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Chapter 22
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Mr. Devilish's Substitute Bride Chapter 23
CHRIS As I stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window of my penthouse apartment, holding a glass of wine in my hand and staring absentmindedly outside, I suddenly heard footsteps coming from behind me but didn't bother turning around since I knew who it was.I waited until the footsteps had come to a stop a few steps away from me before asking in a faint voice, "What happened?""Sir. Miss Valeria just left Meteor City." My assistant, John reported respectfully. "With that man?" Despite already knowing the answer to the question I asked, I still asked stubbornly. It was probably because I hoped for a different answer. But..."Yes, she left together with him on his private jet."...sometimes, things just don't go the way you want."I understand. You can go." Without taking my gaze off outside, I waved my hand dismissively, signalling to John that he was no longer needed here.As I listened to the gradually receding footsteps, I gently set down the wine glass in my hands on the si
Mr. Devilish's Substitute Bride Chapter 24
VALERIA 8AM, The Harrison Mansion Half a month had gone by in a flash since I arrived here in the Capital City as Zane Michaels, no, Zane Harrison's wife. Even up till this particular moment, I still haven't completely digested the fact that the man I thought to be Mr. Devil's assistant, the man whom I find myself fiercely attracted to, the man I had... kissed was actually Mr. Devil himself.Who would have thought?Towards this shocking news, I actually didn't know how to feel exactly.Should I be happy, after all, I no longer have to worry about morality or whatsoever since the person I was attracted was in the end, my legal husband.Or should I be feeling stupid at how I had been deceived thoroughly by him?But then when I thought about it carefully, the signs were all there. I was just too distracted to notice.Was it his manner of speaking that literally ooze of authority despite him trying to make himself seem like a gentleman?Once, I had even thought about it jokingly about
Mr. Devilish's Substitute Bride Chapter 25
VALERIASeeing him acting that nonchalant, as if he wasn't the one who had literally caged me in here, I really felt an urge to wipe that annoying smile off his face.And I did exactly that.By jumping off my bed and running over to give him a slap on the face, or at least tried to...With his eyes squinted dangerously, he held up my outstretched hands, "Grumpy much?""What do you think?!" Not to be outdone, I asked back with equally squinted eyes.He didn't reply immediately. Instead, he took the opportunity to yank me closer to him.Then, he released my hand to wrap his arms around my waist."What the hell are you doing?!" Being tightly held against him to the point where I could clearly feel the outline of his body, made me panic for some reason, so I subconsciously raised my voice to question him."I thought I already made it obvious enough that I was taking 'liberties' with my legal wife."I heard him say in reply, with a deliberate emphasis on the word 'legal'.He was reminding
Mr. Devilish's Substitute Bride Chapter 26
ZANEWatching her attempt to change the subject so clumsily, I was unable to stop myself from chuckling in amusement again.Somehow, Valeria Hale was quickly becoming someone I am not able to resist.I however didn't plan to call her out. My woman was shy, what else can I do but accommodate her?Readjusting my sitting position to be more comfortable, I took a stand of her hair, twirled it around my fingers and then slowly began to answer her question."I told them not to let you go out for your own sake.""For my sake? Explain what you mean by that because it seems that my own understanding of what is 'for my sake' seems to differ from yours."Of course, I could hear the dubiety and subtle sarcasm in her voice but I paid no mind to it and continued speaking."You might be unaware of this, but the position of my wife happen to be a very coveted position.""Meaning what? That I should be thankful that you took fancy to me?""Stop being so impatient, will you? At least, let me finish what
Mr. Devilish's Substitute Bride Chapter 27
ZANEAfter a passionate and long smooching session, I finally separated from Valeria.While helping both her and myself smoothen out our wrinkled clothes, my eyes disobediently wandered over to her ruddy lips and flushed cheeks.It made me unable but help think to myself if it was still possible to go for another round?Of course, in the end, I had no chance to act on that thought since I heard Valeria complained softly how her lips was feeling numb and tingly.'Let's forget it today. We'll continue another day.'"I am sorry for not controlling myself but who made your lips so... sweet. They make me reluctant to part from them."My words no doubt made Valeria blush furiously while I watched in fascination."You are so... vulgar! I must have been blind to think you were a gentleman in the first place", she stammered out as she sat upright on the bed while looking at me defensively.A deep chuckle escaped my throat and I asked with subtle incredulity, "You thought I was a gentleman? Me,
Mr. Devilish's Substitute Bride Chapter 28
VALERIAThe following day, I woke up to the sound of constant knocking on my door.After dawdling for a while, I groggily got out from bed and walked over to open the door. Seeing it was one of the housekeeping staff outside, I asked as I leaned my head on the door, "What is it?""Good morning, ma'am. Sir asked me to call you down from breakfast."The moment I heard her say that, all hints of sluggishness immediately disappeared from my face and I stood upright to ask in surprise, with a tinge of joy that not even I had noticed mixed in my voice."He is back?""Yes, ma'am", The female staff replied politely with a faint smile on her face."Oh... then, tell him to give me a few minutes.""Okay, ma'am. I'll relay your message to Sir", She bowed slightly and subsequently turned around to go.Suddenly, I remembered that I still didn't know her name and stopped her."Wait. I still don't know your name?"She was obviously stunned for a moment there as she stood still for a while. Then, she
