The Stand-In Wife and His Only Obsession novel · Chapter 1 of 32
Chapter 1: The Bride Changed
Jules sees reader comments the night her reborn sister refuses Lucas Thackeray, walks into his rehearsal dinner to take her place, and learns why he wants a guard on his wife.
The night before my sister's wedding, she woke up from a nap screaming that her fiancé was going to kill her.
I heard it from the front hall.
I had just come off a bridge call and still had my NYPD windbreaker on.
Kitty was on her knees on our mother's Persian rug, mascara down to her chin.
"I won't marry him! Lucas Thackeray is a monster! He'll lock me in that house and I'll die trying to get out!"
My father stood by the fireplace with a scotch.
My mother was holding Kitty's engagement ring like it might run off.
"Sweetheart," my mother said. "You've never met him."
That was true.
Yesterday Kitty had been showing that ring to the doorman.
I opened my mouth to ask what she'd taken.
Then words lit up in the air in front of my face.
【WAIT. How did the female lead get reborn? Author, explain yourself!】
【This is a DARK ROMANCE. She runs, he chases. If she doesn't marry him, what am I even reading?】
【Chill. Maybe she gets a second chance. Imagine a billionaire husband who flies your food in on a jet.】
I blinked.
They stayed.
I waved a hand through them.
They scrolled up and new ones took their place.
【Who's the tall one in the cop jacket?】
【That's the older sister. She's in like two chapters.】
I had been up for twenty hours.
I decided I was having a stroke and I'd deal with it later.
"Kitty," I said. "Who told you he's a monster?"
She looked up at me with her big wet eyes.
"I was married to him for five years, Jules. Five. He had guards on every door. He tracked my phone. He knew where I was every minute."
"You're twenty-six. When was this?"
"I died on the Taconic," she whispered. "I was running from him. And then I woke up here."
【She remembers!!! Chapter 40, the crash!!!】
【I cried for a week over that chapter.】
My father set his glass down.
"Nobody is dying on any parkway," he said. "The Thackerays paid thirty million dollars of our debt. The church is booked. Four hundred guests."
"Then you marry him!" Kitty screamed.
My mother turned around very slowly.
She looked at me.
So did my father.
I knew that look.
It was the look they gave me when I told them I was joining the police academy, except this time they were happy to see me.
"Absolutely not," I said.
"Juliet," my mother said. "You're the right age. You're not seeing anyone. Nobody will notice the difference on paper."
"I'll notice. I'm the one on the paper."
"If there's no wedding, they call the loan," my father said. "Halsey's closes. We lose this house. One hundred and twelve years, Jules."
"Then sell the Monet in the dining room."
"That's a print."
Of course it was.
Kitty crawled across the rug and grabbed my ankle.
"Please. You're strong. You talk to crazy people all day. You'll be fine."
【LMAO the sister is getting thrown under the bus】
【Honestly she's built for it. Look at those shoulders.】
I looked down at my sister holding my boot.
I looked at my parents, who had already decided.
They were going to call the Thackerays tonight and offer me a substitute dish.
I talk people out of rooms like this for a living.
I wasn't going to be the hostage in my own family.
I pulled my ankle free.
"Where's the rehearsal dinner?"
My father blinked. "The Thackeray townhouse. Seventieth Street. Why?"
"Because if anyone's offering me to that man, it's going to be me."
I didn't change.
I walked out with my badge on my belt and coffee on my sleeve.
The townhouse was lit up.
There was a string quartet in the hall and eighty people in black tie drinking champagne.
The woman at the door held out her hand for an invitation.
I showed her my badge instead.
She stepped back.
The room went quiet in a ripple, one table at a time.
At the far end, a man stood up.
Tall. Dark hair. Gray eyes. A charcoal suit that fit like it was poured on.
He didn't look like a monster.
He looked weary, like someone who'd already heard bad news today.
【OMG it's HIM. Lucas Thackeray!!!】
【Why is the wrong sister in his house??】
"Mr. Thackeray," I said, loud enough for the back tables. "I'm Jules Halsey. Kitty's sister."
"I know who you are," he said.
"Kitty isn't coming tomorrow. The bride has changed."
Somebody dropped a fork.
"If you still want a Halsey at that altar, it's me," I said. "But I'm not a gift basket. I'm here to negotiate."
Eighty people turned to look at him.
He didn't look embarrassed.
He looked at me for a long time.
Then he picked up a folder from the table.
"My study," he said. "Bring your terms."
【HE'S NOT EVEN MAD???】
【Wait for it. The cage clause is in that folder.】
His study smelled like leather and cold coffee.
He shut the door and handed me the folder.
"The settlement stands. Your family's debt is forgiven. One condition is not negotiable."
I opened it and flipped to the page with the tab.
Section nine.
The wife shall not leave the residence without security. At any time. For any reason.
【THERE IT IS. The cage.】
【Run, cop lady. RUN.】
I closed the folder.
"I carry a gun to work, Mr. Thackeray. I don't need a babysitter."
"You'll have one anyway."
"Then tell me why."
Nobody had ever asked him that.
I could see it in the way his jaw moved.
He opened his desk drawer and took out a plain white envelope.
Inside was one sheet of paper, typed on a real typewriter. The letters sat a little crooked.
Congratulations to the bride.
No name. No signature.
"It came this morning," he said. "I get one every year."
"Since when?"
He pushed up his left cuff.
There was a thin white scar around his wrist.
"Since I was twelve," he said. "Since the man who took me let me go."
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