It’s embarrassing to have to explain to my friends who your wife is.”
I felt the world collapse around me. My breathing stopped and a sharp chill ran down my spine. I had to get out of there, run away before my legs collapsed. But I was paralyzed, caught between shock and pain.
That’s when James turned towards the door. Our gazes met.
There was surprise in his eyes - but no regret.
A sharp pain shot through my chest, as if an invisible blade had pierced my soul.
“Laura...”
The sound of my name on his lips was the slap that freed me. I spun on my heels and ran down the stairs, not caring where I was going. All I knew was that I needed to get far away.
I was so ashamed that the world around me seemed like a blur. I didn’t see anyone, but I felt the impact.
“Laura, be careful!”
Margareth’s boyfriend’s voice forced me to stop.
“Sorry,” I mumbled, looking away before continuing to walk.
“Aren’t you going to stay and enjoy the pool?” he said, his tone casual.
“No.”
My answer came out short, firm. There was nothing there for me.
I wandered, my heart beating wildly, the humiliation still burning in my chest. I had nowhere to go, no one to turn to. Then my footsteps led me to the only place where I could let off steam without fear: the cemetery.
The iron gate creaked as I pushed it open, and absolute silence enveloped me. Only the wind whispered through the trees. I walked along the stone path, feeling my throat tighten with every step I took closer to my mother’s grave.
“Mom...” My voice came out shaky, almost a whisper.
The clouds were gathering in the sky, as gray as my heart. There was no more strength in my legs. I fell to my knees on the damp earth, feeling the cold seep through the thin fabric of my dress.
The tears, which I had held back so tightly during that humiliation, now flowed uncontrollably, marking my face and falling onto the tombstone. Each drop was a piece of my dignity that was crumbling.
“I don’t know what to do...” I mumbled, my voice laced with sobs. “I feel so lost.”
My trembling fingers slid across the icy surface of the headstone, tracing the engraved letters of her name.
I was looking there for impossible comfort, for advice that would never come.
“If you were here, you would never allow this,” I whispered. “My marriage is a sham, a contract signed with my freedom. I’m not even worthy of a place in that house.”
I hugged the headstone as if I could somehow feel my mother’s warmth through the stone. The wind stirred my hair, carrying the scent of wet earth and wilted flowers.
“My husband despises me as if I were to blame for something I don’t even understand. Every time he looks at me, I feel as if a thousand needles are piercing my skin. And my father...” I swallowed, the words burning in my throat. “My father gave me away like merchandise, sold me to pay off a debt that wasn’t mine, as if I had no dreams, as if my desires didn’t matter.”
Tears blurred my vision, turning the world into green and gray spots.
I leaned my forehead against the icy marble, letting the coldness soothe the pain throbbing in my temples.
“Why did you leave me alone in this world?” My voice was just a thread, a broken plea. “Why did you have to leave when I needed your strength, your wisdom, the most? Without you, I’m just a boat adrift in a sea of contempt and indifference.”
The silence of the cemetery was my only answer.
“Mother...”
I stood there, hugging the stone, like a lost child looking for the way home - a home that no longer existed.
That’s when I felt the first heavy drop fall on the back of my neck. Then another, and another. In a matter of seconds, the sky opened up in a liquid fury. The rain came down in torrents, mercilessly, soaking my dress, sticking it to my trembling body.
I didn’t move. I let the water wash away my tears, mixing them with the storm that was now punishing the earth. The drops bounced off the headstone, creating a frantic melody, a perfect counterpoint to the chaos inside my chest.
My hair, now heavy from the humidity, stuck to my face. Water ran down my neck in threads, seeping under my clothes. Thunder cracked, illuminating the ghostly graveyard for a moment.
It was as if the universe was crying with me, as if the sky shared my grief - not just for the mother I had lost, but for the life that had been stolen from me. The rain enveloped me in a cold, violent embrace, the most sincere I had received in weeks.
“Laura, what are you doing here?”
I turned around slowly; the water running down my face, blurring my vision. A male silhouette holding an umbrella.