Her Substitute Groom

Connor’s jaw dropped to the ground as he stared back at Carl. For a moment, this felt like a dream to him. This couldn’t be true, right? This person wasn’t his brother who passed away months ago, right?

“Why do you look so shocked to see me? You probably thought I was dead, didn’t you? Are you disappointed?” Carl asked as he walked over to stand in front of Connor, but he was still too shocked to say anything.

Connor opened his mouth to talk, but words failed him as the only thing he could do was stare at Carl from his head to his toes. When their eyes met, he took his time to check out his eyes which was said to have been destroyed the other time. It almost seemed like nothing happened to the eye. Was this really Carl or was someone impersonating him?

“It’s good to see you again. Are you as happy as I am?” The corner of Carl’s lips twitched up into a smirk as he stared back at Connor. Although he wasn’t prepared for them to meet now, he needed some more time to prepare himself to meet Connor, but it was still good. It was good that they had finally met now.

“Do you care for anything, brother?” Carl turned to Chase and asked.

“Look, Connor…” Janice finally spoke up, but she paused and walked over to stand between Connor and Carl.

“You need to leave, ok? I’m not coming with you if you are here because of me… I’m not…”

“Did he threaten you? Did he say he was going to kill you if you don’t stay with him?” Connor finally looked her in the eyes and asked her as he clenched his fingers into tight fists.

“Connor, you need to…”

“Answer me, Janice. Did he threaten you? Did he say he was going to kill you? Did he force you to leave me? Why didn’t you tell me it was him? Why didn’t you tell me he came back?” Connor felt like he was going to lose his mind at this point. Feelings of anger, betrayal, and pain spurred through him. She could’ve told him and he would’ve protected her, but why did she keep it away from him for so long? Why didn’t she ever mention it to him?

“Connor…” Janice’s lips quivered as tears brimmed in her eyes. Slowly, she bit her bottom lip and turned her face away.

“Did you think so lowly of me? You thought I wouldn’t be able to protect you from him, right? Why did you do that?” Connor was no longer concerned about the fact that Carl was alive, but he was broken now that he found out that she knew about it all along but decided to hide it from him.

“He was never yours, Connor… He was never…”

“Why didn’t you die?” Connor cut him off as he turned to face him, and Carl’s smirk slowly faded. He knew this was going to happen, but still, he wasn’t prepared for it. Even though he knew it was never going to be possible, he wanted Connor to at least be remorseful about the way he treated him in the past, but it was starting to turn out that he didn’t give a damn about everything that happened.

“Connor, you need to leave…”

“Stay out of this, Janice,” He shoved Janice out of his way and took a step closer to Carl.

“What were you expecting? That I should go on my knees and beg you? Shed tears and tell you how much I regret everything? Sorry to disappoint you, Carl, but I would do that over and over again. If I had the chance to kill you with my hands, then I would do it…”

“Just stop this, Connor! Fucking stop this!” Janice chipped in again as tears streamed down his cheeks.

“Why do you hate each other so much? Why do you not like the presence of each other? I thought siblings were supposed to be by each other’s side?” Her voice broke as more tears streamed down her cheeks.

“You dragged me into your mess and now I have to suffer all the pain. Do you ever think of anything else aside from how you feel? Do you ever think of how others feel…”

“Why should I think of that when my humanity and emotions died with me months ago in the lake? Why the fuck should I care about anyone when I don’t even know what caring itself feels like?” Carl scoffed and threw his head back as he bit his bottom lip.

“You took everything away from me. Janice was supposed to be mine. We were supposed to be married happily. She was my everything…”

“And that was why I took her away. You were expecting me to have left you to be happy with your life when you already ruined mine?” Connor scoffed.

“Never! You’ve ruined me… You ruined my life. You turned me into a miserable man and you think I was going to allow you to have a peaceful life?” Connor shook his head.

