Substitute's Redemption

Substitute's Redemption

Sharrie

5.0
Comment(s)
185.5K
View
123
Chapters

Jane Fitzergald, a 22 year old medical student and the illegitimate daughter of the Harrison family, was forced to take her half-sister's place as a substitute bride to the eldest son of the Harrington family, Ethan, a deformed cripple with less than 6 months to live. She dealt with mockery right from her wedding from everyone and was a victim of vicious plots due to her naivety which caused a strain on the relationship with her new husband whom had already decided to be on good terms with. Unbeknownst to her and everyone else who looked down on her husband, he was not what he seemed. Ethan Harrington knew that she was not his bride but he didn't mind as long as she stuck to his words, his known health status was a front to cover his escapades. He's set to unmask some plots but what happens when he starts to fall for his naive wife who shows him the love and care he never got? Will their budding love be cut off or will they weather the storm together?

Substitute's Redemption Chapter 1 The Substitute Bride

Standing in front of the mirror in an ill-fitting wedding dress, Jane studied her reflection and felt the corner of her lips twist into a wry smile.

"Sign this contract".

Jane caught the document that her father, Peter Harrison, tossed at her. Her eyes traveled to the bottom of the page where her husband-to-be's signature stared back at her: Ethan Harrington.

The handwriting was neat as though in fine print but the pen had been gripped with enough force for the ink to have bled through the other side of the paper.

"You'll be well taken care of as his wife but...", he warned, "... you'd better behave".

An edge crept into his voice like the hints of a dark cloud looming over the horizon.

"Think about what will happen to your grandmother if you ruin everything".

It should have been Stacy in her place, Jane thought. But Stacy didn't want to marry a man on the verge of death - why would she?

She had fled just a few hours before her wedding but to tell the groom's family would be nothing short of insulting, even humiliating, which was why her father had - rather callously- threatened Jane with her grandmother's life to coerce her into taking Stacy's place.

And so to protect her grandmother, Jane found herself dressed in a wedding gown that had belonged to another woman; the bride to be of the sickly eldest son of the Harrington family.

Her father might insist that it was a privilege to be in her shoes but Jane knew better. If she were truly all that lucky, why did Stacy run away in the first place?

"You're right", Jane replied, her voice smooth and clear.

"Thank you for your reminder, if not, the small matter of of me becoming the matriarch of the Harrington family would have slipped my mind completely. Although... correct me if I'm wrong but my new status would make it incredibly easy to punish those who try to hurt me, wouldn't it?"

Her father's expression changed instantly.

Jane raised her head to look him in the eye, all demure and innocent.

"So don't hurt my grandmother. She's the only family I have left after all, if something happens to her, I can't imagine what I'd be capable of".

"You...", Peter seethed. He opened his mouth as if to hurl more verbal abuse at her but at that moment, a staff came to inform them that it was time for the bride to take her place.

Clamping down his fury, Peter smoothed his expression and brusquely escorted her into full view of the guests.

Slowly she made her way to the center. The veil hid her face from the sea of guests around her but it failed to block their whispers and snickers.

"Who would have thought that even a sickly whelp like Ethan Harrington would find himself a bride?"

"I hear he's practically on his deathbed and he's only marrying the Harrisons' daughter to improve his luck and prolong his life"

"The Harrisons? Their brazen hussy of a daughter? I heard she was throwing herself at a man she met at a party not long ago. Young Master Ethan must be begging to be cuckolded".

"Speaking of which, the bride's a little on the skinny side, isn't she? She can barely hold up that gown of hers... if you catch my meaning".

With each step, Jane ignored the murmurs of the throng, her gaze fixed on the man in the wheelchair in front of her. A mask covered the bottom half of his face but his eyebrows were set in two gentle lines.

Sporadically, he would let out a cough or two, his fists clenching in a valiant attempt to control himself and avoid disrupting the wedding but he only succeeded in making himself cough harder.

It went in for so long that Jane couldn't help but wonder if he would even survive the wedding. I would enter a bride and leave a widow, she thought humorlessly.

Peter must have been afraid that the wretched, pitiful noises tearing from her husband-to-be's chest were the result of some kind of infectious disease.

After placing Jane's hand into Ethan's, he wasted no time in covering his nose and hurrying off.

The pastor began reciting the ceremonial vows. He asked Jane, "Do you agree to take this man as your husband, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, from this day till your last?"

Did she really have a choice when she had already signed the marriage contract?

She rolled her eyes behind the veil, "I do".

The pastor repeated the question to the groom who responded with several violent coughs before mustering up the strength to say "I do".

"I now pronounce you husband and wife, you may now kiss the bride".

No sooner than he had uttered the words did a look of mortification spread across the pastor's face. If simply swearing his vows had been such an impossible feat, surely this wheelchair-ridden man wasn't capable of sharing a kiss with his bride.

