The Scapegoat Fiancée: I Am No Substitute

The Scapegoat Fiancée: I Am No Substitute

Winnie Suchoff

5.0
Comment(s)
129
View
26
Chapters

Seven years. That was the price I paid for my sister's crime. My fiancé, Dante, the most ruthless Don in New York, called my prison sentence "mercy." He promised we would go back to how things were once the debt was paid. But when I walked out of those gates, I didn't find a husband waiting for me. I found him peeling grapes for my sister, Chiara. They sat at the family table, telling me I was unstable. They demanded I break our engagement so Dante could marry her instead. They claimed she was fragile, dying of leukemia, while I was "strong enough" to handle the rejection. They didn't know the truth. They didn't know that while I was in solitary, I was dragged to a clinic to donate my bone marrow-without anesthesia-to save her life. I gave my freedom and my bones for this family. Yet, when I told Dante the truth, he looked me in the eye and called me a liar. He chose the sister who framed me over the woman who sacrificed everything for him. So, I didn't scream. I didn't fight. I simply disappeared. Two years later, when Dante finally found me in a gallery in Paris, begging on his knees with his wrist slashed in desperation, I didn't feel love. I looked at the man who destroyed me and said, "Security, please escort this gentleman out."

Chapter 1

Seven years. That was the price I paid for my sister's crime.

My fiancé, Dante, the most ruthless Don in New York, called my prison sentence "mercy." He promised we would go back to how things were once the debt was paid.

But when I walked out of those gates, I didn't find a husband waiting for me. I found him peeling grapes for my sister, Chiara.

They sat at the family table, telling me I was unstable. They demanded I break our engagement so Dante could marry her instead.

They claimed she was fragile, dying of leukemia, while I was "strong enough" to handle the rejection.

They didn't know the truth.

They didn't know that while I was in solitary, I was dragged to a clinic to donate my bone marrow-without anesthesia-to save her life.

I gave my freedom and my bones for this family. Yet, when I told Dante the truth, he looked me in the eye and called me a liar. He chose the sister who framed me over the woman who sacrificed everything for him.

So, I didn't scream. I didn't fight. I simply disappeared.

Two years later, when Dante finally found me in a gallery in Paris, begging on his knees with his wrist slashed in desperation, I didn't feel love.

I looked at the man who destroyed me and said, "Security, please escort this gentleman out."

Chapter 1

Alessia POV

The heavy steel gates of Danbury Federal slammed shut behind me. They didn't mark my freedom so much as signal the end of a seven-year transaction.

My life had been the currency. My fiancé, the most ruthless Don in New York, was the buyer.

I stood on the cracked pavement, clutching a clear plastic bag containing the clothes I'd worn at eighteen. They were tight now-not because I had gained weight, but because I had grown into a woman inside a cage designed to break animals.

A black armored SUV idled ten feet away. The engine purred with a low, threatening rumble that vibrated in my chest.

The window rolled down.

Dante Moretti sat in the back. The Capo dei Capi. The Boss of Bosses.

He didn't look like the boy who used to sneak into my room to steal kisses. He looked like a king who had forgotten the shape of a smile. His jaw was a sharp line of tension, his eyes hidden behind dark aviators, though I could feel the weight of his gaze pressing against my skin.

The driver, a man I didn't recognize, opened the door for me.

I climbed in. The air conditioning hit me like a physical slap, heavy with the scent of expensive leather and Dante's cologne-sandalwood and gunpowder.

"You look thin, Alessia," Dante said. His voice was deep, a baritone that used to make my toes curl. Now, it just sounded like a judge passing a death sentence.

I stared straight ahead at the partition. "Seven years of prison food will do that."

"It was necessary," he said. No apology. No softness. Just the cold, jagged logic of the Mafia. "It was mercy. The Falcone family wanted blood for what happened. A life for a life. Prison was the only way to keep you breathing."

I turned to look at him then. He took off his glasses. His eyes were the color of storm clouds, dark and turbulent. He was devastatingly handsome, in the way a weapon is beautiful right before it kills you.

"Mercy," I repeated, tasting the word. It tasted like ash. "Is that what we call it now? I thought we called it a scapegoat."

His hand twitched on his knee. He wore the signet ring of the Don. He had risen to the throne on a staircase built of my silence.

