Ten Years a Stand-in Wife—Old Money Only Recognizes Me Chapter 03

Ten Years a Stand-in Wife—Old Money Only Recognizes Me Chapter 03

I looked at her.

She looked back at me.

The 3:30 p.m. autumn sunlight slanted through the window, slicing the living room into two halves—light and shadow.

Valerie stood in the light, while I stood in the dark.

A smile curved at her lips, effortless and assured.

In her world, this was nothing more than retrieving a coat she’d left in storage.

I asked calmly, “Give back what?”

Valerie paused.

Then she laughed softly, like she’d just heard a mildly amusing joke.

“What do you mean, what? My husband and my son, obviously.”

She lifted her hand and traced a lazy circle in the air.

“You stepped in and married for me—I appreciate that. But now I’m back. Adrian is my fiancé, Ethan is my biological son—”

“All of that was mine to begin with.”

Linda’s lips moved, but all that came out was a sigh.

David kept his head down, never lifting it once.

I looked at them.

At my father’s hunched back, bent like he couldn’t straighten it anymore.

At my mother’s evasive eyes.

At my sister’s perfectly justified expression.

Ten years ago, in this exact living room.

Under this same angle of sunlight.

They had thrown a wedding dress in front of me and said, “Sloane, something happened to your sister. You’re going.”

No discussion. No guilt. Not even a single “I’m sorry.”

I was twenty-two, fresh out of college.

I hadn’t even had a boyfriend yet.

And just like that, I was pushed into a wedding car and married off to a man I had never met.

That night, Adrian looked at me once and said five words.

“You are not Valerie Mercer.”

The coldest five words I had ever heard.

And now, ten years later, standing in this same living room—I smiled.

Faintly.

“Valerie,” I said, “I suggest you go ask the Shaw family first.”

“Ask Adrian if he even knows who you are.”