Her Substitute Groom

Janice POV

“Sweetheart, let’s go inside,” Carl faced me and smiled at me, but that smile meant something else and if I could do anything, I would start running right away from here.Exclusive content © by Nô(v)el/Dr/ama.Org.

Chase was too shocked to talk, so he just stared wordlessly. I had expected that reaction, anyway. I mean, this dude was believed to have been dead, and popping out of nowhere now was really shocking.

“Come on,” My heart missed a beat when he placed his hand gently around my shoulder like the gentleman he never was, and I was left with only one choice, and it was to follow him.

I wished I could disappear at that moment as he led me back into the house. My heart pounded hard against my chest, my breath hitched momentarily and I felt suffocated as the thought of the hell that awaited me behind those closed doors hit me hard.

Nobody was in the living room when we got there, so he led me to the room, and as soon as we got inside his room, he slammed the door close and locked it.

“Ca… Carl… I didn’t do it. I swear I didn’t invite Chase over… I wasn’t trying to escape, I promise you,” My voice quivered as I stepped away from him even though he wasn’t moving from the spot where he was standing. I stepped back until my back crashed against the wall, and when there was nowhere left for me to go, I just stood there, scared of the shit that was probably about to happen to me.

“I will ask you one question, and you wouldn’t want to lie to me, trust me…” He paused, then tucked his hands inside his pockets, his eyes boring invisible holes in my body as they glared at me. Even though I only glanced at his eyes briefly, the anger in them was so real and frightening enough for me not to have noticed it.

“Carl… I really didn’t do anything, I promise,” Tears brimmed in my eyes as I pressed my back hard against the wall, shaking my head and praying silently that he listened to me. I wasn’t ready for another set of abuse.

“What was Chase doing here?” He asked me coldly, his scary voice breaking every ounce of confidence and strength in me, and my legs weakened. I swallowed nothing and ground my teeth a few times. My body trembled, my hands sweaty, and beads of sweat formed on my forehead.

“I didn’t invite him… I really didn’t,” I shook my head as my tears finally dropped, and he sighed.

“What was he telling you?” He asked again, his eyes darkened like he could kill me at that moment, and I felt my soul leave my body briefly.

I glanced at the door and thought of running out of the room or screaming for help, but I recalled none of it would work. The door was locked, and even if it wasn’t, I knew I wouldn’t make it out of the room. Screaming for help? Well, in a room that was soundproofed, then I wondered how possible it would be to get help from outside.

When I didn’t say anything to him, he started walking toward me, and with every step he took, I felt like my life was being drained from me. Every step he took was accompanied by doom which I could see clearly as I anticipated either another torture and abuse or worse still, my death.

He finally stopped in front of me, and I held my breath unknowingly as I closed my eyes and waited for hell to break loose. Shortly, I felt his hand under my chin, so I slowly opened my eyes to meet those glaring and frightening of his that almost made me lose balance.

“Look at the way you are sweating, babe… I was just asking you a question but you were so scared,” He uttered calmly as he wiped my forehead with a black handkerchief.

“I’m sorry for scaring you… I didn’t mean to,” He spoke to me softly, his face filled with emotions and I had to ask myself if this was the same Carl that looked so angry just two minutes ago.

“I’ve really missed you so much… So much that I thought I was going to die if I didn’t see you,” He said huskily as he stared into my eyes, and I swallowed nothing.

“Let’s have family dinner together with Mom, Dad, and Jake tonight,” He uttered as he removed the strands of hair on my forehead and tucked them behind my ear.

“Should we go out on a date tomorrow, hmm?” He further asked as he stroked my hair, but I couldn’t say anything to him, instead, I just stared back at him, my heart filled with fear.

“Let’s go out on a date tomorrow. Shopping date. Consider that our first date together as couples,” He said again, and I was left with the only choice of nodding my head since there wasn’t anything I could do about it.

“That’s my girl,” He pulled me into his arms and hugged me tightly like he’d never want to let go. I was left in confusion trying to figure out what exactly was going on. Was he on drugs or something? I’ve only seen people on drugs having mood swings or people who had their mental health tampered with, so I didn’t know what to conclude was his problem.

“I got you a gift,” He pulled away from me, held my hands, and gave them a light squeeze as he smiled at me.

“I will have Royce bring it for you. I still have some things to deal with. Let’s eat together when I’m done,” He leaned forward and kissed my forehead. He pulled away from me, smiled, and finally walked out of the room, and I breathed out as I slumped to the ground helplessly. That was so close and frightening.

Now that I thought about it, I was scared to the bone thinking about what Chase said to me earlier about Connor. Is he safe?