Chapter 26
Lina’s wedding dress had no elaborate lace, just simple silk that shimmered like pearls in the moonlight.
Shane wore a white shirt with sleeves rolled to his elbows, his tie already loosened.
He held her hand as they exchanged rings at an Alpine mountaintop observatory. Below, only a dozen close friends attended, the clinking of champagne glasses mixing with mountain winds, crisp as shattering stars.
“I thought you’d want a grander wedding,” Shane bent down to kiss her fingertips.
Lina gazed toward the Milky Way: “Only those who’ve lived in the spotlight truly appreciate quietude.”
Servers brought forward mountains of gifts, among which an ebony box stood out starkly.
When Lina opened the lid, Shane distinctly felt her fingers tremble.
The prayer beads that Dominic had once given to Stella now rested quietly on velvet lining, each sandalwood bead gleaming with a warm patina, clearly worn smooth by someone’s constant touch.
The attached card bore just seven words:
[This time I pray for your safety.]
Shane took the box and handed it to his assistant: “Donate it to the abbey.”
Lina just laughed, casually slipping the beads around her bouquet: “Makes for a decent cautionary tale, don’t you
think?”
In a stark psychiatric hospital room, a television broadcast the wedding news.
Stella’s skeletal fingers clawed at the screen, her splitting fingernails bleeding as she remained oblivious.
“I’m the real Mrs. Chase!” she shrieked, smashing a glass. “Look! I’m prettier than her, right?!”
Guards watched impassively until she collapsed exhausted in a pool of blood, then dragged her back to bed like a
dead animal.
“Patient 0487 is having another episode,” a nurse wrote in the log. “Self–harm incidents today: 7.”
As she spoke, Stella screamed again, knocking over a mirror on her tray.
“What is this? Who sent this?! WHO SENT THIS?!”
Her face–once bearing a striking resemblance to Emma’s–was now covered with grotesque scars, her right eye even unable to fully close.
hist a Stand In?! My Billionaire Hubby’s OTHER Wife
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Chapter 26
The guard responded coldly: “Anonymous donation. By regulation, you must accept it.”
Stella frantically clawed at her face until it streamed with blood.
She recognized this mirror–engraved on its frame were the words: [Look at yourself now. Who do you resemble?]
Stella smashed the mirror against the wall, fragments scattering.
Outside, a raven flew past the iron bars, its harsh call sounding like merciless laughter.
In a makeshift African desert hospital, Dominic knelt bandaging a child’s wound.
The fierce sun had blistered his neck, his expensive suits long replaced by wrinkled linen shirts.
When the small boy shyly offered a grimy candy, he was momentarily transported back to eighteen–year–old Emma–she always tucked strawberry hard candies into his textbooks.
Just then, his phone vibrated with a news alert: [E&H Goes Public Today, Market Value Estimated at $100 Billion+]
As his screen lit up, a nurse was surprised to see this typically silent doctor’s phone background–a schoolgirl in
uniform turning back with a smile beneath cherry blossoms.
As bells chimed, Shane lit fireworks on a New York rooftop.
‘IPO present,” he embraced Lina from behind, resting his chin on her shoulder. “How does it compare to Dominic renting an amusement park?”
She turned to kiss him: “No comparison whatsoever.”
‘Oh?”
‘You’re ten times more handsome.”
Fireworks exploded above them, illuminating Wall Street’s never–extinguished lights of ambition.
2039
Just a Stand In?! My Billionaire Hubby’s OTHER Wife..
