Mr. CEO's Substitute Bride

"Mom, what are you thinking about? I stay home all day, hoping there’ll be a chance for someone!" Violet Zimmerman said unhappily, feeling anxious. Could her mom have already guessed about her and her uncle’s affair?

Aria Williams leaned in a little, with a stern face, lowered her voice and asked, "Violet, be honest with me. During your hospital stay, did that creepy-looking doctor harass you?"

Violet Zimmerman...

As her heart settled, it felt even more unreal.

"Mom, your imagination is too wild! He’s a doctor who treats and saves people; how could he harass patients unless he wants to stop being a doctor!"

Aria leaned back again, sighed, "True, that doctor looks like a weasel, nowhere near as handsome as Daxton."

After saying this, Aria continued to ask, "Since you don’t have anyone outside, why do you keep thinking about divorcing Daxton?"

Violet Zimmerman...

She knew in her heart, even if she gave a thousand reasons, her mom wouldn’t agree.

When there were no kids, she wasn’t allowed, and now with another burden, it would be even less possible.

She knew her two sister-in-laws well; they would never let her parents support her idleness.

Absent-mindedly poking at the rice in her bowl, Violet casually made up an excuse, "Lucy was making a scene at home, and Daxton not only ignored it but agreed to let her stay, which made me angry, so I came back."

"You child!" Aria sighed helplessly, without suspecting anything else, unable to think of any other reason, "Did Daxton know you came back?"

"No, I came back after he left for work."

"Ah, Violet, you know you’re a mother now, why are you still so capricious!" Aria chided, immediately standing up.

"You have your meal first, I’ll go call your dad."

Aria walked into the inner room, while Violet was thinking about her uncle Joseph Lancaster. She had quietly returned to her parents’ home and wondered what he would think.

Aria first called her husband, telling Dylan Zimmerman their daughter was back home, and after hanging up, she called Daxton Lancaster next. As the mother-in-law, she should at least inform him that his wife had returned to her parents’ home out of anger.

"Daxton, it’s me."

"Mom? Is something wrong?" Daxton sat in his office, on the desk in front of him, the ashtray was already piled into a mountain with cigarette butts.

"Ah, it’s like this," Aria glanced back toward the outer room, "Violet just came back, and I wanted to let you know."

Daxton Lancaster...

Instinctively furrowed his brows, "Violet is back in F City?"

"Yes, she came alone; Lucy is still at your home," Aria deliberately said, wanting her son-in-law to understand the reason her daughter had returned.

Daxton wearily rubbed his brow, "Mom, I got it."

With that, he hung up.

Aria...

Listening to the beeping sound in her ear, she was stunned for quite a while, not reacting. "Got it?" What did "got it" mean? Was he not planning to come pick up Violet?

Daxton leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, hands folded in front of him, unaware of what he was thinking.

Last night he did it intentionally, deliberately staying in Lucy Zimmerman’s room, purposely saying things to make the silly girl laugh.

Later, the power went out unexpectedly; he planned to return to his room but heard the silly girl saying she was afraid of the dark, so he intentionally stayed.

When he heard footsteps being deliberately quiet outside the door, he quickly rushed to Lucy Zimmerman, and in his haste, tackled her onto the bed. He hadn’t expected the family’s security to cooperate so well, fixing the fuse just when Violet Zimmerman opened the door.

He knew Violet was angry, but he didn’t regret doing it at all.

He wanted her to truly experience, once and for all, what it’s like to see your partner being close with someone you’re related to.

If Violet couldn’t even stand him and his cousin in the same room, then what about him, watching his wife and his brother become intimate, while he had to help cover it up?

𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Did she ever think that the sounds they made while being intimate felt like steel knives, stabbing his heart and body endlessly, leaving him battered and bruised, yet having to endure the pain?

...

Eleanor Duncan had a knack for timing. She roughly estimated that Violet had finished her lunch and came over with her second child, "Violet, please help feed your nephew; see how hungry he’s made little Darius."

Darius Zimmerman’s crying startled little Robert Lancaster awake, and with both kids crying together, Violet rushed to the bed to soothe her son.