Beyond A Substitute
Chris Muna · Completed · 226.0k Words
Introduction
Realizing too late that Katherine was his true love, Kingsley tries to win her back. But Beth, obsessed and unhinged, takes a dark turn, bending reality to keep him by her side.
As Katherine uncovers the chilling truth, she must decide whether to give him a second chance and fight for their love or walk away forever.
Chapter 1
"Let's divorce," Kingsley said calmly, placing a set of documents on the coffee table in front of her.
Katherine looked up from where she sat on the couch, her expression unreadable at first—until her brows slowly drew together. "What did you just say?"
"I want a divorce," he repeated, his voice low and steady. "I came with the papers. All I need is your signature."
Katherine's lips parted in disbelief. "You're serious?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper. "A divorce?"
Kingsley didn't answer.
Her confusion gave way to a sharp, bitter laugh. "After all this time... You're asking me for a divorce? Me, the woman who's been in the shadows for you. The one no one even knows you married. The woman you made invisible so you could pretend to the world you were single."
He looked down, jaw clenched.
"You kept me hidden, Kingsley," she went on, her voice gaining strength. "And I let you. I told myself it was temporary, that it was for us, for your career, for your image. But now you're here, handing me a divorce like it's some business transaction?"
"I didn't mean to hurt you," he said quietly. "But this... it's the only way."
Katherine shook her head, heart pounding. "Is this about Beth? Of course it is. The whole world saw you kissing her on the red carpet last night. The way you held her, smiled at her like she was your everything."
Kingsley hesitated, then nodded. "I love her."
A silence fell between them.
"I love Beth," he said again. "She's the one I want to spend my life with. The one I can be with openly, without secrets."
"And what was I?" Katherine's voice cracked. "What am I to you, Kingsley?"
He took a breath, his eyes softening for the first time. "You were comfort. Safety. Your eyes... they reminded me of her."
Katherine stared at him like he'd lost his mind. "You married me because I reminded you of Beth?"
He nodded slowly. "I was confused. I told myself I could move on, that I could learn to love you the way I needed to. And for a while, I thought I could."
"And now?" she asked, rising to her feet. "Now you want to marry her instead?"
"She's always been the one," Kingsley saId, you can't understand, we have been together before, our story; it's complicated."
Katherine stared at him, eyes glistening with unshed tears. "So I was a placeholder. A shadow."
"I'll make sure you're taken care of," he said quickly. "You'll never have to worry. I'll give you money, property—whatever you need to be comfortable. Just sign the papers, Katherine. Let's end this quietly."
Katherine walked toward him slowly, eyes locked on his. "You think this is about money?"
"I'm trying to make things easier."
"For you or for me?" she snapped.
He didn't answer.
She stood just inches away from him now. "You humiliated me. You buried our marriage like it was something to be ashamed of. And now you want to walk out and play prince charming to your precious Beth. But I'm not going to make this easy for you."
"I don't want to fight," he said, voice firm but calm.
"No," she said, stepping back. "Of course you don't. You want everything neat and clean. You want your secret wife to disappear so you can parade your new bride in front of the cameras like a saint."
Katherine turned toward the hallway. "Come find me when you're ready to tell the world the truth. Until then... I'll be in the bedroom."
She disappeared down the hall, the soft click of the door her final word.
Moments later, the silence was broken by the soft footsteps of another woman emerging from the corner of the hallway—Beth.
"She's not going to sign it," Beth said quietly, folding her arms.
"She will," Kingsley replied, without hesitation. "She has to."
Beth looked at him, uncertain. "Kingsley, I don't want to come between you and—"
"You're not," he cut in gently. "You're the one I've always loved. She was just... she was a mistake I kept making. But no more."
Beth gave him a small, unsure smile. "You promise?"
"I swear it," he said. "Go home. I'll call you when it's done."
Beth nodded and leaned in, pressing a soft kiss to his lips. "I love you."
"I love you too."
She turned and left.
Kingsley stood still for a long moment, staring down at the divorce papers.
Then, with a long breath, he walked toward the bedroom.
