Substitute Wife for the Mafia King R18-Chapter 441: Irreplacable
The beautifully carved wooden doors of the church that had been chosen as our wedding venue had never looked so daunting to me before. I had always envisioned that I would be filled with joy and excitement when it came time to stand in front of those double doors, waiting to enter to mark the start of my wedding ceremony.
In truth, all I could feel at that moment was a sense of failure and a sense of helplessness as a cold void developed in the pit of my stomach. I wanted to throw up and run away from it all, but my feet wouldn’t move.
"I can do this," I told myself in a low whisper.
I could hear beautiful classical music playing from inside the church and knew that the live orchestra band inside had no idea that the groom had not yet turned up. It was a sudden change of plans that no one could have anticipated. After closing my eyes and taking a deep breath, I opened them again and firmly pushed open the double doors before walking into the church with my head held high. My heart raced in my chest as I tried to tell myself that there wasn’t anything that I needed to be ashamed of. I could feel all eyes on me as the band continued playing the classical wedding march. The spotlight fell on me to highlight my entrance just as planned, yet nothing was going as planned at all.
The first thing that hit me was the irony of it all as the orchestra band switched to start playing the classical wedding march just as planned. The reality of the situation blew me away, and for a moment, I couldn’t bring myself to move or speak. I couldn’t stop thinking that if Bradon was here just as planned, then we would undoubtedly have such a marvelous wedding. Regret welled up inside of me, and I couldn’t ignore the extremely bitter taste that sprung up in my mouth. Absorbed by it all, I didn’t realize that Anthony was already standing by my side until it was already too late.
"Dahlia," Anthony called my name softly as he took my hand into his.
"Stop," I said through clenched teeth as I tried to pull my hand away from Anthony’s grip.
"Stop resisting. It’s going to be big trouble if Desmond finds out about this," Anthony warned.
"If we don’t fake anything, there won’t be a problem. We have to stop lying and start telling the truth," I hissed back.
Before Anthony could stop me, and before I would change my mind, I sucked in a deep breath before shouting loudly.
"Everyone, please listen!" I yelled loudly, although my voice was slightly drowned out by the sound of the orchestra band playing and the applaud of the audience.
"You’re going to regret this," Anthony warned me again as he tugged on my hand.
"I’m not going to regret anything," I replied defiantly.
"Yes, you will. Now play nice and follow my lead," Anthony advised sternly.
"Stop. What do you think you’re doing?" I hissed as I turned to face Anthony.
"Just play along," he mouthed those words to me as he pulled firmly on my hand, dragging me after him and closer to his side.
I felt like I was watching one of my worst nightmares unfold right in front of my eyes. Anthony was dressed exactly like my groom, and I figured that he had slipped on Bradon’s tuxedo. To everyone else except for me, it must have seemed like nothing was amiss. To them, seeing us together must have seemed like the perfect sight for the wedding that I had planned - the perfectly dressed bride and groom standing side by side, just about to enter the wedding ceremony that would bind us together for life as husband and wife.
I immediately panicked as I stared directly into his eyes. Everything felt so wrong, and all I wanted to do was cry out for help. Everyone only applauded louder than before after seeing what must appear to be such a tender and loving gesture from Anthony.
"Just play along. You don’t want any trouble with Desmond, right? He’s watching us. Everyone is watching us," Anthony whispered to me.
I could feel Desmond’s eyes on me without even having to turn to look in his direction. Anthony pulled slightly on my hand, urging me to follow his lead down the aisle. Although everything must have looked so right, every living cell within my body was screaming that it was wrong. I knew that I had to stop this before my real wedding would turn into another farce. I never wanted to start my relationship with Bradon based on another heap of lies.
I glanced over to where Desmond was seated with his eyes on us. My mind couldn’t help but wonder if he suspected something. If he did, he decided not to immediately call us out on it. Regardless, I had already made up my mind not to go along with Anthony’s dreadful idea.
"I just want to help you and my brother. That is all..." Anthony whispered to me before showing me a kind smile.
"I don’t need your help," I replied, a lot more coldly than I meant to.
I was sure beyond a shred of doubt that lying wasn’t going to get us anywhere. Bradon and I had been through too many lies already, and it was time for us to start anew, and the best way to do that was to start off by telling the truth. I had to be myself, and Bradon had to be himself. Even if we were not available at times when we were needed, we needed to be upfront and tell everyone that we couldn’t make it. No matter what was demanded of us, we had to be ourselves, play our part, and no one else’s.
"Everyone, please listen!" I yelled again to get everybody’s attention as I waved my hand.
This time more people seemed to be aware that something wasn’t going as smoothly as planned. The conductor turned to look at me with an awkward look on his face as if he wasn’t sure what to do.
"We have to stop..." I began saying.
