Bound By Lies: The Substitute Wife

Chloe Hayes's jacket was no match for the wind and rain. It was soaked through within minutes, clinging heavily to her body as the cold seeped deep into her bones, spreading through her bloodstream and slowly invading her limbs.

The downpour hammered relentlessly against the parking lot of St. Mary's Hospital, turning the asphalt into a glossy black mirror that reflected the city's blurred and distant lights. Her sneakers splashed through puddles with sticky squeaks.

She pulled out her phone, struggling to wake the soaked screen.

A notification popped up almost immediately.

Another overdue payment reminder from the hospital billing department.

Her stomach tightened sharply, tangling with the ever-present fear into a heavy knot that made it hard to breathe. She bit down on her lower lip, using the pain to force herself to stay focused.

Upstairs in the hospital, her grandmother Martha was being kept alive by machines, and the cost of keeping those machines running for a single hour was nearly equal to an entire week's wages for Chloe.

A slurred voice suddenly cut through the rain.

"Hey there, pretty girl. Lost your way?"

Chloe jerked her head up. A tall man stepped out from the shadows between a parked delivery van and a pickup truck. The stale stench of old beer mixed with cheap whiskey drifted toward her through the rain. His gaze moved over her body slowly and shamelessly, making every hair on her arms stand on end.

Rick Hicks.

The man who used to frequent the restaurant where she had worked part-time, always leaving greasy fingerprints on the counter and disgusting comments behind when he left.

"I'm fine, Rick." She tried to keep her voice steady, but the tension underneath still leaked through. She attempted to step around him while secretly gripping her keys tightly in her palm, the sharp edges digging painfully into her skin.

Rick moved faster than she did, his large frame stepping directly into her path and blocking it completely.

"Come on, don't be like that. We always got along so well back at the restaurant, didn't we?"

Before she could react, he grabbed her wrist. His hand tightened around her like a steel clamp, cold and rough. The heavy smell of alcohol rolled off him, making her stomach churn.

"Let go of me!"

Chloe struggled violently, trying to yank her arm free, only to realize it felt like fighting against a wall. The smile on Rick's face widened, revealing teeth stained yellow by years of cigarettes.

"Relax. I just want to talk."

Fear flooded her lungs like icy water. She twisted desperately and opened her mouth to scream for help, but Rick seized the opportunity and shoved a small white pill into her mouth.

Chloe grabbed at her throat and gasped desperately, trying to spit it out, but it was useless. She didn't need to guess what it was-it had to be an aphrodisiac. Her eyes darted frantically around the parking lot, searching desperately for any possible help. If the drug took effect, she was finished.

Beneath a dim streetlamp in the distance sat a Rolls-Royce, motionless in the rain like a solitary island in a storm-tossed sea.

It was the only piece of driftwood left for her to cling to.

She focused every ounce of her strength, adrenaline surging through her veins, and stomped hard onto Rick's foot.

"Shit-"

Rick grunted in pain, and for a split second his grip loosened.

It was enough.

She tore herself free and sprinted into the rain, heading straight for the Rolls-Royce. She pounded desperately on the rear passenger window as rain streamed down from her hair, impossible to tell apart from tears.

"Please!"

Her voice was nearly torn apart by the storm.

"Help me!"

Inside the car, Julian Montgomery IV sat with his eyes closed, the heel of his hand pressed tightly against his brow. Every crack of thunder felt like a hammer slamming into his temples. The migraine had pushed him to the edge of his endurance. He had been forcing himself to maintain a steady breathing rhythm, trying to survive the latest wave of pain, but the frantic pounding against the window shattered the last remnants of silence inside the vehicle.

"Drew, make her leave."

His voice was low and hoarse, carrying unmistakable irritation. He didn't need trouble, and he certainly didn't need an emotional stranger barging into his world.

Yet the next second, he opened his eyes.

Through the rain-streaked window, he saw a blurred face.

Her eyes were wide, her lips trembling slightly, as though she were desperately clinging to the last lifeline available to her. That raw, instinctive fear struck something deep inside him, somewhere he had thought buried long ago.

At the same moment, Rick Hicks had caught up to her. Heavy footsteps splashed through puddles, sending water flying into the air. He reached out once more, his thick fingers only inches away from her shoulder.

Click.

The door unlocked.