Last Chapters
#128 128
Last Updated: 1/29/2026#127 127
Last Updated: 1/29/2026#126 126
Last Updated: 1/29/2026#125 125
Last Updated: 1/29/2026#124 124
Last Updated: 1/29/2026#123 123
Last Updated: 1/29/2026#122 122
Last Updated: 1/29/2026#121 121
Last Updated: 1/29/2026#120 120
Last Updated: 1/29/2026#119 119
Last Updated: 1/29/2026
You Might Like 😍
Cursed Beauty and her Three Alpha Mates
Cast out by her pack for being wolfless and plagued by uncontrollable heat, Maya has spent her life surviving humiliation in silence.
Fate drags her into the path of Kael Draven, the ruthless Lycan King who claims her… only to reject her.
But Kael is not the only Alpha bound to her.
Finn, her childhood best friend and the rising Alpha, loves her with a devotion so fierce, he spends four years locked away in the most ruthless dungeon only to keep her safe.
Xander, a rogue wolf who can make even Alphas bow to his will, has waited centuries for her to be reborn, and he has no intention of losing her again.
Three Alphas.
Three claims.
One cursed destiny.
They called her wolfless. They thought she was weak. But she is done hiding, and this time, she's rewriting the rules.
Underwater: The Silent Luna
It sounded like fate. Like rescue. Like the moment the universe finally chose her.
Even with the suspicion clinging to the proposal, Meadow let herself believe it. She stepped into the marriage blindly, hoping love would fill the quiet spaces of her mute, colourless life.
But the truth comes fast, and cruel.
The Alpha never asked for her. Never wanted her. Luna Amber arranged everything without his consent, driven by selfish motives Meadow couldn’t see until it was too late. What should have been tender and sacred becomes a cage, and Meadow is trapped in a nightmare she can’t wake from.
The Missing Mafia Princess and her CEO Mafia Don
Let Them Kneel
Cast out by her pack. Forgotten by the Lycans.
She lived among humans—quiet, invisible, tucked away in a town no one looked at twice.
But when her first heat comes without warning, everything changes.
Her body ignites. Her instincts scream. And something primal stirs beneath her skin—
summoning a big, bad Alpha who knows exactly how to quench her fire.
When he claims her, it’s ecstasy and ruin.
For the first time, she believes she’s been accepted.
Seen.
Chosen.
Until he leaves her the next morning—
like a secret never to be spoken.
But Kaelani is not what they thought.
Not wolfless. Not weak.
There is something ancient inside her. Something powerful. And it’s waking.
And when it does—
they’ll all remember the girl they tried to erase.
Especially him.
She’ll be the dream he keeps chasing… the one thing that ever made him feel alive.
Because secrets never stay buried.
And neither do dreams.
Ruined : You will always be mine.
“Fuckkk”, I couldn’t help but scream.
“You need to learn to be obedient” he said as he kept thrusting into me. When I felt his hands on my clit my body shook.
“Asher please, it’s too much”.
“No. if I really wanted to punish you, I would give you all of me”, he said against my ears and my entire body froze. Suddenly he moved and I was standing again. This man was insane.
I felt him behind me. “Ten Lashes for your disobedience”, he said
“Asher please”,
“No”. His voice was cold and void of any emotion.
Asher was what I wanted , what I truly craved until it was too late. An orphan should never fall in love with someone out of their reach. I thought loving him was the right thing to do until he revealed his true identity and Ruined me. I was ruined for everyone one else . I could still feel his touch, it was as if it was etched into my skin. I tired to avoid him but fate wouldn't let it happen.
The Sterling's were the most powerful in Havenwood and Dorian Sterling was off limits.
As an orphan finding out you still have people looking for you is hard to take but when it turns out to be people of wealth and standing I took the other road and ran, but running led me right back to the place I was avoiding and the person I was avoiding.
Asher and Dorling Sterling one and the same. When his first love shows up and along with everyone that has set out to ruin me, I prayed that he could protect me.
Game of Destiny
When Finlay finds her, she is living among humans. He is smitten by the stubborn wolf that refuse to acknowledge his existence. She may not be his mate, but he wants her to be a part of his pack, latent wolf or not.
