Substitute Marriage: Reborn As The Top Big-Shot

Terrence Lentz is a good-for-nothing who’s into indulging in food, alcohol, prostitution, and gambling. What doesn’t he know about?

It would be unusual if Viola didn’t get pregnant while hanging around with such a person!

“Now that Viola is pregnant before marriage and has done such a disgraceful thing with Terrence Lentz, it’s up to you to decide how to handle it!”

“You shameless thing!” At that moment, Mrs. Thompson walked in from outside, raised her walking stick, and hit Edward Thompson’s back, “You’re no brother!”

What kind of brother would defame his own sister like that?

Even Viola’s own brother didn’t trust her, let alone outsiders.

With that, Mrs. Thompson pointed at Sawyer Thompson and said, “Look, look! This is your well-raised son!”

She trembled in anger.

The son’s misbehavior is the father’s fault. Sawyer was ashamed and lowered his head without saying a word.

Now Edward was both angry and aggrieved.

It was clearly Viola who did wrong.

But now everyone was blaming him!

What did he do wrong?

Edward looked up at Mrs. Thompson, “Grandma, can you no longer tell right from wrong? Do we still care about our family’s reputation? Please understand, Viola is the one who’s pregnant before marriage! She’s the one who brings disgrace! If you don’t blame her, that’s one thing, but to push all the blame on me instead? Was it me who sent her to Terrence Lentz’s bed?”

Every time in the past when Mrs. Thompson was wrong about something, Mandel Thompson would forgive her.

She was old after all!

But not this time.

He would never forgive Mrs. Thompson this time.

Because Mrs. Thompson’s actions were truly chilling.

“Edward! You’ve gone too far!” Mary Perryne also found out about what happened on Facebook and hurried back to find out what was going on with Viola. As soon as she walked in, however, she heard Edward’s shameless words.

It made her so angry that she immediately kicked Edward.

“Am I going too far? Are you also going to be blindsided now?” Edward looked at his mother, his eyes filled with disappointment.

“I believe in Viola!” Mary said firmly, “She would never do such a thing! Nowadays, some marketing accounts are unscrupulous for traffic. As Viola’s older brother, you should trust her instead of demeaning her alongside those marketing accounts!”

Hearing those words, Edward’s heart fell.

In the past, at least his mother would help Sylvia.

But now…

Despite the facts before her eyes, Mary didn’t believe them.

Not only did she not believe it, but she also wanted him to blindly trust Viola, too.

He was a person.

Not a puppet on strings!

“What’s it going to take to wake you up, Mom? Your own daughter, she’s someone who doesn’t know self-respect and self-love!” Would a self-respecting person engage in relations before marriage and then have an abortion at the hospital while hiding it from their family?

How old was Viola this year?

She had just come of age!

Only just an adult, and she’s already causing the family such trouble. If they didn’t do something, who knows what havoc she might wreak in the future!

But now…

It seemed he alone recognized the seriousness of the problem.

Nobody else cared.

Especially the parents.

At a time like this, the parents were actually still defending Viola!

It was absurd!

“So this is what I am in my brother’s heart.” A faint voice suddenly emerged in the air, devoid of any emotion.

But it struck a chord.

Everyone turned to look, only to see Viola slowly walking down the spiral staircase.

“Isn’t it? Don’t you know what you and Terrence Lentz did?” Edward said angrily.

He had been unhappy with Viola for more than a day or two.

Now was just the right time to vent all that frustration.

Ever since Viola returned, everyone in the family seemed to be bewitched.

They could only see Viola!

He would expose Viola for who she truly was today, and bring Sylvia back into the family’s line of sight.

She just looked at Edward, her face almost expressionless, her red lips spoke lightly, “I can tell that since I stepped into this family, you’ve never approved of me as a sister. No matter what I do, it’s wrong in your eyes. You’re afraid that Sylvia will be wronged because of me, so you try desperately to make it up to her. I don’t care about all that, but you convicted me without even asking a question. Did you ever think that I, too, am human, with flesh and blood and feelings of hurt?”

The light way she spoke, word for word, was heartrending.

Recalling the past, Viola’s heart ached, resonating with the original Viola. At this moment, her voice had become hoarse.

Little Viola was only seven years old back then.

A seven-year-old child, just off the operating table, was thrown into the countryside without a second thought.

Until she came of age.

She had suffered from severe malnutrition.

“In River City, everyone laughed at me, saying I was a village girl, an unwanted child with no manners and no culture. I was worthless, only fit to be a stepping stone for Elizabeth. No matter what I did, whatever I paid, it was taken for granted. Because the Thompsons had given me life and raised me, I should give them everything in return and act as a stepping stone for Elizabeth. I remember that when I was thirteen, I couldn’t take it anymore. That night, I stood on top of a thirty-story building, wanting to end this mundane and short life by jumping. But I didn’t jump because, just then, I suddenly thought of my family that I had never met.”

“I wondered if, after I died, anyone would remember me? In some corner of the world, would there be people who cared for me and loved me? Maybe there would be? Relying on that belief, I got through day after day, year after year. I waited and waited, I waited and waited. . . ”

“Finally, one day, I got a call from my older brother.”

As she said this, Viola’s vision blurred, her tears falling like broken pearls.

The usually unflappable boss was, for the first time, so distressed that he could hardly breathe.

No one knew how hard Viola’s life had been over the years.

Nobody had ever asked, either.

“When I saw Grandmother, Mom and Dad, and my brothers coming to pick me up, I thought I was the luckiest person in the world. I had finally made it. I had a father, a mother, a grandmother, and a brother. I wasn’t an unwanted child after all. From then on, my life had a past, and a future.”

“But I didn’t realize that this loss, these empty eighteen years, living in the countryside for eighteen years, would also be a crime in some people’s eyes.”