The Substitute Bride: Idiot Or Not?

"Go now!" Xavier shouted, visibly shocked by the unexpected turn of events.

However, he quickly recollected himself and started backing away, still using his body to shield Winnie. "Don't worry about me. Just jump into the water!"

Winnie glanced at the bleeding wound on his abdomen and frowned.

"It's useless to jump off now. We've already sailed into the high seas, and it'd be impossible to swim back to shore. Our only option now is to take these brutes down and seize control of the boat! Besides, you need to stop your bleeding. If you jump down now, you'll die."

Even if neither of us was hurt, jumping into the cold waters now will eventually kill us both!

"We won't be able to overpower them," Xavier muttered as his eyes fell on the deck below. "There are more coming."

Sure enough, Winnie followed his gaze and saw another group of men heading toward them. "D*mn it! We've been too careless!"

"Listen to me and jump!" Xavier insisted as he turned to look at her. "Otherwise, it'd be too late once they've surrounded us!"

At that moment, Winnie did trust the man in front of her.

She believed that no matter the circumstances, he'd always find a way to get them out safe and sound.

For example, when they previously went to rescue Yulissa, Xavier whipped out two fake bombs he had prepared and scared the living daylights out of the kidnappers.

Alas, with the latter getting stabbed this time round, things weren't looking as rosy as before.

Before she jumped, Winnie shot a last glance at Xavier. "My family heirloom is still with you, and I intend to get it back. You're not going to die here, are you?"

"Of course not!" Xavier replied as he suddenly put something around Winnie's wrist and gave her a shove.

In that split second, Winnie seemed to see Hugo stab Xavier again, and she could almost taste the blood in the air.Exclusive content © by Nô(v)el/Dr/ama.Org.

The next thing she knew, she had hit the water with a loud splash.

For a moment, she was utterly disoriented and could only feel herself sinking into the murky depths of the sea.

Thankfully, it didn't take long before she regained her senses and swam to the surface.

When she finally popped her head out of the water, she realized the yacht was already more than ten meters away from her.

Even though Winnie couldn't see anything clearly due to the poor visibility at sea, she still heard three consecutive sounds of heavy objects plunging into the sea.

Oh, sh*t. That must be Xavier and his men getting thrown off the boat!

Without further ado, Winnie dived back into the sea and swam toward the source of the sound.

With the help of the pale moonlight, she saw a dark figure in front of her sinking rapidly, much to her horror.

My goodness! Xavier's sinking so much faster than I did! I'm sure those brutes must have tied weights to him. How cruel of them!

Winnie mustered up all her strength to swim toward the yacht, and it was almost a full minute later when she finally caught hold of Xavier.

As expected, Xavier had metal weights around him, and Winnie had to drag him to the surface while untying his ropes.

Needless to say, it was a monumental task. The latter hadn't even managed to untie the ropes when the two of them started sinking again.

Fortunately, Winnie had hidden a small blade in her boots which she quickly used to cut the ropes.

Now that the weights were off, they finally stopped sinking, but another problem soon arose.

Xavier seemed to have keeled over due to excessive blood loss, and since he couldn't hold his breath in the water, it wouldn't be long before he drowned. No, I can't let him die now! Otherwise, all my efforts to save him would go to waste!

With that, Winnie cupped Xavier's face and exhaled her breath into his mouth.

While doing so, she continued to kick her legs in an attempt to propel them upward.

Suddenly, Xavier's eyes shot open, which could only mean he had regained consciousness.

Shortly after, Winnie felt him grabbing her wrist and pressing down on a button.

The next second, her arm went momentarily numb as an airbag popped out from the strap around her wrist and pulled her toward the surface.

Ah! So that's what Xavier put on my wrist before I jumped! It's an emergency airbag! What about him, though? He should also have one, shouldn't he?

Winnie instinctively turned around, and when she saw another airbag surfacing rapidly, she heaved a sigh of relief.

Thank goodness things turned out the way I had hoped! This man always has a backup plan!

A few minutes later, Winnie and Xavier safely surfaced one after another.

Not too far away, two other people soon popped their heads out of the water, and Winnie guessed they must be Xavier's bodyguard and driver. All in all, she was just glad everyone was safe.

The moon had gradually disappeared behind the clouds, leaving them in a sea of darkness. The yacht was also long gone, and without any sources of light nearby, neither Winnie nor Xavier could see each other clearly.

"How are you feeling? Is your wound okay?" Winnie asked anxiously.

"It's not good."

"Then let me bandage it for you. We can't leave it exposed to seawater," Winnie replied as she removed her jacket and took off her cotton tank top. Where's your injury? Is on the abdomen or somewhere else?"

Since the airbag had freed up Winnie's hands, it'd be easy for her to tend to Xavier's injuries once she could pinpoint the location of the wounds.

Alas, it was difficult to see in the dark, and being in the water made the task all the more challenging.

Before Winnie knew it, she had accidentally touched the man somewhere inappropriate.

Just as she was about to apologize for it, Xavier slapped her hand away.

"Don't touch me."

Winnie did feel sorry about the accidental touch, but after seeing Xavier's rude reaction, a fresh swell of rage rose in her.

"What the hell is wrong with you?

You refused to let me touch you when I worked at your house as a caretaker. Now that your life is at stake is it wrong for me to want to bandage your wounds? Do you think I want to touch you that badly?"

Although she couldn't see anything in the dark, Winnie could still feel the icy glare from Xavier.

The latter suddenly snatched the tank top from her and wrapped it around his wounds himself. "No other woman, except my wife, is allowed to touch my body."

Winnie stared incredulously in the man's direction and decided to pop the question that had bothered her for a while.

"I honestly have no idea what you're thinking. Your wife's missing a few screws, isn't she? You despised her and ever wanted to abandon her but you're now risking your life to look for her because of some false information. Don't you think that sounds ridiculous and ironic?"

"Maybe," Xavier mumbled. "But you won't understand it."

Even I only realized it after I had lost her.

The moment he finished speaking, they saw his driver swimming toward them.

"Are you all right, Mr. Fairchild? A fishing boat seems to be coming our way, and the bodyguard's gone to get help."