Substitute Wife for the Mafia King R18-Chapter 442: Mine and Yours

The conductor probably finally realized that I needed to speak, because he ordered the orchestra to stop playing. The music came to a sudden stop, and awkward silence filled the church as everyone had their attention on me. I knew that this was the moment to come face-to-face with reality and break the news to everyone that the wedding wasn’t going to take place. I had to tell everyone that Bradon had failed to show up, and without a groom we could not possibly have a wedding. At that moment, I realized for the very first time just how scared and disappointed I was. I wanted to avoid canceling our wedding, especially at the last second, at all costs, but life wasn’t easy for us and nothing seemed to be going our way. I tried desperately not to blame Bradon for what was happening, but I couldn’t. There was a part of me that was so angry, and I had no one else to lash out at but the man that had failed to turn up for what might be one of the most important events of our lives.

I couldn’t bring myself to finish off the sentence, to tell everyone that there would be no wedding. Suddenly, there was a force pulling on my arm. When I turned in surprise, Anthony had already been pulled away from my side. My breath caught in my throat when I saw who was standing there.

"Bradon," I whispered his name in pure disbelief.

I don’t remember how many times I wished and prayed for him to turn up, but now that he was here, I didn’t quite know what to say. All the anger that I had bottled up inside of me up until that point easily faded away into relief. It was hard to believe that he was standing there right in front of me in the flesh, but when I reached out my hand and placed it on his arm, I knew that he was there for real. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Everything faded away for a moment as our eyes met, and I nodded my head firmly. I wanted to tell him that everything was fine, and now that he was here from here on out, I knew that everything would progress smoothly. It was like I didn’t want explanations after explanations from him as to why he had almost missed our wedding, because I felt like everything else could wait. We could wait until we had time alone to talk things out, because it felt more than enough that he finally turned up. He was late, but thankfully, he wasn’t too late.

Murmurs from the audience cut through the haze that had surrounded my mind from seeing Bradon suddenly appear. Before I could say anything, Bradon turned to address his brother.

"I’ll take it from here. There’s no need for you to cover for me anymore," Bradon told Anthony quite coldly.

Anthony looked very shocked at Bradon’s sudden appearance. He was probably just as shocked as everybody else in the audience. All the guests were murmuring, and I could catch various words that portrayed their confusion. Many of them could not tell the two brothers apart, so it shocked them even more to see two grooms standing side by side.

Bradon waved to the conductor. After the older man recovered from his state of shock, he began commanding the orchestra to resume playing the wedding march. Suddenly, I had my arms linked with Bradon, and we were slowly walking down the aisle. It was like what we had planned, but it felt so right at the very same time. Bradon gently led me down the aisle by his side as I took shaky steps forward. His presence soothed my mind and gave me confidence. With each step that I took forward, I knew that I was walking the right path, and the confidence that had fled me just moments ago slowly came back.

We arrived in front of the altar where the priest was waiting for us. It was finally time for us to exchange our wedding vows. We turned to face each other as Bradon held both of my hands in his. I could feel the warmth of his touch when he gave my hands a gentle and reassuring squeeze. Our eyes locked onto each other, and it felt like he could see deep into my soul. It didn’t bother me, because I felt like I had nothing to hide away from him. I wanted him to see me for who I really was, because we were about to vow to spend the rest of our lives together. My heart beat so loudly in my chest that I could barely hear the voice of the priest as he went through the formal wedding vows.

"I do," Bradon said before he smiled charmingly at me.

I found myself smiling back, but a part of me felt like everything was too good to be true. Everything just felt so unreal, and there was a part of me that believed I was simply enjoying a good dream. It was only when Bradon gave my hand another squeeze, before whispering to me that it was my turn to return his vow, that I snapped back to reality fully.

"I do," I said with absolute certainty.

Bradon pulled me into his embrace and his lips were on mine. Unlike the kiss that we shared when we stood in front of the altar taking the place of our siblings, the kiss that he placed on my lips felt firm, reassuring, yet also extremely gentle at the very same time. It wasn’t a passionate and possessive kiss, but one that felt filled with honest love. It wasn’t a kiss that begged to own, but one that promised to cherish me and to take care of me for the rest of my life. I didn’t want our lips to part, because I wanted to savor every single second of that moment, even if it was just for a little longer.