Page 45 of The Substitute Fiancée

The pain comes after the sound.

My sister has just slapped me.

“You bitch!” she screams. “Was this your plan all along? You wanted to steal him from me?”

I’m left speechless. Her accusations are so absurd they knock the air right out of me. All I feel is the burning on my cheek and that familiar sensation of being attacked for no valid reason. But I refuse to deal with this here. In front of our building. Where everyone can see and hear us.

Several passersby are staring.

And suddenly, it hits me: it must be past six p.m.

Alexander and his communications team must have announced our engagement on social media.

Without sparing Kristel a glance, I rush inside.

She follows immediately and slams the door behind her. The sound echoes through the entryway like a gunshot. My cheek is on fire. Tomorrow, there will probably be a mark.

I take the stairs two at a time. She’s screaming after me.

“I won’t let you take him from me, do you hear me? If you think you’ve won, you’re dead wrong!”

I stop two floors up and whirl around.

“Do you really think there was anything to win in this whole mess?”

My voice is hard, cutting. It doesn’t tremble, unlike everything inside me.

“Don’t you see the damage you’ve done to him? Because of you, he’ll always be looking over his shoulder now. He’ll interpret every silence, every delay, wondering what sign he missed… or what’s wrong with him. He’ll doubt his own worth, when the only problem has always been you!”

“And what do you know about it?” she spits, furious. “All you want is to slip into his bed.”

She refuses to understand.

This isn’t about her.

It isn’t about me.

It’s about Alexander.

His broken trust. His pain. The trauma and scars he’ll carry long after this betrayal.

What’s the point of talking to someone who refuses to listen?

I resume climbing the stairs and stop in front of our apartment door to take out my keys.

“You’re really that pathetic, ready to do anything to get my leftovers!” she sneers.

I freeze.

“What’s really eating at you, Kristel?” I ask quietly. “That he caught you with another man… or that he announced his engagement to me?”

She snickers—a nasty, contemptuous sound.

“That engagement is a complete sham. We all know it. He did it to make me jealous. But once we make up, he’ll dump you live on social media. You can count on it.”

Her words seep into me despite myself.

Is there a chance he could forgive her? It’s possible. They were together for three years.