Falling for a Stand-In

I felt weak at the sight, and my stomach throbbed painfully. A wave of nausea washed over me.

The Marcus who stood before me was familiar yet like a stranger. In the past, I'd always been the one standing behind him whenever he acted so protectively.

As a child, my mother had always favored my brother over me. She'd told me more than once that I was just a tool for her to form a marriage alliance with another family.

At the time, Marcus stood before me defensively and said, "Renee isn't a tool. One day, I'll marry her and give her the grandest wedding in the world!"

As a student, I was skinny and frail due to malnutrition. My classmates had mocked and bullied me, throwing dirty things at me.

Marcus had shielded me. "It's not easy to get rid of this stench. Thank goodness it didn't get onto your clothes."

When I'd first gone abroad after lying to him about furthering my studies, I'd been overwhelmed by the fear of being in a new environment. I'd fallen sick.

That time, he hadn't defended me. Instead, he'd said, "I'm so lonely back home. Why are you the only one who gets to go abroad?"

I understood what he'd actually meant. He'd wanted to drop everything at work to go abroad with me, but his father and the company's board of directors had berated him over it. They'd punished him by locking him in the family chapel and making him kneel for three days.

Now, however, the tone he used with me, the person he defended, and even the way he looked at me told me the same thing—his feelings had changed.

I didn't know when it started, but Marcus always mentioned Janae in his phone conversations with me.

"You know what, Renee? The secretary I hired today looks a lot like you! I actually thought you were back when I saw her. You have no idea how much I miss you.

"Janae put salt into my coffee today instead of sugar. It seemed like something you'd do.

"Janae sprained her ankle during a team-building activity, Renee. I'm at the hospital now, so I'll talk to you later."

Later, during a video call, which we hadn't had for a long time, I vaguely heard him call my name. I subconsciously responded, but my voice overlapped with another one on the other end of the line.

In that split second, I was lost. Had he called "Renee" or "Janae?"

Then, three months ago, Marcus and I had gotten into a huge fight.

He'd snapped, "You've changed, Renee! Look at the way you are now—you're nothing like how you used to be! You never would've been this clingy in the past! Now, you make me feel like I'm suffocating!"

I'd wrapped my arms around my knees while seated in a hospital corridor. A cold draught had surrounded me, but I couldn't seem to feel it. My heart had been icier than everything else around me.

…

I snapped back to reality. I felt like I had my answer as I looked at Janae's face.

I wasn't the one who had changed—Marcus had.

The cold wind howled, and I stepped forward to yank the fur coat off Janae.