Chloe barely had time to react before the car door swung open from the inside. A powerful hand grabbed her arm and pulled her quickly into the vehicle. The door slammed shut behind her, instantly sealing the storm outside and plunging the car into sudden silence.

The air was filled with the scent of expensive leather and woody cologne, mixed faintly with tobacco smoke. It was utterly different from the cold, miserable world outside, as though a single door separated two entirely different realities.

"Drew," the man said quietly from the darkness, his eyes still closed, "deal with him."

Driver Drew stepped out immediately. Chloe never even saw what happened. Rick, who had been standing in the rain only seconds earlier, disappeared completely from sight as though he had never existed at all.

A few minutes later, Drew returned to the car and lowered his voice. "It's taken care of. But the weather is getting worse, and your condition isn't stable. We should head back."

The man kept his eyes tightly shut, his jaw clenched against the pounding in his head. He gritted his teeth and let out a slow, restrained breath.

"Drew, your shift is over."

Drew froze for a moment. "Sir, with all due respect, I really don't think it's a good idea to leave you here alone in this weather-"

"I said leave."

His voice cracked through the silence like a whip, sharp and furious for the first time that night.

Drew immediately fell silent.

For a long moment, neither man spoke.

Finally, Drew lowered his head. "Understood."

The driver's door closed softly behind him.

Only when silence finally settled inside the car did Chloe become painfully aware of her position.

She was practically sitting in a stranger's lap.

Heat rushed into her cheeks as she scrambled upright and moved away.

"I'm sorry, I just... I really didn't have any other choice. He was just-"

The man tilted his head but didn't answer. Instead, a suppressed groan suddenly escaped his lips.

He raised a hand to his temple, his entire body tense as the pain finally overwhelmed his restraint. To steady himself, he instinctively reached out and gripped her shoulder. His palm was burning hot, the heat unmistakable even through her soaked jacket.

Chloe's breathing caught.

She instinctively tried to pull away, only to feel the hand steadying her trembling faintly.

She tilted her head up toward him; the darkness hid his face entirely, yet she could sense how agony tore at him-his grip rigid and unsteady from whatever pain he endured.

"Are you okay?" she asked softly. "Do you need a doctor?"

Holding onto his hand, Chloe tried to make out his features in the darkness so she could better assess his condition. At that exact moment, her own consciousness began to blur. Her body moved toward him against her will, and suddenly the world tilted violently around her.

Julian was forced awake enough to catch the hand that had fallen against him. When he turned his head, all he could see were those watery eyes inches from his own.

"You brought this on yourself."

Large hands closed around Chloe's slender waist, pulling her firmly against him.

A bolt of lightning illuminated the sky, revealing the two figures tangled together in the back seat as fog slowly spread across the windows.

Chloe remembered only fragments after that-the burning heat of his body surrounding her, the roar of rain outside swallowing the world whole, and her consciousness drifting endlessly between freezing cold and unbearable heat.

In scattered moments that refused to connect, she felt herself being held tightly, like a drowning person clinging to the only piece of driftwood left afloat. She tried to struggle. She tried to speak. But the chaos in her mind blurred everything beyond recognition.

By the time Chloe finally regained control of her thoughts, the events of the past few minutes felt so surreal that she could hardly believe they had actually happened.

In the darkness, she still couldn't see the man's face clearly, but the steady rise and fall of his breathing told her he had slipped back into sleep.

For some reason, that realization made him seem less dangerous.

Heat rushed to her cheeks as she hurriedly straightened her disheveled clothes. Taking advantage of the darkness, she gathered her belongings and slipped out of the car as quietly as possible, fleeing in embarrassment as though escaping the scene of a crime.

The moment her feet touched the sidewalk, the sharp ring of her phone shattered the silence.

A name appeared on the screen.

Felicity.

Her stepsister.

"Where the hell have you been, Chloe?" The moment the call connected, Felicity's sharp, angry voice pierced through her eardrums. "I've been calling you for a whole hour. What about the money? Did you get it?"

When Chloe was five years old, her mother died. Her father brought his mistress and illegitimate daughter-Felicity-back home and threw Chloe and her grandmother, Martha, out of the house. Since then, Chloe had grown up relying on Martha and living by her side.

Chloe shuddered and instinctively lowered her voice, as though afraid of disturbing the unconscious man beside her. "Felicity, please, not right now. Something happened. I need a little more time."

There was a second of silence on the other end before a cold laugh, utterly devoid of warmth, came through the phone.

