Substitute Wife for the Mafia King R18-Chapter 382: Forced Engagement

"Do you really have to go?" Bradon asked, though he probably already knew the answer very well.

Every morning, when I woke up in bed with him and had to go out to meet Desmond, he would hug me from behind and press his face against my back while asking the same question.

"I have to go," I replied as I gently stroked the hands he had placed around my waist.

"Do you want to go?" he asked softly, his face still nestled against my back.

"I don’t want to go, but that doesn’t mean we can spend the whole day in bed together either," I replied, trying to suppress my urge to giggle. I felt his arms tighten around my waist before Bradon pressed his lips against the side of my neck in a tender and lingering kiss.

...

"What are you thinking about? You’re clearly spacing out," Desmond’s abrupt question sliced through my thoughts like a sharp, merciless knife, snapping me back to reality.

The one I was with wasn’t Bradon but the king of this country. Desmond stared at me with stern eyes from across the table before he picked up his teacup and began sipping on it. All the while, his eyes remained on me as he waited for my response.

"I’m sorry, what were you saying just now?" I asked, not wanting to explain myself.

For some reason, I knew that Desmond wouldn’t be pleased to learn about the development in my relationship with Bradon. Although I promised myself that I would never let anything derail or delay my plan, I needed to admit that stepping on Desmond’s toes would be a grave mistake regardless of the reason.

"Since your attention span seems to be very short these days, I’ll get straight to the point," Desmond said curtly before placing down his teacup.

I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of trick Desmond had up his sleeve. All the strategic things that he got us to do together were clearly leading him towards the right path of achieving what he wanted. However, it seemed like things were not moving as fast as he wanted them to, and after a few weeks of repeating similar routines, I could also feel that our relationship had become stagnant in the eyes of the public. My eyes narrowed slightly as I wondered what he wanted for our next step. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

"Let’s get engaged," Desmond announced decisively.

"What?" I mumbled blankly.

There were many things that I considered as the next step in our relationship, but getting engaged definitely wasn’t one of them.

"We should announce our engagement as soon as possible," Desmond repeated his decision once again.

"But we never agreed... to get engaged," I said while trying my best to keep my voice from shaking and cracking under the pressure.

I knew very well that he wasn’t leaving the decision up to me and that this wasn’t a proposal but an order for us to become engaged. The first thought that entered my mind was that the idea was extremely crazy. The second thought that entered my mind was how extremely angry Bradon was going to be when he found out about this.

"Is there a particular reason why we can’t get engaged?" Desmond asked as if it was such a trivial matter.

"I thought we were supposed to just date one another," I said softly, testing the waters.

"I want to announce our engagement so that everyone will know that we are very serious about this relationship," Desmond explained patiently.

"Are there other ways for us to show them how serious we are?" I asked, trying to avoid this particular outcome.

"What better way is there than for us to get engaged? Or should we just skip to the wedding right away?" Desmond asked, and I wasn’t sure if he was merely teasing me or if he was being absolutely serious.

"You can’t take matters like this lightly, Your Majesty. It’s not going to be easy to annul an engagement, so let’s not even talk about a wedding," I warned him sternly. An engagement that was arranged by two normal families was already extremely difficult to annul, and I happened to know that best. So I could only imagine just how impossible it would be to cancel our engagement if we were to get engaged.

"I can definitely annul our engagement. We can cite the classic irreconcilable differences as the reason for when we dissolve our engagement," Desmond explained.

"I think this is too risky, and things might not proceed as you planned," I voiced my concern.

"Do you not trust me?" Desmond asked me challengingly.

I wasn’t sure if I could completely trust him. All I knew for certain was that the power was definitely in Desmond’s hands. If he truly wanted to annul the engagement, then he probably could find some excuse to do exactly that. Of course, there were going to be people who would be against it, but I was sure that Desmond could find some way to deal with them. Either that or he simply wouldn’t spare them any care. However, this scenario would only play out if that was what Desmond intended to do, and I wasn’t completely sure about Desmond’s intentions. There was always a possibility that he would change his mind, and if that were to happen, I would find myself completely trapped.

"I trust you, but I’m just not sure if we should do this," I replied softly, trying to buy more time for my brain to process what should be my next move.

"You seem to be worried and overthinking things much more than before. Is there a reason for such a change?" Desmond asked as if he was talking to himself as his eyes intently searching my face.

"I’m just trying to minimize the risk to our plans," I tried my best to reply smoothly.

"Is that truly the reason? Or is there something else that you’re not telling me?" Desmond continued pressing me for answers.

–To be continued...