No Longer His Substitute Bride

Xavier's mansion

{The bedroom} 

“She's back, Amelia. It's time for you to leave. It's time for you to sign the divorce paper and return your position to the original owner”. He said to her. 

His voice, cold and void of emotion. So with his eyes which seemed like they were looking straight into her soul. 

She tried to say something, but it felt like the words were stuck in her throat. 

But deep down inside her mind, she wanted to refuse his demand. She didn't want to leave his life, but that day came to her mind like a thunder struck. 

She remembered that day like the back of her hand. 

It was 3 years ago. She had just lost her father to an accident, and her mother.. she was not able to endure such a news and fell into a stroke.

With her father dead and her mother stuck in a hospital, she was desperate. Desperate enough to do anything she could to save her mother's life because she could not endure losing her either. 

Due to this, at 20 years old, she became a drop out at college and took several part-time jobs at different convenience stores and other places like restaurants and coffee stores. 

But no matter how much she tried, she could not meet up with the hospital fee, talk more of meeting up with money that she was going to use to take care of her five years old brother. 

She thought that all hope was lost. She had even begun the countdown of her mother's death because the doctors refused to treat her mother anymore. 

She would soak her pillow with tears all night. 

But that moment of sorrow ended when he suddenly appeared in her life. 

That day, she was working at the coffee store and was meant to serve a certain table an expensive coffee. 

She went to the customer's table, but after not being able to sleep well at night, and with dark circles underneath her eyes, she made a terrible mistake which she thought would ruin her life, but she had no clue that it was going to be the opposite way. 

The cup of coffee fell off the tray and landed on the ground.

The ceramic cup broke, and the hot coffee spilled on the ground. 

Her eyes widened in shock after that happened, and she attempted to pick it up but cut her finger in the process. 

Despite that, she did not have the time to hiss in pain. 

Immediately, she knelt down before the customer and pleaded with him, because the coffee she had wasted on the ground was an expensive limited coffee worth 100 dollars. 

Something she could not bear to afford at her condition. Not when she still has her mother and her little brother to care for. 

She thought that he was not going to let her off the hook, but what happened next was something she had never expected to happen. 

He said to her, “Lift your head”. 

The cold voice was enough to make her shudder and put fear into her heart, but she did as he said. She slowly lifted her head to look at him, and their eyes met. 

Her soft blue eyes against his harsh red eyes. 

“You”. He said to her and his brows furrowed. 

She was confused because of his reaction. Before she could ask him what was wrong, she heard him mutter, “Why do you look like her?”. 

And so, that was how it began. A stranger, who was a man she knew nothing about, gave her an offer which tempted her. 

An offer she knew she could not bear to refuse.

“Be my wife, and I will grant you your heart desires”. 

That was the offer.

And hearing that, the only thing she could think of was her mother and her brother. She didn't think about anything else. Neither did she think about herself. At that spot, she told him ‘Yes’. 

A ‘Yes’ which changed her life forever. 

She got married to him but never told him the reason why she agreed to his offer without another thought. Neither did she dared to tell him about her sick mother or her little brother. That was because she was afraid that he might change his mind if he found out about them. 

In the past 3 years people have not stopped talking about how lucky she was to be married to Xavier, who was once the title holder of the most handsome and majestic billionaire CEO. 

But in truth, before she agreed to marry him, she had no clue that he was the same Xavier every single lady was crushing and dreaming no. You see? 

That was how desperate she was. 

Even when people accused her of getting married to him because of his money, she didn't care about that. After all, with the money he gave to her, she had used it to get her mother a better treatment, and she was getting better.

But now, he wanted her gone from his life? 

She bit her lower lips as she stared at him without uttering a single word. 

She was back. 

The word replayed inside her mind over and over again, and that made her recall another memory. 

She remembered that she had signed a contract with him before he got married to her. 

First, she should not fall in love with him. And second, she was just a substitute. A temporary bride who would leave his life after he succeeded in persuading his true love to come back. 

Honestly, at the start, she did not care about the contract she signed. She only needed the money. 

But as time went by, after living under the same roof as him for three years, she could not help it and let her heart betray her. She fell in love with him, and now that he wanted her gone, she felt a tear in her heart. 

A kind of pain she has not felt for the past 3 years.