"Time?" Felicity's voice dropped lower, turning dangerous and venomous. "The hospital won't accept 'give me a little more time' as an excuse. And your grandmother doesn't have time to sit around while you figure things out."

She paused, as if savoring the feeling of the blade sinking into flesh.

"I swear, Chloe, if I don't see that money in my account before midnight, I'll personally go to the hospital and unplug the machines keeping her alive." She let out a soft laugh. "Then we'll see exactly how much time she has left."

Chloe's breathing caught. The hand gripping her phone began to tremble uncontrollably, her knuckles turning white from the force of her grip.

Felicity always knew exactly what Chloe cared about most, and she never hesitated to drive the knife in before slowly twisting it.

The freezing rain swallowed her whole in an instant. She stumbled toward her old Honda, whose engine coughed several times like a sick old man before finally starting with obvious reluctance. As she drove out of the parking lot, the Rolls-Royce silently slipped into the night as well, heading in the exact opposite direction. Its black body was quickly consumed by the curtain of rain, as though it had never existed at all.

The stranger, that brief refuge that had felt almost unreal, disappeared from her world along with it.

Chloe tightened her grip on the steering wheel as a sharp, unfamiliar pain suddenly pierced her chest.

She had no energy left to think about it.

After returning to the cramped little apartment, Martha's illness, the hospital bills, and Felicity's threats weighed on her chest like three massive stones, making even breathing difficult. She barely slept that night. By the time the horizon turned gray with dawn, an impulse she couldn't even explain to herself drove her back to St. Mary's Hospital.

She parked in the lot and instinctively glanced toward the spot where the Rolls-Royce had been parked the night before.

There was nothing there.

Only rain-washed pavement and unrelated cars coming and going remained, as though everything that had happened the previous night had been nothing more than a hallucination born from exhaustion and fear.

Just as she turned to leave, her phone suddenly rang. The caller ID read: Intensive Care Unit - Nurse Adams.

"Chloe, you need to come here immediately." The nurse's voice was noticeably urgent. "It's Martha. Her condition suddenly worsened."

It felt as though the world lost all sound in that instant. All she could hear was the roar of blood rushing through her ears.

Chloe rushed into the hospital building and sprinted down the long corridors, her heart slamming violently against her ribs until she could barely breathe. When she burst into the ICU, the first thing she saw was the jagged line on the monitor spiking wildly and the numbers steadily dropping.

Martha lay in the hospital bed with an ashen face, her breathing shallow and rapid, as though it might stop at any moment. Chloe's legs gave out beneath her and she collapsed to her knees beside the bed. Grabbing the blanket, she buried her face in it, and a sob she had held back with every ounce of strength finally broke free from her throat.

Just as despair was about to consume her completely, her phone suddenly vibrated.

Caller ID - Ava Caldwell.

Chloe's best friend since childhood. Her closest friend, without question.

"Chloe! Oh my God, I just heard about Martha." Ava's hurried voice came through the phone. "Wait for me. I'm coming right now."

Thirty minutes later, Ava hurried into the waiting area.

She was wearing a beautifully tailored designer trench coat, the soft and expensive fabric standing in stark contrast to the hospital's worn and gloomy surroundings, as though she belonged to an entirely different world. She didn't hug Chloe, nor did she offer words of comfort.

Instead, she shoved a folded piece of paper directly into her hand.

Chloe looked down.

It was a check.

Written clearly in the amount field was a figure that made her mind go blank for a moment-

Five hundred thousand dollars.

"Ava..." She could barely find her voice. "That's so much money... Where did you get it?"

Ava smiled, excitement and pride barely concealed beneath the expression. She quickly pulled Chloe to the end of the corridor and lowered her voice only after making sure no one was nearby.

"You probably won't believe this, but... they found me." She paused, as though waiting for the news to sink in.

"My biological family." Ava looked at her and said each word carefully. "I'm the long-lost daughter of the Beaumont Family."

Chloe froze.

The overwhelming grief and exhaustion left her with no room to question the improbability of it all. She could only stare blankly at her friend. After a long moment, she finally managed a genuine smile.

"Ava, that's wonderful."

But in the very next second, the smile disappeared from Ava's face, replaced by carefully controlled pain and struggle.

"That's exactly the problem." She grabbed Chloe's arm, her fingertips turning pale from the force of her grip. "This money comes with a price."

