Substitute Wife for the Mafia King R18-Chapter 398: Diana and Dahlia

"My name is Diana, which can only mean that the Diana standing over there is, in fact, my twin sister, Dahlia. In fact, for the past months, I wasn’t present, and the Diana that you knew had always been my sister acting out in my place," Diana explained as if it was something to be proud of.

The crowd went wild, but I decided to focus my attention on the two figures that seemed so intent on ruining my life along with my sister’s. Our father had officially become our enemy, and at that moment, he looked like he might have started to regret pushing both of us over the edge. Mr. Malton, who, after all this time, clearly never regretted his actions and never realized that he should have been man enough to take responsibility. I was certain that even now, he was willing to destroy our reputation and our future—all for the sake of the money undoubtedly promised to him by our father. Desperate times truly call for desperate measures; that applied to our father but also to us as well.

I couldn’t even begin to describe how much I wanted to stop my sister from doing something so foolish and irreversibly harmful, but in that moment, it was strange how I felt such an overwhelming sense of peace. Perhaps deep down inside, I had already grown so sick of putting up an act and lying to everybody with a straight face. Perhaps I was tired of pretending to be my perfect sister and of fooling everyone. I thought that it might be high time that we both returned to simply being ourselves and come what may. I couldn’t help but think that perhaps my sister understood how I felt. At the time, it felt more than enough that my sister was ready to claim her identity and to relieve me of the burden of acting in her place. It seemed like my time to leave the country to return to my new and more peaceful life was soon approaching, at least that was what I thought at the time.

As the crowd shouted endless streams of questions directed at my sister, she brushed them off by continuing with what she wanted to say.

"Now that that is out of the way, I have to explain to you one more simple thing. You see, just as how my sister and I are switching places right now, we’ve done this countless times in the past," Diana revealed before nodding her head with a bright smile on her face as if to confirm that the thought running through everyone’s head was indeed correct.

"No..." I whispered as time seemed to slow.

It was probably at that moment that it fully hit me what Diana truly intended to do. The truth at the moment wasn’t the only truth that she wanted to expose; she wanted to expose the past as well and perhaps everything.

"No! Stop! Stop..." I screamed at the top of my lungs until my voice broke as I felt tears stinging the back of my eyes. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

I didn’t know what I was doing, and it was Bradon’s hold on my body that stopped me from racing forward towards my sister. The voice of the crowd conveniently drowned out my desperate cries. I wasn’t even sure if my sister heard me until I thought that she turned to cast a glance my way, but of course, it could have been simply the result of my own imagination.

"What you’re thinking is absolutely correct. I was the one who was involved with Mr. Malton, and not my sister. It has always been me all along. It has always been Diana..." my sister declared with clear satisfaction in her tone as if proudly revealing the end to a mysterious novel that she had meticulously written.

What happened afterward was complete chaos, but none of it got to me at all. For me, the world the two of us had jointly created had already shattered into irreparable pieces.

...

Chaos broke out, and all the guards truly worked beyond their pay grade on that day. Desmond did the perfect job of keeping my sister safe, and for that, I will always be eternally grateful. I wanted to see my sister immediately, but then I realized that although there were many things that I wanted to talk to her about, none of our words could change the decision that she had made and what had already happened.

It was probably because of that conclusion that I reached that I did not put up much of a struggle when Bradon quickly pulled me out of the venue and into our limousine. I was lost in my own thoughts all throughout the ride back to the mansion.

Bradon did not say anything, and I was thankful that he was giving me the time and space to think and wrap my mind around what had happened. Although the impact of my sister’s actions was supposed to be straightforward, I wasn’t so sure if I could rest easy about what was to come. Just like everyone was shaken by my sister’s revelation of the truth, our future had been shaken up as well. I wasn’t sure what exactly was going to happen, but I was sure that many big and impactful things were about to happen to all of us.

As if he wanted to show me comfort, Bradon kept a loose hold on my hand as he held it all throughout the ride. His casual touch gave me so much comfort, more than any words could possibly describe. The loose and relaxed hold that he had on my hand seemed like a silent promise that he would take care of me without any strings attached. I quickly pushed any thoughts related to him away because I knew that it would only add another layer of complication, and that was the last thing that I needed right at that moment.

–To be continued...