He was about to rescind what he had said when Jane bent down and lifted her veil over her husband's head, shielding them both from view.

It was said that two became one beneath a wedding veil. Jane had been prepared for this moment ever since she donned her gown.

She might have been forced into this position by her father to ward off the Harrington family's outrage but she needed the power of the Harrington family name to keep her grandmother safe. The longer her husband lived, the better.

Jane pulled down his mask, revealing the lower half of his face which was decorated in a pattern of hideous scars. The sight was repulsive - horrifying, even - but Jane pretended not to notice.

"The ceremony is completed, the contract has been signed", she said keeping her face neutral.

"We are husband and wife now. What you cannot do alone, I can help you with".

Without the mask to conceal his visage, she could see Ethan Harrington's features creasing in a slight frown, presumably at not being given the chance to speak.

But then he took in her words and she caught the hints of a glimmer in his eye.

Continue Reading

Other books by Sharrie

More

You'll also like

The Billionaire's Cold And Bitter Betrayal

The Billionaire's Cold And Bitter Betrayal

Clara Bennett
5.0

I had just survived a private jet crash, my body a map of violet bruises and my lungs still burning from the smoke. I woke up in a sterile hospital room, gasping for my husband's name, only to realize I was completely alone. While I was bleeding in a ditch, my husband, Adam, was on the news smiling at a ribbon-cutting ceremony. When I tracked him down at the hospital's VIP wing, I didn't find a grieving husband. I found him tenderly cradling his ex-girlfriend, Casie, in his arms, his face lit with a protective warmth he had never shown me as he carried her into the maternity ward. The betrayal went deeper than I could have imagined. Adam admitted the affair started on our third anniversary-the night he claimed he was stuck in London for a merger. Back at the manor, his mother had already filled our planned nursery with pink boutique bags for Casie's "little princess." When I demanded a divorce, Adam didn't flinch. He sneered that I was "gutter trash" from a foster home and that I'd be begging on the streets within a week. To trap me, he froze my bank accounts, cancelled my flight, and even called the police to report me for "theft" of company property. I realized then that I wasn't his partner; I was a charity case he had plucked from obscurity to manage his life. To the Hortons, I was just a servant who happened to sleep in the master bedroom, a "resilient" woman meant to endure his abuse in silence while the whole world laughed at the joke that was my marriage. Adam thought stripping me of his money would make me crawl back to him. He was wrong. I walked into his executive suite during his biggest deal of the year and poured a mug of sludge over his original ten-million-dollar contracts. Then, right in front of his board and his mistress, I stripped off every designer thread he had ever paid for until I was standing in nothing but my own silk camisole. "You can keep the clothes, Adam. They're as hollow as you are." I grabbed my passport, turned my back on his billions, and walked out of that glass tower barefoot, bleeding, and finally free.

The Billionaire's Blind Bride: No Mercy

The Billionaire's Blind Bride: No Mercy

Emma
4.0

I married Clive Harrington, the coldest billionaire in Manhattan, under a strict contract that forbade any emotional burdens. When I needed a high-risk surgery to save my sight, I checked into the clinic alone, hiding the procedure from a husband who saw me as nothing more than a legal asset. I thought I could handle the darkness in silence. But while I was blind and bandaged in my hospital bed, my biological mother called, screaming that if I didn't produce a Harrington heir by the end of the fiscal year, she would cut off the life-saving treatments for my disabled sister. I was crawling on the cold hospital floor, desperately feeling for a cane I had dropped, when I touched a pair of expensive leather shoes. It was Clive. He was supposed to be in London closing a multi-million dollar deal, but there he was, watching his "contract wife" groveling in the dark like a beggar. He didn't walk away in disgust. He carried me to a five-thousand-dollar-a-night VIP suite and sat by my bed, listening in chilling silence as another voicemail from my mother filled the room, calling me a "useless broodmare" who was only worth the trust fund disbursements my marriage secured. I expected him to remind me of Clause 34B or hand me divorce papers now that I was "damaged goods." Instead, I felt his thumb brush a stray tear from my cheek, his presence shifting from a statue of ice into a predatory shield. "I thought I was just currency to you," I whispered, my voice trembling behind the gauze. "Just an investment." Clive didn't answer with words. He picked up his phone and called his head of legal with a single, terrifying command: "Kill the Douglas family’s credit lines. Every debt, every lien—trigger them all. If they want a war, I’ll give them a massacre." As he leaned down to kiss my bandaged forehead, I realized the contract was dead. My husband wasn't protecting an asset anymore; he was hunting the people who had dared to touch what belonged to him.