Chloe vaguely realized what was coming.

Ava took a deep breath. "They arranged a marriage for me. The groom is from the Montgomery Family."

Chloe stared at her blankly, her mind clearly struggling to keep up with the speed of events.

"I can't marry him." Ava's voice began to shake. "I'm in love with someone else. If I refuse the marriage, they'll freeze my accounts and take back everything they've given me."

The air suddenly grew heavy.

Then, at last, Ava revealed her true purpose.

"I need you to marry him in my place."

Chloe was certain she had misheard.

"What?"

"It's only temporary," Ava said quickly. "He's in very poor health and almost never appears in public. He's a complete recluse. No one will realize you're not me. Just give me some time to deal with things at home. Once everything is settled, I'll come back and take over, and you'll be free again."

Chloe shook her head almost immediately.

"No. This is ridiculous."

Marry someone in another person's place? Pretend to be the heir of a wealthy family?

This wasn't merely madness.

It was insanity.

But Ava had clearly anticipated her reaction. She pushed the check back into Chloe's hand, her perfectly manicured nails digging deeply into her palm.

"Chloe, this is the only way to save Martha."

Her voice softened, carrying an urgency that bordered on pleading.

"It's only temporary."

"Please."

"This is the only way."

The check rested quietly in her palm, yet it felt so hot she could barely hold onto it.

Five hundred thousand dollars.

The number stared back at her like an inescapable gaze, because it was enough to keep Martha alive through the next stage of treatment.

Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows of the top-floor office, New York's skyline stretched across the horizon beneath the fading dusk. Julian Montgomery IV stood before the glass, his gaze fixed on the distance without truly seeing the city below. The sound of rain hammering against the car windows still seemed to echo in his ears. What replayed endlessly in his mind was the rain-blurred window and the pair of eyes beyond it, filled with fear and a desperate plea for help.

"Find her."

Julian's voice was calm to the point of coldness as he turned to look at Drew Prince, who had remained silently standing beside the desk.

"The woman from the parking lot last night. Pull every surveillance recording you can find. I want to know who she is."

Drew's expression did not change in the slightest.

"Sir, most of the outdoor cameras at St. Mary's Hospital malfunctioned during the storm. The footage we've managed to recover is extremely limited, and so far we haven't found any images capable of identifying her."

Silence settled over the office once again.

Julian's jaw tightened slightly as his fingers tapped unconsciously against the desk.

He had to find her.

The intensity of that determination felt almost absurd, even to himself.

Yet the rainy night, those eyes, and that inexplicable sense of familiarity continued to linger stubbornly in the depths of his mind.

Ever since that woman disappeared, he had spent five full years searching for her, only to find nothing. Then, when the girl appeared last night, that instinctive certainty struck him again-

She was the one.

The woman who had once saved him and who was supposed to have become his wife.

The thought settled heavily in his chest like a stone before he forcibly pushed it aside.

Because there were more urgent matters demanding his attention.

His grandmother, Catherine Montgomery, was currently attempting to push forward an alliance between the Montgomery Family and the Beaumont Family. The intended bride was the family's recently recovered heiress-Ava Caldwell.

"Have the rumors spread yet?"

Julian returned to his seat behind the desk and shifted his attention to the computer screen in front of him.

Drew nodded.

"Yes, sir. Wall Street and the upper social circles have already begun discussing your situation. The rumors regarding your disfigurement after the accident and your loss of male function have spread even more effectively than expected. Miss Caldwell and the Beaumont Family should already be aware of them."

A smile devoid of warmth touched Julian's lips.

He had released those rumors himself.

If he could not refuse the marriage, then he would make the other side walk away first.

After all, no young heir born into one of the world's wealthiest families and blessed with every possible choice would willingly marry a monster rumored to be disfigured, violent, reclusive, and even incapable of functioning as a man.

As long as Ava Caldwell broke off the engagement herself, this absurd transaction would come to an end naturally.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, Chloe Hayes was being slowly consumed by an entirely different kind of fear.

Everything that had happened on that rainy night weighed on her heart like a stone, while the recent changes in her body were turning that unease into a suffocating possibility.

She instinctively placed a hand over her lower abdomen as another wave of nausea rose inside her.

This was already the third time today.

And the hospital's cheap and terrible food clearly could not explain it.

What if she was really pregnant?

The thought alone sent a chill through her entire body.

