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The Commander's Substitute Wife

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The Commander's Substitute Wife

Episode 1

Chapter 01

I Will Marry Him

Alyssa Prescott stood in front of the Whitmore family's grand house with a manila folder clutched in her hand.

The rain had only just stopped. The stone courtyard was still wet, and the smell of damp earth rose into the cold late-afternoon air over the city.

Inside the house, a man's voice rang out, hard and sharp.

"I've already told you, Grandfather. I will not marry Lara."

His voice was low, but it cut.

Alyssa stopped one step short of the sitting room door. Her fingers tightened around the folder until the corner of the papers bent.

She had seen that man's face on military news reports. Major Damian Archer Whitmore. A young commander often deployed to the border, known for being stern, cold, and almost never smiling for the cameras.

But hearing his voice in person still made Alyssa's chest tighten.

"Damian!" Grandfather Whitmore's voice shook with anger. "The Prescott family saved ours when we were on the verge of collapse. That promise was not a joke."

"It was your promise, not mine."

"If you refuse, then give up your command. Come home. Help your father run the family company. I will not let my grandson disgrace a promise made before people who are no longer alive to defend it."

The room fell silent.

Alyssa lowered her head. Lara's pale face flashed through her mind.

Alyssa, I can't. I love Felix. If they force me to marry Major Whitmore, I'll run. I'm serious.

Her sister had cried until she could barely breathe. Their father had sat on the hospital sofa with an IV in his hand. Their mother had not stopped praying. The company's debts, Dad's heart surgery, and the Prescott family's reputation had all tightened around their necks like a rope.

Lara was not strong enough.

Dad could not find out Lara had run.

And the Whitmores could not withdraw the help that might save him.

Alyssa drew a breath.

Then she knocked.

Everyone turned.

In the sitting room, Grandfather Whitmore sat in a wheelchair, his face severe, his white hair neatly combed. Beside him were Benjamin and Marlene Whitmore, Damian's parents. Both looked tense.

Then Alyssa's eyes met Damian's.

Sharp.

Cold.

As if he already knew she had come there to lie.

"Good evening," Alyssa said quietly.

Marlene stood. "Alyssa? Where's Lara?"

Alyssa swallowed.

"Lara is sick. She couldn't come."

Damian narrowed his eyes.

"How convenient."

Alyssa pretended not to hear him. She stepped inside and stopped in front of Grandfather Whitmore.

"Grandfather," she said, "I came to tell you something."

He studied her for a long moment. "Speak."

Alyssa held back the trembling in her knees.

"If the Whitmore family still wants to honor its promise to the Prescott family, please allow me to take Lara's place."

Marlene covered her mouth.

Benjamin frowned. "Alyssa, do you understand what you're saying?"

"I do, Benjamin."

Damian gave a short laugh.

There was no humor in it.

"So this is your family's new plan?"

Alyssa turned to him. "No."

"Lara refuses, so her little sister steps forward. Impressive." Damian moved closer. He was still in uniform, broad-shouldered and tall enough that Alyssa had to tilt her chin up. "What do you think this is? An empty seat anyone can fill?"

"I don't think that."

"Then why are you here?"

Because Dad could die if his surgery was delayed.

Because Lara would not come back tonight.

Because Mom was too tired to keep crying.

Alyssa said none of it.

She lifted her face.

"Because I am willing to marry you."

Damian's eyes darkened.

"Willing?" He repeated the word as if it were filthy. "You don't even know me."

"I know you're a good soldier."

"Don't flatter me."

Alyssa went still.

The words struck harder than she expected.

Grandfather Whitmore slapped the armrest of his wheelchair. "Damian, watch your mouth!"

"No need, Grandfather." Damian kept his eyes on Alyssa. "She came here herself. I'm sure she prepared her answers."

Alyssa gripped the folder harder. Inside were photocopies of her ID card, proof that she was unmarried, and every document she and her mother had spent the morning chasing down. Too fast. Too insane. But things could be arranged when two prominent families and Whitmore money moved at once.

She knew how bad it looked.

Maybe in Damian's eyes, she was exactly that bad.

"I'm not asking you to like me," Alyssa said. "I'm only asking you to honor the vows if they happen."

Silence returned.

Damian stared at her as though he had just heard a challenge.

Grandfather Whitmore exhaled slowly. "I would rather have a child brave enough to speak honestly than one who runs from responsibility."

Alyssa lowered her head.

I'm sorry, Lara.

She knew Grandfather's words wounded her sister, even if Lara was not there to hear them.

Damian turned toward his grandfather.

"Fine."

Alyssa lifted her head.

Damian spoke again, colder this time.

"I'll marry her."

Marlene looked relieved, but Benjamin's expression only grew heavier.

"But I have conditions," Damian went on.

Grandfather Whitmore clenched his jaw.

"Say them."

Damian looked at Alyssa.

"First, after the wedding, no one interferes with my deployment. I return to the border as scheduled."

"That can be discussed," Benjamin said.

"No. It's a condition."

Grandfather gave a slow nod.

"Second," Damian continued, "this marriage is only a status. Don't demand anything from me. Not love, not attention, not whatever rights you imagine a wife should have."

Pain stabbed through Alyssa's chest.

Damian was not finished.

"Third, three years. If in three years this marriage brings nothing but problems, we separate."

Marlene flinched. "Damian!"

"I'm not drafting some strange contract in front of the registrar," he said flatly. "I know the law. But she needs to hear this from the beginning."

His eyes returned to Alyssa.

"Do you still want this?"

Alyssa felt as if everyone in the room were waiting for her to breathe.

She could step back.

She could go home, wake Lara, and force her sister to take responsibility.

But the image of Dad in his hospital room killed that choice before it could exist.

Alyssa nodded.

"I do."

Damian watched her for a long moment. Then one corner of his mouth lifted, not in a smile, but in contempt.

"Then congratulations. You got the position you wanted."

Alyssa did not answer.

She only lowered her head, hiding the hand that had started to shake.

That night, while the families discussed guardians, witnesses, the marriage office, and vows that would have to be rushed through with emergency paperwork, Alyssa sat quietly in the corner.

No one asked whether she was afraid.

No one asked whether she was doing this willingly.

Because the answers to those questions no longer mattered.

Only one thing mattered.

Tomorrow morning, the Prescott family would still have a chance to save Dad.

And Alyssa would become the wife of a man who had hated her from the first second.

When her mother's car came to take her home, Alyssa caught sight of Damian standing on the second-floor balcony. He did not approach, did not offer a word of farewell. He only watched from above, like a commander assessing territory that had just been forced onto his map.

Alyssa was the first to look away.

In the car, her mother gripped her hand and kept whispering prayers. Alyssa let her hold on, even though her own nails had already left marks in her palm.

"Are you sure, sweetheart?" Mom finally asked.

Alyssa watched the streetlights ripple across the car window.

No.

She was not sure about Damian. Not about the Whitmore family. Not about a marriage that had not even begun yet and already felt like a sentence.

But she was sure of one thing.

If she backed out tonight, their home would collapse before dawn.

"Yes, Mom," she answered.

Her mother cried again.

Alyssa did not cry with her. She only watched the road and thought of Dad's operating room, Lara's face somewhere in hiding, and Damian's cold eyes.

Starting tomorrow, everyone might call her Major Whitmore's wife.

But that night, Alyssa felt like a stranger who had just signed a contract with a storm.

At home, Lara still had not returned.