"Chiara couldn't have survived inside," he said, his voice dropping an octave. "You know that. She's fragile. You... you are strong, Alessia. You always were the strong one."

"I was the disposable one," I corrected him.

He reached out, his fingers brushing my wrist. His touch was electric, but it didn't spark desire anymore. It sparked a memory of the night I was arrested-how he stood there and let them handcuff me while Chiara sobbed fake tears into his chest.

"We wiped the slate clean," he said, his tone intense. "The debt is paid. You're home now. We can go back to how it was."

I almost laughed. The naivety was insulting.

"There is no going back, Dante. The girl you engaged is dead. She died the first night in solitary."

Before he could respond, his phone buzzed. A harsh, demanding sound in the quiet cabin.

He looked at the screen. His expression shifted instantly from the hard mask of the Don to something resembling panic.

"Is it her?" I asked. I didn't need to specify.

"Chiara," he muttered, answering the call. "What happened? Is she breathing? I'm on my way."

He hung up, tapping urgently on the partition. "Drive. Fast. Emergency at the Estate."

He didn't look at me again. The reunion was over. The priority had shifted back to the Golden Child, the fragile princess who had run over a made man while high on cocaine and let her sister take the fall.

We tore through the gates of the Salinas Estate. It looked the same. Grand, imposing, a fortress of lies built on manicured lawns.

The car stopped. Dante was out before the wheels stopped rolling, rushing toward the main doors where my mother was wringing her hands.

I was left alone in the backseat.

The driver cleared his throat. "Miss? I have instructions."

I stepped out. The humid New York air clung to me.

The family butler, Thomas, stood by the service entrance. He wouldn't meet my eyes.

"Welcome home, Miss Alessia," he whispered, staring resolutely at his shoes. "The Don... and your father... they gave instructions. Your old room... it's been repurposed for Miss Chiara's therapy studio."

Of course it had.

"Where am I sleeping, Thomas?"

"The third floor," he said, his voice barely audible. "The old storage room next to the servants' quarters."

I looked up at the mansion. My parents weren't there to greet me. My fiancé had run past me. I was being sent to the attic like a dirty secret they wanted to hide.

I nodded. "Fine."

I walked to the service entrance, my plastic bag of prison clothes swinging by my side.

As I climbed the narrow back stairs, dust motes dancing in the slivers of light, I reached into the lining of my bra. I pulled out a tiny, black device. An encrypted burner phone I'd secured three years ago through a contact in the laundry detail.

I powered it on.

One message waiting.

Job offer still stands. Dominica. One way ticket. Say the word.

I looked at the dusty cot in the corner of the attic. I looked at the single window with bars that reminded me too much of the cell I just left.

I typed two words.

I'm ready.

Continue Reading

Other books by Winnie Suchoff

More
The Shattered Wife's Ascent

The Shattered Wife's Ascent

Romance

5.0

My husband, David Chen, the CEO of "InnovateX," called for a celebration on our fifth anniversary. He announced, with a theatrical wink, that the two representatives for the Global Tech Summit in Hawaii would be chosen by a game. He drew his own name first, then reached into the glass bowl, his hand going straight for a specific spot, and pulled out a precisely folded slip: his much-younger assistant, Emily White. A wave of whispers and knowing glances went through the office. Emily, wearing the new perfume I' d noticed in our bathroom, practically ran to him, her red nails lingering on his arm after an embrace that lasted far too long. I stood frozen, the silent partner, the co-founder, the wife whose marriage was a secret to protect his "young, bachelor CEO" image-an image he was now building with Emily. The next morning, Emily sabotaged a crucial presentation I' d spent two months perfecting. David, instead of holding her accountable, punished me. He canceled my trip and ordered me to fix "my department's mistake" over the weekend, all while comforting Emily and giving her credit for my work in front of the entire company. The humiliation was a physical weight, pressing down on my chest. Later, I found an elegant Vera Wang box on our bed, a dress I' d dreamed of. My heart leaped, hoping for an apology, a real celebration of our secret marriage. But David nonchalantly explained it was for a client, "to seal a deal." Hours later, I found his phone, a notification for "E's final dress fitting tomorrow" on the screen. The wallpaper was Emily, in my wedding dress, with his chilling caption: "My future Mrs. Chen." The glass shattered in my hand. My entire world shattered with it. The silence in our once-shared home was deafening, the truth a cold, hard slap. This wasn't about business; it was about betrayal, about a life I poured my soul into, stolen and given to someone else. I was ready to vanish, a ghost in my own life. But the rage that simmered beneath my quiet compliance ignited a spark. Now, I wanted something more than to disappear. I wanted justice and I wanted everything back.