At that moment, Ava Caldwell appeared at the end of the hospital corridor and hurried toward her, her eyes red and her expression almost perfectly crafted, as though she had just emerged from a breakdown.

"They won't let me back out." Ava grabbed Chloe's hands tightly, her palms cold and damp. "The wedding is already set. The Montgomery Family isn't giving me any chance to refuse."

"Chloe, you're the only person I can turn to." She lowered her voice as though sharing a secret that no one else could hear. "And it's even worse than I imagined."

Chloe froze slightly.

Ava took a deep breath.

"The rumors are true. They say Julian Montgomery was severely disfigured, never appears in public, has a violent and cruel personality, and even lost his ability to function as a man because of the accident."

She paused.

"So he won't touch you."

The air suddenly fell silent.

Those words lingered in Chloe's mind long after they were spoken.

He won't touch you.

She hadn't even realized that she had quietly let out a breath of relief.

The fear that had weighed on her chest for so long had finally developed the smallest crack.

Ava immediately noticed the hesitation in Chloe's eyes and pressed forward without delay.

"Please, Chloe. Just a few months."

"It's only a marriage on paper. You'll be safe, and Martha will receive the best treatment possible. No matter how much it costs, no one will ever force you to make impossible choices again."

Martha.

The name struck the most vulnerable part of her with effortless precision.

Martha's worsening condition, the mounting hospital bills, Felicity's threats, and the friendship and trust Ava had given her over the years all merged together into a weight she could no longer escape, slowly crushing the last of her resistance.

After a long silence, Chloe finally lowered her head.

"Okay."

"I'll do it."

The moment the decision left her lips, all she felt was bitterness spreading through her mouth, as though she had swallowed a handful of ashes.

Once the agreement was made, everything moved with dizzying speed.

There was no wedding.

No vows.

No flowers or guests.

A few days later, a discreet black sedan delivered her to the massive iron gates of Montgomery Estate. The gates slowly opened outward, revealing a seemingly endless driveway and a vast manor hidden deep within the woods.

An elderly butler with silver hair and a stern expression was already waiting for her.

"Welcome home, Mrs. Montgomery."

Mr. Finch bowed slightly, his tone impeccable and restrained.

For a moment, Chloe felt dizzy.

Mrs. Montgomery.

The title struck her like a hammer.

It was as though the moment she stepped into this place, Chloe Hayes had ceased to exist.

In her place stood someone else entirely.

She was led through halls so quiet they felt almost abandoned before finally stopping in front of a master suite larger than her entire apartment.

The room was decorated in shades of silver and cream white, luxurious and exquisite enough to belong in the pages of a high-end interior design magazine.

Yet there was no warmth in it.

It felt more like a museum exhibit than a home.

"Mr. Montgomery won't be returning tonight," Mr. Finch said from the doorway. "Your time is entirely your own."

With that, he quietly departed.

The heavy doors slowly closed behind him, leaving her alone in the enormous room.

The silence was suffocating.

Chloe walked to the full-length mirror and stared at her reflection.

The woman staring back felt like a stranger.

Everything around her served as a constant reminder that this life was never meant to belong to her.

Slowly, she opened her bag.

Her gaze settled on the small white box inside.

It was something she had bought from a pharmacy before arriving at the estate.

A pregnancy test.

Chloe picked up the box and walked into the marble bathroom. Her fingers trembled with nerves so badly that it took several seconds just to tear open the packaging.

What she didn't know was that hidden among the elaborate carvings in the corner of the bedroom, a tiny red light was blinking almost imperceptibly.

At that very moment, in the estate's security monitoring center on the opposite side of the property, Julian sat in front of a wall of screens.

Originally, he had merely wanted to see for himself what kind of woman would willingly marry the monster the world believed him to be simply for money.

Then, in the next second, he saw what she pulled from her bag.

A pregnancy test.

The air seemed to freeze.

Julian slowly narrowed his eyes.

For an instant, his blood ran cold.

Then it boiled.

Fury surged through his veins and burned its way toward his mind.

A complete stranger who had married into the Montgomery Family for money was now planning to bring another man's child into his family and give it the Montgomery name.

How greedy.

How insulting.

Julian shot to his feet so abruptly that the chair scraped harshly across the floor.

The next moment, he turned and strode out of the surveillance room, heading straight toward the main residence.

He was going to end this ridiculous farce himself.