“Because of you, my whole entirety was ruined!” Connor yelled at the top of his voice. His heart wrenched painfully as memories of that night replayed in his head. He was determined to bury his past behind him, he wanted to forget that night and the pain that accompanied it, but seeing his face now had ruined everything yet again.

“You shouldn’t have ever blamed me for everything that happened but that loose bitch you got married to!” Carl retorted.

“You knew she was a fucking sex addict but you still went ahead and married her, so what the fuck were you expecting from her? That miracle was going to happen?” Carl scoffed and rolled his eyes.

“It could’ve been another person, not my own brother! It shouldn’t have been you!”

“Does it make any difference, hmm? What if it were another person? Would it have made a difference that your beloved wife cheated on you?” Carl scoffed sarcastically, and Janice covered her mouth as her jaw dropped to the ground. Even though this was still confusing, she was connecting the dots already.

“I slept with your wife, but I told you I was sorry! I told you I never meant for that to happen, and…” Chase grabbed him by the collar before Carl could finish his statement.

“Are you proud of yourself, Carl? You never felt sorry for what you did!” Chase was so enraged that he was ready to punch Carl in the face, but that was until five hefty men rushed in with guns pointing at Chase and Connor.

“Lay a finger on me, and you’ll be kissing your life goodbye, Chase. Remember I mentioned that my emotions and humanity died with me at the lake that day? I don’t consider you my brother, so don’t mess around with me,” Carl stated coldly, but Chase was not ready to bring his hand down.Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.

Connor stared at Carl wordlessly. Thinking about everything that happened that night made him so weak that he couldn’t open his mouth to say anything. That horrible memory left a scar in his heart after so many years.

It all started nine years ago when he married his ex-wife. It was supposed to be a sweet marriage filled with love and happiness even though he knew she wasn’t worthy enough to be called a wife.

‘I love her. She’s going to change’ Even though Connor knew that it was something almost impossible, a part of him still believed that his wife was going to change.

‘It’s just an addiction. I can deal with it’ Those words were his motivation for marrying her even though he knew she was sexually addicted. He was ready to stick by her side, he was ready to go to therapy with her and make things better, little did he know that it was the biggest mistake of his life.

‘You can’t satisfy me well enough, Connor. How can you be tired after just four rounds? You should be happy, some men are out there ready to sacrifice anything for their woman to be like this’ she would always say to her every time while he tried to catch his breath after almost passing out as a result of sex. It was almost becoming an addiction for him, he knew she was not good for him, but still, he was ready to make things work.

‘I love her’ he would always say each time anyone tried to advise him, but slowly, he was killing himself and ruining his life.

That night, he had come home earlier than usual with a smile on his face, hoping to be welcomed by the beautiful smile on his wife’s face, only to find her naked on top of a man on their matrimonial bed as she twerked on his dick with their moans dominating the room.

‘Melissa!’ he called in shock as his heart wrenched painfully that night, but that was nothing compared to the horror he experienced when he saw the man his wife was copulating with. It was his brother, Carl.

The pain he felt that night was a lifetime pain for him, something he had not been able to get rid of even after so many years.

‘I did you a favor, Connor. You couldn’t satisfy your wife, and I helped you’ Those words from Carl were all needed to break him for years. Having the image living rent-free in his head for so many years, the hatred he harbored for him for years, he couldn’t wish for anything more than to stop seeing his face.

“I hate you, Carl… I hate you with everything in me,” Recalling everything, Connor couldn’t hold those words back, so he spilled them with so much hatred.

“I hate you with every drop of blood in me, and I wish you nothing but death,” Connor further said, picking his words one after the other as he stared into Carl’s eyes.

“I will make sure you spend the rest of your life hating yourself. You would wish you didn’t make it out of that lake that day. You would wish to have died there, and that is a promise,” Connor stated, then glanced at Janice before he finally left with Chase.

Janice slumped on the couch and sank her fingers into her hair. How could Carl have done such a thing to his brother? Why his brother’s wife of all women out there? Those were the questions that kept ringing in her mind as she buried her face between her palms, but couldn’t find any answer..