I Came Back to His Wedding to My Stand-In Chapter 01

I Came Back to His Wedding to My Stand-In Chapter 01

After I completed my mission and made Damon Voss fall hopelessly in love with me, the System forced me out of his world.

The moment I disappeared, Damon panicked so badly he coughed up blood.

He held me like he wanted to keep me inside his ribs.

“Elowen, trust me,” he said, his voice breaking. “I will find you.”

“I will wait for the day you come home with me.”

After I left, missing him hollowed me out.

I spiraled into severe depression and self-harm, and eventually, I was admitted to a psychiatric facility.

Three years later, the System could no longer bear to watch me suffer.

It sent me back to Damon.

I traveled through the night to Edgewood City, hoping to surprise him.

Instead, I accidentally overheard him talking to his friends.

“Congrats, man,” one of them said with a laugh. “You’re about to marry your pretty little stand-in.”

Damon scoffed.

“Congrats for what? She’s just a gold digger who crawled into my bed for money and still acts like she’s above everyone.”

That was what he said.

But the smile at the corner of his mouth could not be hidden.

“Enough. Luna’s curfew is almost up. If I’m one minute late, she won’t let me into the house.”

He paused, then added, “Oh, and call off the search for Elowen.”

“If Luna finds out I’m still looking for her, she’ll punish me again and refuse to let me touch her.”

I froze.

For three years, I had broken down over this man.

For three years, even treatment that blurred my memories had failed to make me forget him.

And in that moment, I finally let him go.

—

I leaned against the wall, my whole body shaking.

I whispered to the System in my mind.

【IDA-739, take me back. I don’t want to stay here anymore.】

The System had heard everything too.

For once, there was something almost like pity in its cold electronic voice.

【Host, I have arranged the nearest extraction window, but it will not open for another three days.】

Three days.

Just three days.

I walked back to my old studio, wanting only to rest.

But the moment I pushed the door open, I found a completely different place inside.

The shabby four-hundred-square-foot apartment had been expanded into a sprawling two-story loft.

It was luxurious, dazzling, and utterly unfamiliar.

The small wooden bed we once slept in was gone.

The couch I had carefully picked out had vanished too.

In their place were an ornate king-size bed, polished stone floors, and an imported dining table.

Damon had Luna pressed against that table, kissing her.

When he saw me, he froze.

His first instinct was to cover the bite mark on his collarbone.

Then his eyes turned red, and he stared at me like he had seen a ghost.

“Elowen,” he whispered. “You’re finally back.”

He reached for me.

I stepped aside and avoided his embrace.

Not far away, Luna was wiping her mouth with disgust, as if trying to erase every trace of him.

When her gaze moved to my face, she paused.

Then she gave a cold laugh.

“No wonder everyone says I look like you.”

“I guess they were right.”

She turned to Damon.

“Mr. Voss, now that your first love is back, can you finally let me go?”

Damon was still stunned by the way I had dodged him.

Now guilt flashed across his face.

“What the hell are you talking about?” he snapped at her.

Then he hurried to look at me.

“Elowen, don’t misunderstand. Luna and I are not what you think.”

His explanation was pale and useless.

I smiled, took off the bracelet on my wrist, and fastened it around Luna’s wrist instead.

“It suits you,” I said. “Consider it a first meeting gift.”

That bracelet was the token Damon had once given me as proof of his love.

Panic deepened on his face.

“Elowen… are you giving up on me?”

“Trust me, Luna and I…”

Luna was staring down at the bracelet, lost in thought.

Damon suddenly reached out to snatch it back.

“What are you looking at? You don’t deserve to wear that.”

But Luna dodged him.

As if she were trying to provoke someone, she lifted her eyebrows and smiled.

“Thank you for the gift, Elowen. I like it very much.”

Damon clenched his jaw, about to scold her.

But when he saw her bright smile, he lost focus for a moment.

The anger on his lips disappeared.

He turned back to me and promised in a rush, “Elowen, I will buy you another one tomorrow. Exactly the same.”

Exactly the same.

Did he really think an identical bracelet could become the original?

Was that how it worked with people too?

I smiled.

“A gift is a gift. I don’t play this stand-in game.”

Damon went completely still.

Luna yawned and went straight back to her room.

For a long time, Damon and I stood in silence.

Finally, he spoke.

“Elowen… Luna and I…”

Before he could finish, a scream came from Luna’s room.

Damon left me without hesitation and rushed toward her.

Luna’s skin had broken out in a severe allergic reaction.

She was struggling to breathe and pointing weakly at the bracelet on the floor.

“It… it…”

Damon’s eyes filled with worry.

He picked up the bracelet, and his expression instantly darkened.

Then he grabbed my wrist.

His grip was so hard that pain shot up my arm.

“What did you do to the bracelet?”

Tears sprang to my eyes.

Across that wrist were the scars I had left behind during the worst years of missing him.

Some were deep.

Some had never healed smooth.

But he did not seem to feel any of it beneath his fingers.

His hand only tightened.

“Why would you hurt Luna?”

“Elowen, you have changed.”

I burst out laughing.

I laughed at the three years I had spent bleeding my heart dry for him.

The pain in my wrist seemed to laugh with me.

Look at me.

My love for him had become the very weakness he used to hurt me.

How stupid.

After an unknown amount of time, Damon carried Luna into an ambulance.

Then he turned to the house staff and said coldly, “Watch this place.”

“From now on, Elowen Hale is not allowed to set foot here.”

He seemed to have forgotten.

This place had been mine first.