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The Don's Faceless Bride
Novelix
Completed
Born face-blind, Ava endures years of teasing from her fiancé Marco and best friend Isabella. On her wedding day, they secretly swap the groom so Isabella can experience being a bride—while Ava is tricked into marrying a stranger. Discovering the betrayal, Ava takes control: she legally marries the substitute groom, Luca, who is unexpectedly kind and attentive. As her family and Marco watch in shock, Ava walks away from their toxic love and embraces a new life with Luca, who dyes his hair bright blue just so she can always find him.
Chapters (3)
第1章
I was born face-blind. I can never remember the faces of the people around me.
My best friend Isabella and my fiancé Marco both loved to joke about it.
At family gatherings, Marco would have other men wear the same suit as him and make me guess which one was him.
When we went shopping, the two of them would suddenly duck into a crowd and swap jackets with strangers, then make me find them again.
Every time, I'd stand there helpless, crying on the spot, begging them to stop teasing me.
Until the wedding day. Marco arranged for six fake grooms, all dressed in the same tuxedo as him, and made me pick the real one from among them.
This time, I didn't cry.
Instead, I just placed my hand on one of the men's hands.
After all, they all looked the same to me.
Choosing Marco or someone else—it didn't actually make a difference.
I walked in a circle around the six grooms, then returned to where I'd started and placed my hand in the palm of the man closest to me.
Isabella, standing beside me in her bridesmaid dress, let out a very quiet sigh of relief.
As if she was glad their plan had already succeeded halfway.
The night before the wedding, I'd woken up in the middle of the night to get some water and overheard my father, along with the two of them, having a family meeting in the study.
It wasn't about preparing a surprise for me at the wedding. It was about using my wedding to fulfill the wedding dream of their adopted daughter—who didn't want to marry or have children.
My mother, always the one in charge at home, made the first suggestion.
"Anyway, Ava can't recognize faces."
"We can find a groom who has a similar build to Marco and have him go through the motions in Marco's place."
My father helped fill in the details.
"Ava's suspicious by nature. If we suggest she pick the groom herself, we can seamlessly swap him in."
"And if she picks wrong, we can just say she couldn't recognize her own fiancé."
Marco made the final call. "We'll run both weddings simultaneously. After it's over, I'll use the excuse of going to the restroom, then switch back and go register with Ava."
"As long as the best man doesn't speak, Ava won't be able to tell."
Isabella had no objections, but she did ask one question.
"What if she picks the right one?"
Marco took that to heart.
To avoid any risk, he had me pick the real groom from six groomsmen—but he himself wasn't even among those six.
And now Isabella was standing there lying through her teeth.
"What a lucky day."
"Ava's luck is off the charts—she found Marco on the first try!"
I smiled and reached out to touch the hand I was holding.
His palm was broader than Marco's, and his skin rougher.
I might be face-blind, but I wasn't stupid.
But I didn't expose their clumsy lie. Instead, I smiled and squeezed the fake groom's palm.
"What are you standing there for? Hurry up and carry me downstairs."
He froze, then quickly crouched down in front of me.
I wrapped my arms around his neck, clinging to his broad back, and waved goodbye to Isabella.
"We're heading down first. You can follow behind."
When Marco came back from the restroom, all he saw was my back as someone else carried me away.
He instinctively reached out, about to pull me off that man's back, but Isabella grabbed his shoulder firmly.
"Don't forget what we planned last night."
Marco pulled his hand back, his voice very low.
"But the plan didn't say the chosen groom had to carry Ava downstairs!"
Isabella released his hand, her face pale and expression strained.
"Then go after her and stop her right now."
"Tell her yourself how despicable your adopted daughter is."
"How I not only stole her groom to satisfy my own selfish desires, but also made her go through a wedding with another man."
Marco sighed helplessly and reached up to wipe her tears.
"That's not what I meant."
My mother quickly stepped in to mediate.
"Alright, alright. Such a small thing, and you two are already fighting over it."
My father chuckled and patted Marco on the shoulder.
"Your mother and I treat Isabella like our own daughter."
"She's the bride today—you can't make her cry."
"We still have time to get to Isabella's wedding venue."
第2章
Even though I'd already cried my eyes out last night, my eyes still stung now.
My parents loved Isabella—I'd always known that.
She had a way with words. She'd wave and greet them from across the street, pouring out sweet talk like it cost her nothing, and she always had them beaming with joy.
Not like me, who sometimes couldn't even recognize my own parents and would walk right past them like strangers because of my face blindness.
They'd gotten mad at me more than once because of it, accusing me of not being able to remember their faces after all these years of living together.
But I never imagined that on something as important as my wedding, my parents would agree to swap grooms—letting a stranger marry me in Marco's place—just for Isabella.
A tear fell onto the fake groom's neck. His back stiffened, and he tried his best to imitate Marco's voice, whispering to me.
"Why are you crying? Is my back too bony? Am I hurting you?"
"Should I put you down now? I can hold your hand and walk with you instead."
I shook my head and tightened my arms around his neck.
"Today's a happy day. I'm just glad."
Glad that I could see my fiancé's true colors before the wedding. Glad to know that my parents didn't really love me that much.
He carefully helped me into the car. He was probably afraid I'd figure out he wasn't Marco, so he barely spoke to me the whole way.
But when he noticed me hugging my arms, he quietly reached over and turned up the AC.