Mr. Devilish's Substitute Bride Chapter 29
VALERIA Ater we were done with breakfast and the staff came over over to remove the dishes from the table, I looked at Zane who obviously still had no intentions of standing up and asked in puzzlement, "Aren't you going to work?" However, instead of answering my question, he gave a mystifying instruction. "Why don't you go and get dressed?" Not quite understanding what he meant, I asked with deepening confusion, "Get dressed? For what?" But then, after asking, I thought of something and looked at him in surprise, "You wouldn't mean I should get dressed for the banquet, right? But I thought you said it was in the evening? Or did I remember it wrong?" "No, you didn't. I just want to take you out to play", Zane said in reply. "Take me out to play? What does that mean?" What answered me was a chuckle full with amusement, "What do you think it means? The literal meaning of course." "I know how stuffy it must have been to be forced to stay here all alone, without a single familiar p
Mr. Devilish's Substitute Bride Chapter 30
ZANEWhen someone had tried their best to satisfy another person, even giving up things they love in the process only to realize that it wasn't worth it in the end, it was inevitable to feel uncomfortable.Just by looking at the expression on Valeria's face, I knew that that was her exact state of mind at this particular moment.She asked me how I knew. Well, it was in the investigation report my men had submitted before I approached her.In there, were photos of her participating in various adventure sports - skateboarding, rock climbing, bungee jumping and even motorcycling! But there was one thing common to those photos.The twinkle in her eyes. It was the telltale sign that she loved those particular sports but strangely enough, I discovered that that was the only and last time she had ever done anything like that.However, after coming into contact with her family as well as herself, I understood why.At first, I judged her as being silly for giving up something she loved for
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Mr. Devilish's Substitute Bride Chapter 43
VALERIALater, in the car.Yes, I wasn’t able to win against him in the end. Or to be more specific, he didn’t even give me a chance to.From the corner of my eyes, I could see him wearing a serious expression as he scrolled through his tablet.‘He looks really good in glasses…’Before my thoughts could drift further along that path, I snapped back to reality with an inward yelp.‘For goodness sake, Valeria! Is now really the time for your nymphomania to act up?’Regardless of the suffocating awkwardness in here that was getting increasingly impossible to ignore?Seriously!?After giving myself a good scolding, I sat upright and thought, ‘No, I can’t let this go on.’I have to do or say something! Anything!So, without fully processing the thought that suddenly popped into my mind, I found myself blurting out, “I plan to move closer to school—I have an apartment there.”‘What the h*ll was I saying?!’ I screamed internally after a belated reaction.However, after calming down, I realize
Mr. Devilish's Substitute Bride Chapter 42
VALERIAAfter a good night’s sleep, I got up from bed early, washed up in preparation to start my first day as a college senior—yes, the seemingly never-ending summer break became officially over yesterday.Speaking of which, I would have forgotten all about it if Chris and Andy hadn’t given me a call and sent a message one after the other to remind me yesterday’s morning.I tend to forget about stuff like that, they said, and that, if I were to be honest with myself, was nothing but the truth.I, indeed, have always had trouble keeping track of events, holidays and even my own birthday--like I know and keep the date at the back of my mind, but on that particular day or the day before, I always manage to forget about it for some reason. Thinking of how the duo had made a tease bet on our gc to see whether I’ll still remember by today, I shook my head and smiled to myself.Following after, I gathered my thoughts, looked at the items spread out on the bed and tried to see if I had miss
Mr. Devilish's Substitute Bride Chapter 41
ZANEValeria was avoiding me.If I had only been suspicious before, now I was certain.Today marks the third day of which I have seen neither hide nor hair of her. Of course, this wasn’t that unusual in her case considering how I have been witness to her staying cooped up in her room for days, neglecting to eat while working on her music.Eventually, I had to step in and personally deliver her meals to her room.However, when I asked Arlo about her yesterday, I was told she usually comes down to eat breakfast after I leave for work.If that doesn’t make it glaringly obvious that she was avoiding me—especially when it had become the norm for us to eat breakfast together—I don’t know what will.But let’s say that the first and second day were nothing but coincidences; today happens to be the third day, so I will verify in person whether it's indeed a coincidence or a deliberate avoidance, like I suspect!With this in mind, I gave my chauffeur a call, instructing him to drive-off and ret
Mr. Devilish's Substitute Bride Chapter 40
