The Substitute Bride

The woman complained for some time. After a while, she slowly put her fingers under Nick's nose, trying to feel his breath.

"What a relief. He's still breathing," she said out loud. She needed to hear it to believe it. She was supposed to move her hands away when an idea hit her. She decided to put her hands on Nick's forehead instead, and felt that his temperature was beyond normal.

'God, this man is burning from fever!' she thought.

She stood up, and hesitated on what needed to be done.

'I do need money, but if he is so sick, I will need to think this through to make a wiser decision. What if something happens to him? What if he dies because of me? I won't be able to get out of this easily, ' she thought to herself.

Reaching inside her bag, she found her phone and dialed a number.

"Hello, I'm in," she said as the other party accepted the call.

"Good job, Lily. You know what to do next, right?" The man at the other end of the line sounded cold and emotionless.

Lily trembled to the sound of his voice. She knew that this man was true to his words and he got the power to destroy her at his whim.

"I know, but..." Lily hesitated.

"But what? Are you backing out now? Did you forget about your ten-year-old son? Think about it. If you don't get this money, you won't be able to send him to a good school," the man said it like a warning. His statement sounded more like a threat when he put it that way.

Lily nodded unconsciously. But when she realized that the man couldn't see her, she answered to the phone in a hurry. "Don't worry. I didn't say that I won't do it. It's just…this man has fainted out," Lily explained. "It seems like that he is sick."

"Sick? Then think of a way to wake him up. Anyhow, he has to be conscious while you are with him. Otherwise, that woman won't fall into our trap," the man at the other end of the line instructed.

Lily had no choice but to agree with him. "Okay, I will think of a way."

After she hung up, she went back to where Nick was. Putting his right arm around her shoulders, she managed to hold him up from the bed. She then led him to the bathroom.

At that time, Nick had lost all consciousness. He couldn't do anything but to follow Lily. His legs lost all the strength, so he could

hearing this word. She immediately realized that Cassie might be another woman—a woman she didn't know or maybe a woman this man loved.

Lily wanted to tell Nick that she was not Cassie. But before she could say a word, she felt him closer as something warm touched her lips.

It was just a short kiss. Although the man broke away very quickly after that kiss and kept his distance, Lily felt that her heart missed a beat when he kissed her.

She was not an innocent girl anymore, at least she thought so. She saw herself as an experienced and mature woman, who worked in a dirty place with dirty clients. She had been with countless men. It was just a kiss, and it could not even be counted as an appetizer.

'But why am I so nervous?' she asked herself.

She felt something different from that kiss. Something she had never had before.

She could clearly feel the love from the man when he kissed her. He was so careful. The man treated her like the most precious thing in the world.

'However...' she thought bitterly, 'However, I'm not Cassie. And I'm never going to be like that woman.'

With that thought, she calmed herself down and tried to focus on her mission.

She put her arms around Nick's neck. Leaning forward, her face slowly came close to his.

Her mission was to seduce this man tonight. She was supposed to trick him into sleeping with her.

And only by completing this mission could she get that money, which was enough to send her son to a decent school and give him a better life.