Reborn For Vengeance, Not For Love

Reborn For Vengeance, Not For Love

Modern

5.0

The sterile scent of the morgue was the last thing I remembered, watching my own lifeless body while my mother sobbed for someone else. My death, labeled a suicide after pushing my foster sister Ashley down the stairs, was a lie. No one cried for me, Chloe Chen; only for Ashley Miller, my mother Sarah' s "precious" foster daughter. My mother's betrayal had been a slow poison: she' d stolen my inheritance, my future, even fabricated a criminal record for my decorated NYPD father to disqualify me from a prestigious government job, all for Ashley. The final blow was discovering the truth in my mother's safe: a secretly altered birth certificate listing Ashley as her biological daughter, and me as erased. The grief consumed me, and my final confrontation ended my life. Lingering as a ghost, I saw Ashley' s faint, triumphant smirk, very much alive, playing the tragic victim. Rage consumed me-a tearing force demanding justice, revenge. Then, the world twisted violently, dissolving into white light, pulling me backward through time. I gasped, sucking in a real breath of warm, lemon-scented air. I was in my childhood bedroom, my phone buzzing with the date: the day my background check for the government job began. I was alive. I was back. This wasn't just a second chance; it was a chance to fight. I heard my mother' s cheerful voice downstairs, cooing over Ashley: "Ashley, darling, come see what I bought you." She presented Ashley with an expensive designer bag, then offered me a cheap knock-off. In my past life, I' d forced a smile, but now, I saw the deliberate cruelty. "No, thank you," I said, my voice clear and firm. My mother' s smile faltered, her face hardening as I called out her insult and Ashley' s fake concern. When I denied Ashley was my sister, her fury erupted, culminating in a violent slap that left me bleeding. Any shred of hope for my mother vanished with that blow. She blamed me for Ashley's feigned injury, demanding an apology. "You hit your own daughter to defend a fraud," I spat, revealing I knew about Ashley' s true parentage, the truth about Jake Miller. Leaving their shattered lies behind, I contacted Officer Thompson, my father' s best friend, to uncover everything about Jake Miller and their scheme. He revealed the horrifying truth: my mother, a victim of human trafficking by Jake Miller at fifteen, had given birth to Ashley and abandoned her, consumed by guilt. Now, that guilt had been weaponized into a calculated criminal conspiracy by Ashley and the recently released Jake Miller. I was done being manipulated. At Ashley' s lavish "victory" party, poised to celebrate her stolen job, I delivered my counter-punch. As the clock struck 8 PM, Ashley' s name was missing from the State Department list. Mine was at the top. Then, the doorbell rang. Two NYPD officers, with David Thompson, delivered the crushing blows: my mother was arrested for fraud and bribery. Ashley' s meltdown began. I silenced my condemning relatives, exposing my mother' s hypocrisy and her scheme to slander my father and erase me. On the living room TV, I projected the forged birth certificates, revealing Sarah' s deceit and Ashley' s true parentage: the daughter of a human trafficker. "This is my father' s house," I told a stunned Ashley, opening the door. "Get out." She retorted with a threat: "My father will hear about this." Knowing Jake Miller' s greed, I set a trap, luring him into a confession that led to his re-arrest. I sent Ashley a photo of her father in handcuffs. I never heard from them again. The past was behind me. I was Chloe Chen, no longer a victim, but finally free.