VALERIAIn the days that followed, Madeline did as she promised and came to me multiple times to ‘continue’ from where we left off our prematurely interrupted conversation.She was a persistent one, honestly.One time, I remember asking why it had to be me or rather, our group of mavericks.Her answer was, “You guys seem really cool to me, and it made me want to get to know you better.”To the adult me, such words would barely have made an impact, but for teenagers obsessed with the word ‘cool,’ it was everything!It doesn’t matter how mature a teenager was, being called or known as one of the cool guys was simply the ultimate compliment.So it was hardly surprising that I quickly threw caution to the wind and allowed her into our small circle of friends. Of course, the annoyance from Jack’s constant threats/demeaning words, in addition to my twin sister, Vanessa’s passive-aggressive ‘persuasion’ couldn’t be omitted as contributing factors.When I came back to my senses later on, I di
Mr. Devilish's Substitute Bride Chapter 39
VALERIAUntil a little over a decade ago, the Hales weren't exactly considered a top-tier aristocratic family in Meteor City because then, the prominent and well-known ones were just three — the Baltimores, the Astors and the Roosevelts — in no particular order.In short, we call them “THE BAR.”On the other hand, we could, at best, be considered the unofficial fourth along with the Morgans — Andy's family.Of course, this was just my dad's personal thoughts.Thoughts that I have come to understand were nothing but a product of his inflated pride considering how wide the gap between our families and THE BAR was at the time.That being said, whether it was due to coincidence or not, each of these five families had children in Grade 6 Class A, and just like every other aristocratic school, hierarchy existed among the students.The children of THE BAR, for example, were an exclusive and close-knit clique while the rest of the students had only two options; either become their sidekicks w
Mr. Devilish's Substitute Bride Chapter 38
VALERIANot knowing when I finally fell asleep, I woke up to find myself in total darkness and immediately panicked.As someone who suffered from fear of the dark, I always made sure to leave the nightlight on regardless of whether I was yet to fall asleep or not.‘So how could it possibly be this dark?!!!’ I thought to myself in agitation as I groped around trying to find the direction where the bedside table was.As I did this, I also wondered if the nightlight might have gone out due to a dead battery but this possibility was instantly ruled out by me. For no other reason that I might forget any other thing, but the one thing I would never do is charging my nightlight — that was just how important it was to me.All of a sudden, I stopped groping all around as I realized something strangeI seemed to be standing?And that was not all, I no longer seemed to be in my bedroom either because if I was, how was it possible that I haven’t bumped into anything except empty air after all th
Mr. Devilish's Substitute Bride Chapter 37
ZANESurprisingly, the faces of the two men showed visible signs of struggle the moment they heard the question but upon thinking of the fact that they were likely ex-military men who had been through rigorous training, it became a matter of course.However, if it was that easy to overcome the effects of the serum, it wouldn’t be as rare and pricey as it currently was. Sure enough, their pitiful struggle only lasted a few seconds following which the drug took control and made them answer mechanically.“We actually have no idea who the other party is since he placed the order through the dark web, but judging from how inexperienced and easily led around he was during our chat, we guessed that he was likely a newbie to the platform.”“At first, we really had no plans to take the order because not to mention that the commission he offered was laughable, the fact that even top-tier mercs steered clear of any mission related to Mr. Harrison had long made us at the bottom rungs wary.”“But
Mr. Devilish's Substitute Bride Chapter 36
ZANELong after Valeria left, I sat alone in the study with a lot of thoughts running through my mind.It wasn’t until I heard a ‘ding’ sound that I came back to my senses. Picking up my phone, it was Mason who had sent me a message.[They have been brought over]Upon reading this, the look in my eyes immediately turned cold.I almost forgot that I was yet to hear an explanation for what happened today. Because of them, the dark part of my life which I wasn’t ready to tell Valeria about almost got exposed in advance.Well, since they were gutsy enough to do so, they’d better be ready to face the consequences for I always make sure to repay a favor tenfold!With this thought in mind, I stood up and walked over to the bookshelf and turned the mechanism slightly following which the bookshelf slid to the side to reveal a narrow entrance which was just enough for one person to pass through.After reaching the end, there was a door with a biometric scanner right beside it. I calmly placed m
Mr. Devilish's Substitute Bride Chapter 35
ZANE'I have been careless.'That was my first thought after Matt, my driver broke the news that we were being followed.As the leader of the biggest mafia organization in the country, AMETHYST, I have never been short of enemies (both internal and external) who aimed to take my life. For this reason, I never went anywhere without my convoy of bodyguards following right after me.But today, I had made a decision very uncharacteristic of me.Why?Because apart from the fact that I was being considerate of the fact that Valeria still didn't know of my identity as a mafia boss, I also didn't want to cause too much ruckus at Mr. Carson's birthday banquet.It was a form of respect to an ally.A loud bang sound suddenly brought me back to my senses.At the same time, the driver, Leo also spoke out, his voice cold as he suddenly swerved the car."They are aiming for the tyres, sir."After humming to show I heard him, I gave Valeria one last glance and then said to him."When I count to three