Reborn Heiress: The Wolf's Vengeance Deal

Reborn Heiress: The Wolf's Vengeance Deal

Sibeal Sallese
5.0

I lay paralyzed on stiff white sheets, a prisoner in my own skin, listening to the rain lash against the window like nails on a coffin. My father, Elmore Franco, didn't even look at my face as he checked his clipboard. He just listened to the steady, monotonous beep of the heart monitor-the only thing proving I was still alive. Without a hint of remorse, he pulled a pen from his pocket and signed the Do Not Resuscitate order. My stepmother, Ophelia, stepped out from behind him, wearing my favorite pearl necklace and smelling of cloying perfume. She leaned close to my ear to whisper the truth that turned my blood to ice. "It was the tea, darling. Just like your mother. A slow, tasteless poison." She chuckled as she revealed that my fiancƩ, Bryce, had a two-year-old son with my sister, Daniela. My inheritance had been funding their secret life for years, and now that the money was secure, I was an inconvenience they were finally scrubbing away. As my father yanked the power cord from the wall, the beeping died, and the darkness swallowed me whole. I was being murdered by my own flesh and blood, used as a bank account until I was no longer needed. I died in that sterile room, drowning in the realization that every person I ever loved was a monster who had been waiting for me to take my last breath. Then, I gasped. I woke up in a luxury hotel suite surrounded by silk sheets, five years in the past-the very morning of my wedding. Next to me lay Basile Delgado, the "Wolf of Wall Street" and my family's most dangerous enemy. In my first life, I ran from this room in a panic and lost everything. This time, I looked at the man who would eventually destroy my father's empire and decided to join him. "I'm not leaving, Basile. Marry me. Right now. Today."

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book
Substitute's Redemption Substitute's Redemption Sharrie Romance
ā€œJane Fitzergald, a 22 year old medical student and the illegitimate daughter of the Harrison family, was forced to take her half-sister's place as a substitute bride to the eldest son of the Harrington family, Ethan, a deformed cripple with less than 6 months to live. She dealt with mockery right from her wedding from everyone and was a victim of vicious plots due to her naivety which caused a strain on the relationship with her new husband whom had already decided to be on good terms with. Unbeknownst to her and everyone else who looked down on her husband, he was not what he seemed. Ethan Harrington knew that she was not his bride but he didn't mind as long as she stuck to his words, his known health status was a front to cover his escapades. He's set to unmask some plots but what happens when he starts to fall for his naive wife who shows him the love and care he never got? Will their budding love be cut off or will they weather the storm together?ā€
1

Chapter 1 The Substitute Bride

30/11/2023

2

Chapter 2 My name is Stacy

30/11/2023

3

Chapter 3 Will you teach me

30/11/2023

4

Chapter 4 See if I don't kill you

30/11/2023

5

Chapter 5 I'm already such a hassle

30/11/2023

6

Chapter 6 Hold on a while

30/11/2023

7

Chapter 7 You kissed me, that makes you mine

30/11/2023

8

Chapter 8 I am your wife

30/11/2023

9

Chapter 9 We should sleep together

30/11/2023

10

Chapter 10 Lucky in love this year

30/11/2023

11

Chapter 11 Conservative choice

30/11/2023

12

Chapter 12 Let me borrow your luck

30/11/2023

13

Chapter 13 Get lost unless you want to be disfigured

30/11/2023

14

Chapter 14 Give me some of your air

30/11/2023

15

Chapter 15 Who's going to regret what

30/11/2023

16

Chapter 16 Is he better than me

30/11/2023

17

Chapter 17 Not very amusing

06/12/2023

18

Chapter 18 Better Prospects, Better home

07/12/2023

19

Chapter 19 Not allowed to behave like this with other men

09/12/2023

20

Chapter 20 Want him to kiss me

09/12/2023

21

Chapter 21 He is my future

11/12/2023

22

Chapter 22 His, now and forever

11/12/2023

23

Chapter 23 Soup Attack

11/12/2023

24

Chapter 24 The Slap

13/12/2023

25

Chapter 25 The Senior's Girlfriend

13/12/2023

26

Chapter 26 Boost your spirits

14/12/2023

27

Chapter 27 Visiting the Harrington Family

14/12/2023

28

Chapter 28 Cuckolded

14/12/2023

29

Chapter 29 Over my dead body

14/12/2023

30

Chapter 30 Leaving the Harrington Family

14/12/2023

31

Chapter 31 Truly terrifying

17/12/2023

32

Chapter 32 Dreamy In Love

21/12/2023

33

Chapter 33 Not part of the plan

23/12/2023

34

Chapter 34 Baited with a smile

24/12/2023

35

Chapter 35 You want my husband to die

27/12/2023

36

Chapter 36 Shocking News

05/01/2024

37

Chapter 37 Cat Fight

05/01/2024

38

Chapter 38 Don't get into fights you can't win

06/01/2024

39

Chapter 39 Contribution to Society

08/01/2024

40

Chapter 40 Do you feel anything

09/01/2024