You'll also like

Marrying My Runaway Groom's Powerful Father

Marrying My Runaway Groom's Powerful Father

Temple Madison
4.5

I was sitting in the Presidential Suite of The Pierre, wearing a Vera Wang gown worth more than most people earn in a decade. It was supposed to be the wedding of the century, the final move to merge two of Manhattan's most powerful empires. Then my phone buzzed. It was an Instagram Story from my fiancé, Jameson. He was at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris with a caption that read: "Fuck the chains. Chasing freedom." He hadn't just gotten cold feet; he had abandoned me at the altar to run across the world. My father didn't come in to comfort me. He burst through the door roaring about a lost acquisition deal, telling me the Holland Group would strip our family for parts if the ceremony didn't happen by noon. My stepmother wailed about us becoming the laughingstock of the Upper East Side. The Holland PR director even suggested I fake a "panic attack" to make myself look weak and sympathetic to save their stock price. Then Jameson’s sleazy cousin, Pierce, walked in with a lopsided grin, offering to "step in" and marry me just to get his hands on my assets. I looked at them and realized I wasn't a daughter or a bride to anyone in that room. I was a failed asset, a bouncing check, a girl whose own father told her to go to Paris and "beg" the man who had just publicly humiliated her. The girl who wanted to be loved died in that mirror. I realized that if I was going to be sold to save a merger, I was going to sell myself to the one who actually controlled the money. I marched past my parents and walked straight into the VIP holding room. I looked the most powerful man in the room—Jameson’s cold, ruthless uncle, Fletcher Holland—dead in the eye and threw the iPad on the table. "Jameson is gone," I said, my voice as hard as stone. "Marry me instead."

Revealing My Secret Identities! My Bros Are Speechless!

Revealing My Secret Identities! My Bros Are Speechless!

Zhen Xiang
5.0

For seventeen years, I was the crown jewel of the Kensington empire, the perfect daughter groomed for a royal future. Then, a cream-colored envelope landed in my lap, bearing a gold crest and a truth that turned my world into ice. The DNA test result was a cold, hard zero percent-I wasn't a Kensington. Before the ink could even dry, my parents invited my replacement, a girl named Alleen, into the drawing room and treated me like a trespasser in my own home. My mother, who once hosted galas in my honor, wouldn't even look me in the eye as she stroked Alleen's arm, whispering that she was finally "safe." My father handed me a one-million-dollar check-a mere tip for a billionaire-and told me to leave immediately to avoid tanking the company's stock price. "You're a thief! You lived my life, you spent my money, and you don't get to keep the loot!" Alleen shrieked, trying to claw the designer jacket off my shoulders while my "parents" watched with clinical detachment. I was dumped on a gritty sidewalk in Queens with nothing but three trunks and the address of a struggling laborer I was now supposed to call "Dad." I traded a marble mansion for a crumbling walk-up where the air smelled of exhaust and my new bedroom was a literal storage closet. My biological family thought I was a broken princess, and the Kensingtons thought they had successfully erased me with a payoff and a non-disclosure agreement. They had no idea that while I was hauling trunks up four flights of stairs, my secret media empire was already preparing to move against them. As I sat on a thin mattress in the dark, I opened my encrypted laptop and sent a single command that would cost my former father ten million dollars by breakfast. They thought they were throwing me to the wolves, but they forgot one thing: I'm the one who leads the pack.

The Scars Behind My Golden Dress

The Scars Behind My Golden Dress

Catherine
5.0

I spent four hours preparing a five-course meal for our fifth anniversary. When Jackson finally walked into the penthouse an hour late, he didn't even look at the table. He just dropped a thick Manila envelope in front of me and told me he was done. He said his stepsister, Davida, was getting worse and needed "stability." I wasn't his wife; I was a placeholder, a temporary fix he used until the woman he actually loved was ready to take my place. Jackson didn't just want a divorce; he wanted to erase me. He called me a "proprietary asset," claiming that every design I had created to save his empire belonged to him. He froze my bank accounts, cut off my phone, and told me I’d be nothing without his name. Davida even called me from her hospital bed to flaunt the family heirloom ring Jackson claimed was lost, mocking me for being "baggage" that was finally being cleared out. I stood in our empty home, realizing I had spent five years being a martyr for a man who saw me as a transaction. I couldn't understand how he could be so blind to the monster he was protecting, or how he could discard me so coldly after I had given him everything. I grabbed my hidden sketchbook, shredded our wedding portrait, and walked out into the rain. I dialed a number I hadn't touched in years—a dangerous man known as The Surgeon who dealt in debts and shadows. I told him I was ready to pay his price. Jackson and Davida wanted to steal my identity, but I was about to show the world the literal scars they had left behind.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book