Substitute Woman

Nathan liked to paint Wendy's nude body. Every night, she would take off her clothes and become a work of art under his brush, then making love with him passionately until late into the night.

Until that night, he got drunk and said in front of everyone, "Do you know why I only paint her body, but never her face?"

He let out a light scoff. "Because her body is almost identical to Kyle's, but that face... not even a little resemblance. So what I'm obsessed with is only the body that reminds me of Kyle."

The people around kept jeering, saying, “Nathan, after all these years, you still can’t forget Kyle? Since you don’t like Wendy, how about letting us take a look at her nude painting too? Let us feast our eyes a bit!”

Wendy stood outside the door, biting her lip hard. She was afraid she might start crying and also afraid she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from bursting in to confront him.

Nathan froze for a moment, then pretended to be nonchalant and said, “Didn’t I say her body is almost identical to Kyle’s? Looking at hers is the same as looking at Kyle’s. Who would dare?”

Sensing the shift, the crowd tactfully changed the topic. Nathan’s sharp gaze suddenly turned toward the door, meeting Wendy’s eyes dead on.

He instinctively stood up and personally opened the private room door. He then pulled Wendy inside and gently asked, “Honey, when did you get here? Why didn’t you let me come pick you up?”

The people around instantly fell silent. When they looked at Wendy, their eyes were filled with mockery, amusement and a hint of pity.

Wendy's heart ached with every beat. The man before her had always treated her with the utmost tenderness. How could anyone have guessed that she was merely a stand-in for another woman’s body?

No wonder. No wonder that after they first got together, he had looked at her body with such surprise and ever since then, he insisted on painting her nude every night.

She did her best to calm herself down and forced a faint smile. “I just got here. I was worried you might be drunk, so I came to take you home.”

Nathan’s lips curled into a wicked smile as he buried his head against her neck, his breath warm as he said, “Honey, did you miss me? Let’s go home now. I’ll paint one last nude of you, just one more and then no more after that.”

Wendy felt like her heart was bleeding. She didn’t ask why it would be the last because she already knew that Kyle was coming back soon. He would no longer need a body double to fill the void of his loneliness.

That night, Wendy allowed Nathan to slowly undress her as he prepared to paint her one last time. She thought, ‘Let this final time be my repayment for the kindness he once showed me by taking me in.’

But unexpectedly, a phone call interrupted this last ritual.

——

When Nathan saw the caller ID, his hands trembled as he answered. Kyle’s voice came through clearly. “Nathan, I’m back. I want to see you. Can you come to me now?”

He nodded dazedly, then stumbled out in a panic, not even sparing a glance at the naked woman behind him.

Wrapped in a deep, overwhelming sense of humiliation, Wendy sat there like the half-finished nude portrait: pathetic, pitiful and discarded.

She closed her eyes, then silently dialed the number of the emotional auction house.

“Sir, I’d like to auction off my feelings for Nathan.”

There was a pause of surprise on the other end. “Are you sure? Once the auction is complete, your love for Mr. Chase will be completely erased. Even if he were to die before your eyes, you wouldn’t feel a thing.”

“I’m sure. The sooner, the better.”

Wendy tilted her head back, a single tear slipping silently from the corner of her eye.

The auction house would grant her one wish after the transaction was complete.

And so, she made her choice. She would leave Nathan without a trace of love.