Amie cant resist the Alpha that comes into her life and drags her back into pack life. Not only does she find herself happier than she has been in a long time, her wolf finally comes to her. Finlay isn't her mate, but he becomes her best friend. Together with the other top wolves in the pack, they work to create the best and strongest pack.
When it's time for the pack games, the event that decides the packs rank for the coming ten year, Amie needs to face her old pack. When she sees the man that rejected her for the first time in ten years, everything she thought she knew is turned around. Amie and Finlay need to adapt to the new reality and find a way forward for their pack. But will the curve ball split them apart?
Death By Breathing
Females are claimed. Controlled. Bred.
Alex swore she would die before becoming any man’s possession.
Fiercely independent and determined to escape the fate forced on women like her, Alex has spent years surviving under the radar. But everything changes when the powerful Vandicoff brothers—three ruthless Alpha rulers—discover she is their true mate.
The moment they claim her, war ignites.
Alex refuses to submit to their bond, their authority, or the dangerous pull between them. She fights every command, every touch, every instinct threatening to drag her under. But the more she resists, the more obsessed the brothers become.
What begins as a battle for control soon sends shockwaves through the entire Alpha world, threatening the Vandicoff empire itself.
Can Alex survive three possessive Alphas without losing herself in the process?
Or will the one thing she craves most—love—become the very thing that destroys her?
The Unwritten Princess
My name is Mia, and everything I touch is dying.
The flowers beneath my mother's window turned black overnight. The herbs I gathered at dawn rotted in my hands. When the court wizard finally told me the truth—that someone cursed me, that my presence would kill everyone I love—I realized the prophecy everyone believed was never meant to save the kingdom. It was meant to destroy me.
So I ran. Not to fulfill some destiny, but to survive it.
Now I'm traveling with a hunter who lost his companions to the same curse I carry, chasing fragments of a prophecy the Fae sing differently. An elf took a baby from the palace the night I was born. And somewhere between the lies I've been told and the truth I'm hunting, I'm starting to suspect: What if I'm not the princess from the prophecy at all?
BRUISED LOVE
The safe dorm.
The boring dorm.
What he got instead was Maverick Hale campus menace, underground street fighter, walking bruise factory, and the last person he ever wanted anywhere near his neat piles of textbooks.
Maverick doesn't care that he's broke.
or in arrears with his fees.
Or one wrong move away from getting kicked out.
He’ll graduate out of sheer spite—he refuses to give his estranged, homophobic father the satisfaction of calling him a failure.
He definitely doesn’t care about the determined, overachieving half-Indian nursing major he’s stuck sharing a room with…
Until Bodhi becomes the only thing keeping him in school.
His tutor.
His healer.
His undoing.
And when Maverick stumbles into their dorm one night with a knife wound and Bodhi stitches him up with shaking hands and a breaking heart…
no longer can that be denied.
Opposites weren’t supposed to collide this way.
But they did.
Hard.
Lightborn: The Demon’s Bond
The Contract Wife: Marriage Of Malice
He didn't finish. He didn't need to.
I didn't tell him to stop.
Instead, my fingers curled into his shirt, clutching the fabric as though it was my only anchor. Something in him snapped—something he had been holding back for too long. His mouth found mine in a kiss that wasn't tender, but hungry, desperate.
I gasped into him, his hand sliding up to cup my jaw, holding me as if afraid I might vanish.
"You drive me insane," he breathed against my mouth, his lips trailing to my throat. "I can't lose you, Ella. Not you."
My head fell back, a soft sound escaping me as his fingers memorized my waist. My anger melted beneath his desperation.
"James..." I whispered, more plea than protest.
His hand caught mine, fingers threading together tightly. "I'll bring him back. I swear it. Just... don't turn away from me. Please."
The word please—low, ragged, almost broken—undid me more than anything else could have.
Ella never imagined she would marry the man she had secretly loved for years in such a way.
When her brother Theo faced twenty-five years in prison for massive embezzlement, the ruthless business tycoon James Lancaster offered her a deal: marry him in exchange for her brother's freedom.
This wasn't a fairy tale proposal, but a carefully orchestrated revenge. Because in James's heart, Ella was the culprit who had killed his sister Cecilia. He wanted her to pay the price—to atone with a lifetime of suffering.
