The Substitute Bride: Idiot Or Not?

"Mommy, why did you bring me here? Are we taking a shower?"

Winnie sneered silently behind Yara when she noticed the woman locking the bathroom door.

In truth, she had overheard Yara's plan.

As Yara did not want the Fairchild family to know that they had sent their retarded daughter to marry Xavier, she planned to injure Winnie on her wedding night and conspire with the hospital to claim that she had gotten into an accident that damaged her brain.

"Be good, Winnie. You've done so much today, and you must be really tired. Come, let me wash your face for you. Lower your head."

"Okay!" Winnie looked at Yara with her innocent big eyes and lowered her head with a smile on her face.

When the opportunity seemed right, Yara extended her hand, intending to slam Winnie's head against the basin.

The basin in the bathroom was made of marble and was extremely hard. As such, it would be easy for one to suffer serious head injuries with just one knock against it.

However, before Yara could execute her plan, Winnie turned around suddenly and let out a loud shriek.

"Ahh! Mommy! There's a cockroach! I'm scared! Mommy, protect me!" Winnie exclaimed as she hugged Yara's waist and knocked her against the wall.

As Winnie had executed that move with all her strength, the back of Yara's head was injured and blood could be seen trickling from the wound.

"Ouch! That hurts! Let go of me, you dumbass!"

However, not only did Winnie not let Yara go, she continued to bump Yara against the wall.

"The cockroach is on the wall! Crush it! Mommy, crush it! Mommy's the best!" Winnie cried out, carrying on with her pretense.

Although Yara was boiling with anger, she could neither scold nor hit Winnie. Not only that, she even had to pacify her.

"Don't be scared, Winnie. Mommy has already crushed the cockroach, but both of us are injured now. So let's go to the hospital," Yara said, suppressing her urge to strangle Winnie before smearing some of her own blood on Winnie's forehead.

Being cooperative, Winnie started wailing. "I'm bleeding! I'm injured! Mommy, please bring me to the hospital!"

"Sure, Mommy will take you to the hospital right away."

That was exactly the outcome Yara was hoping for. However, she did not expect that she would be the one getting injured instead.

Winnie could not help but feel amused by what had happened. That was a prime example of going for wool and coming home shorn.

Yara took Winnie to the hospital that she had arranged for prior.

Meanwhile, the Fairchild family had sent their housekeeper, Mary, to the hospital to understand the situation. None of the elders from the family was there.

The doctor announced his diagnosis in the presence of both Mary and Yara. He had come to the conclusion that as Winnie's brain was more fragile than usual, there was a high chance that she might suffer from mental retardation due to her injury.

Mary froze in shock upon hearing the doctor's words. When she headed to Winnie's ward after that, what she saw confirmed the doctor's diagnosis. Winnie was sitting on her bed and playing with children's toys.

"Big sissy," Winnie greeted Mary sweetly when Mary entered the ward.

"Big sissy, do you want to sit in this car? Both of us can fit into it."Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

Mary was utterly speechless and rang Rufus Fairchild, Xavier's grandfather, immediately to update him on the situation.

As Xavier's father was overseas during that period of time, Rufus was the one handling all matters related to Xavier's marriage.

Due to his son being in a vegetative state, Xavier's father had initially wanted to break off the engagement as he did not feel that it would be fair to the bride.

However, Rufus was a superstitious old man who firmly believed that his grandson would be able to ward off bad luck by getting married. Besides, a tarot reader had told him that Hamish's eldest daughter was Xavier's lucky charm.

As such, even though Rufus went to the hospital the next day and personally confirmed that Winnie had become mentally retarded, he still ended up taking her home.

Rufus had dominated the business arena in his younger days and was definitely not a benevolent elderly.

However, he could not help but feel his heart soften when he was with Winnie, who only had the mental ability of a child.

Winnie was an ethereal beauty with exquisite features that looked extremely alluring even without makeup.

Rufus loved the way she called him "Grandpa Rufus." As such, when the woman pointed to a toy shop and requested to go inside and buy toys, he agreed immediately.

After entering the toy shop, Winnie looked around for a long time before deciding on a Peppa Pig suitcase and a watch.

She gave it some thought before stuffing the suitcase with other toys. After all, she needed some props to make her pretense seem real.

When they arrived back at Xavier's mansion, Winnie coaxed Rufus into giving her a playroom just to store her toys.

After dinner, Winnie went into her playroom straight away and started playing with her toys.

Rufus stayed with her for a while before leaving. A few minutes later, Winnie closed the door after making sure that no one would enter the room.

She opened the flap of her watch, revealing a sophisticated electronic display screen that allowed her to make calls after verifying her thumbprint.

"Hey, Gator! You're finally online. I've been waiting since forever. I have no idea what to do with the few billion worth of assets that I'm holding on to, and I'm waiting for your instructions." Nathaniel, who was on the other end of the line, started ranting the moment the call went through.

"Gator" was Winnie's code name, which was known to everyone in the financial investment industry in the western part of the world.

However, apart from her code name, no one knew anything else about Winnie. That was because she had never divulged any of her personal information to any of her business partners, including her real name and gender.

Winnie was rather amused when she heard Nathaniel airing his grievances. "Oh please..."

However, she quickly ended the call before she finished her sentence.

She realized that her voice modulator was not working, and she had spoken using her real voice earlier on.

A moment later, her communication device rang again. It was Nathaniel, but Winnie did not pick up.

Instead, she opened one of the compartments in the Peppa Pig suitcase and took out a laptop.

The moment she appeared online after logging into her account, she was bombarded with voice messages from Nathaniel.

"OMG! Gator! You're a woman?"

"That's totally mind-blowing! Your voice sounds so young. I'm guessing that you're at most twenty-five?"

"OMG! I heard that you're currently in Chanaea. I'm also planning to return to Chanaea. Can we meet up?"

Winnie frowned as she typed her reply: If you insist on invading my privacy, I wouldn't mind terminating our collaboration. I'm only going to say this once, so you'd better consider it carefully.

"No! No! No! Gator, I completely understand. I swear that I'll never try to find out anything regarding your private matters. Let's start analyzing the situation."

One hour later, Mary went to the playroom and brought Winnie to Xavier's room.

Rufus was initially worried that the daughter of the Garland family would not be willing to share a bed with a man who was in a vegetative state.

However, the bride had ended up becoming mentally disabled and just one candy was enough to coax her into sleeping next to Xavier.

In the middle of the night, Winnie noticed that there was someone standing next to the bed, and she turned on the lights instinctively.

She saw that the person was none other than Xavier. What's going on? Isn't he supposed to be in a coma?

When she realized that Xavier was scrutinizing her, Winnie snapped out of her shock and regained her composure at once.

Putting on a confused and innocent expression on her face, she said, "Handsome, did you wake up to use the bathroom? I'd like to go relieve myself too. Carry me, Handsome." After Winnie finished speaking, she sat up on the bed and opened her arms wide.

Xavier scoffed coldly and asked, "Are you really retarded?"