Until halfway there, our wedding convoy was forced to a stop.
I'd just lowered the visor mirror to touch up my makeup when the sudden brake made me lurch forward.
He reacted quickly, instantly putting his hand in front of my forehead.
"Did you hit yourself?"
I shook my head. He explained.
"There's another wedding convoy coming the opposite way. The road's too narrow here, so we're blocked."
Wedding cars aren't supposed to turn back, so neither convoy would yield, and we were stuck.
I opened my eyes—and my pupils shrank when I saw the familiar license plate in front of us.
Half a month before the wedding, Marco had bought a new car, saying he wanted it to be our lead car on the big day.
The plate read L5201—a lucky number.
I hadn't thought much of it at the time. I even praised him for getting such a lucky plate.
Only now did it dawn on me: New York plates start with NY.
Together, it was NY·L5201.
The letters on the plate were Isabella's initials.
And the lucky number? Marco was openly declaring his love for her, right under my nose.
So the car facing us was carrying Isabella and Marco.
But Marco had told me the plates weren't ready yet, so we couldn't use that car as the lead.
My phone buzzed. A message from Isabella popped up.
"Ava, looks like there's traffic."
"Can you ask Marco to back up a little?"
"If we keep delaying, we'll miss the ceremony time."
Meanwhile, the "Marco" sitting next to me was frowning at the road ahead.
"I'll get out and see if I can squeeze through."
He reached for his seatbelt, but I stopped him, pointing at another road.
"Turn in here."
He frowned slightly and refused.
"This road is bumpy and uneven. It's bad luck for the wedding car to go this way."
"Bad luck?"
I dropped my smile and shot back.
"What could be more unlucky than swapping grooms on your wedding day?"
第3章
He froze, turning back to stare at me in utter shock.
"When did you find out?"
"The moment I took your hand."
"I also know you're not the best man Marco originally hired."
He kept denying it, stubborn as a mule.
"Yes I am!"
"Don't bother lying to me."
"I've met most of Marco's friends. None of them wear the kind of cologne you have on."
"And most importantly, Marco's people wouldn't have agreed to carry me downstairs."
"Nor would they have spoken to me first."
He never expected to be exposed by such small details. Finally, he admitted it.
"My name is Luca. I'm not one of Marco's guys."
After saying that, he glanced at me, barely hiding the anticipation on his face.
I frowned and searched my memory for the name. Nothing.
His eyes dropped in disappointment, his hands tightening on the steering wheel.
"We used to play together as kids. You don't remember me anymore."
When I was little, I was the neighborhood ringleader, handing out candy from my jar to everyone.
Too many kids played with me. And besides, I can't remember faces.
"Honestly, I just wanted to come see you in your wedding dress."
"Then some guy shoved a boutonniere into my hand and said I was filling in for him."
"Just to look? You didn't want to be the real groom today?"
He let out an "ah," but I pointed straight at the side road and directed him.
"Trust me. Go this way."
Our car turned into that narrow lane. None of the cars behind followed.
One of the groomsmen got out and knocked on Marco's window.
"Marco, should we follow your wedding car?"
Marco frowned. Before he could refuse, Isabella rolled down the window from the back seat and smiled.
"Sure. I was just thinking earlier that we didn't have enough wedding cars to make a grand entrance."
Marco glanced in the direction we'd gone.
"But then Ava won't have any cars at all."
"We can say the cars got stuck in traffic. As long as we all meet up at the hotel lobby, it's fine."
Isabella looked at him and poked his back with one finger.
"You promised me today—you said I could experience being a bride."
"You're not backing out, are you?"
Marco suppressed a faint unease and spoke calmly.
"I'm not backing out."
On the other side, I had Luca stop at City Hall.
"Did you bring your ID?"
He blinked, caught off guard, but quickly pulled his ID from his wallet.
Taking this side road to City Hall was something I'd discovered half a month ago while mapping out the wedding route.
Back then, I'd thought: on the way to pick me up, we could swing by and get the license. So I'd been keeping my documents in my pocket all along.
"So—are you willing to marry me and be the real groom at today's wedding?"
"Wait. Let me make a call first."
Luca didn't answer right away. Instead, he pulled out his phone.
"Hey, Mom. I'm getting married in an hour."
"You and Dad need to get to the Hilton, third floor, Diamond Hall, right now. Have them change today's groom's name to mine."
"Especially the welcome sign at the door—take it down!"
"I'll bring the bride over soon."
Only after hanging up did he flash me a smile.
"Now we're good."
Walking out of City Hall with our marriage license in hand, my rage-fueled brain finally cooled a little—but Luca immediately reached over and snatched the license from me.
"Your wedding dress doesn't have pockets. Let me hold onto it for you."
My phone rang. The caller ID said "Mom."
I answered. Her anxious voice came through immediately.
"Ava, the wedding's about to start—where are you?"
I lied without changing my expression.
"We got a flat tire on the way. It's fixed now. We'll be there soon."
My mother sighed in relief.
"Good. Hurry up and get here."
She has a habit of never hanging up first—she always waits for the other person to end the call.
Thinking I'd already hung up, she turned to Marco and said,
"Ava's fine. Just a flat tire."
"Go ahead and start your wedding first. Don't worry about her."
"We've already arranged the stand-ins for her ceremony. Nothing will go wrong."
