All Chapters of The bride's stand-In: Chapter 1 - Chapter 4

I sank onto my worn-out bed, feeling the ache deep in my bones. After cleaning the mansion for the third time today alongside the other maids, I could hardly keep my eyes open. My stepmother, always ready to find another speck of dust, didn't seem to care that I, too, was Mr Dean Morgan's daughter. To her, I was only a maid's daughter—a reminder of the scandal she'd rather forget. My mother was once a maid here, but then she and my father crossed a line, and I was the result.When I was born, my mother threatened to go to the press. She was ready to bring the truth to the world if he didn't acknowledge me. So he took me in, reluctantly. But days later, my mother vanished, as if she'd never existed at all.Growing up here was anything but normal. I went to school, but even there, Diane and her friends made my life miserable. Diane, my beautiful, cruel half-sister with her long black hair, green eyes that sparkled with mischief, and a body that looked sculpted by an artist. She was set

The next morning, the mansion was nearly eerily silent. I woke up and moved through my usual routine with mechanical precision: a long, hot bath, the soft scent of lavender filling the air, before I dressed and settled in for a quiet breakfast. Of course, I ate it in my room; being the "mid-daughter" meant there was no place for me at the formal dining table anymore. I couldn't exactly join the staff in their quarters, either, and I certainly didn't belong with my family at the polished, pristine dining hall. Not that it mattered—no one was even there. The silence that wrapped around the house felt more oppressive than peaceful.Charles was long gone, his cars no longer parked in the driveway, and a strange sense of satisfaction swirled in my chest. Diane had locked herself away, undoubtedly brooding in her room, and my stepmother was likely doing the same—either fuming over her daughter's ruined plans or concocting a new scheme. My father's anger seemed to have burned itself out, and