Her Substitute Groom

Connor POV

‘Carl is alive’ Those words kept replaying in my head as I drove restlessly down the road. I had to confirm this myself because no way I was going to believe it without doing confirmation.

“Can you calm down, please? You are going to get the two of us killed,” Chase uttered as he held on tightly to the seatbelt, but the only thing on my mind was to get to that house and confirm this.

Thirty minutes later, I finally pulled over in front of the gate and stepped out of the car. I banged the bar gate impatiently while waiting for whoever was around to come and get the door, and after a few minutes, I saw a guy of about the same age as Claire, stepped out of the house.

“Who are you?” He asked as he strode down toward the gate where we were waiting.

“How may I help you?” He asked as he finally got to the gate.

“Where is Janice?” I asked him restlessly, and he gave me a long confusing stare.

“Why do you want to see my sister?” He asked me, and my jaw dropped to the ground. Janice has never mentioned anything about her family, so how come this boy was claiming she was his sister?

“You are her brother?” I wanted to ask, but that was not important at that moment, so I dismissed the question.

“Where is she?”

“She went out with my brother-in-law. Who are you? Why do you want to see her? Is there a problem?” He bombarded with so many questions, but the only thing that sank in my head was the part he mentioned brother-in-law. It wasn’t what I was thinking, right?

“Brother-in-law? What do you…”

“Uhm… It’s nice to meet you. My name is Chase, and we are Janice’s friends. Can we come inside and wait for her, please?” Chase chipped in, sounding as polite as he could ever be, and I scoffed.

“You need to calm down, Connor. You can’t be this agitated here,” Chase whispered, and I tried to at least stay calm.

“Oh, I remember you now. You were here to find my sister the other day, right?” He faced Chase and uttered.

“Yes. I don’t know you still remember me. Can we come in, please?”

“Sure… You can come in,” He smiled and pressed a few buttons at the side wall, and the gate rolled open. We made our way inside. It wasn’t my first time here, so I was fast to find my way to the living room even without the guy’s help.

“Make yourself feel at home. Do you need me to get you something to drink?” He asked politely, but I shook my head.

“No, I’m fine,”

“What about you?” He turned to Chase and asked.

“Thank you. I’m fine,” Chase replied to him, and he nodded.

“Who are you talking with, Jake?” I heard a feminine voice as light footsteps descended the staircase, and I looked in the direction where I saw a woman in her late fifties. She was everything beautiful even with her slightly rough skin that was just starting to look smooth. She had short brown hair, and a striking resemblance with Janice. She must be related to Janice. That was the first thing that came to my mind, but I couldn’t just conclude like that, yeah?

“Mom, these people are here to see my sister,” The guy replied to her when she finally got to the living room, and this time, I finally confirmed that she was not only related to Janice, but was her Mom.

My heart wrenched painfully at the thought of not knowing her family all this while but they were here with her now. What was I doing wrong all along? Why didn’t I ever ask her about her family? I felt bad thinking about it.

“That’s not important for now,” My subconscious mind reminded me, and I tried to limit my thoughts.

“Greetings, ma’am,” I quickly stood up and greeted her.

“Good day, Mr. Who are you, please?” She asked me, and I looked at Chase. What was I going to tell her? That I’m her daughter’s boyfriend when they already knew someone else as her boyfriend?

“We are Janice’s friends, ma’am,” Chase bailed me out and quickly spoke up before I could say anything, and her smile widened even more.

“It’s nice to meet you. My daughter never told me she had such adorable friends,” Her smile was heartwarming and relaxing.

“It’s nice to meet you too, ma’am,” I said to her at the same time as Chase.

“Make yourself relaxed. Janice will be back soon. She went out with her fiance,” Those words struck my heart, and I slowly clenched my fingers tightly as I stared into space. What the heck happened?

“Hmm,” Regardless, I nodded and sat back on the couch.

I waited desperately for Carl to be back if truly he was really alive as Chase had said. Even though I was curious to know the truth, I still didn’t want to believe that it was true. I looked for him in the water. We had the cops arrange for people to go to the depths of the lake to check him. We were sure that he was dead, so how was this possible?

“You are going to find out soon. Just stay calm,” I said to myself and tried to relax.

Seconds slowly ticked into minutes and after about an hour of waiting, I heard a car honk from outside.

“That must be them,” Chase turned to me and said in a low tone.

Five minutes later, I heard the entrance door open followed by multiple footsteps down the walkway that led to the living room. I was left in anticipation to see for myself what was really happening.Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.

“Let’s do this more often henceforth,” That was the voice I would always recognize even though I was in a coma. It was Carl’s voice.

Without wasting another second, I rose to my feet and turned in the direction of the voice, but my heart sank into my stomach and my jaw dropped to the ground at the sight that welcomed me. Chase wasn’t lying. It was really Carl. He was alive.

“Carl?” I called, announcing my presence, and he looked at me along with Janice.

“Connor?” Janice called surprisingly.

“You are finally here. Long time, no see, brother,” A few seconds passed before Carl finally faced me and uttered with his face laced with a mischievous smirk.

“Am I dreaming?” I muttered as my lips quivered…