The Lookalike Bodyguard

Lyra Vance had always kept a place in her heart for her dead first love.

She still wore the red silk cord he had given her years ago.

Secretly, she was always looking for men who shared his face.

On her birthday, she finally found him.

The man looked exactly like her lost love, and his attentive nature won her over instantly.

At the same time, she dropped a bombshellDshe was pregnant.

As I watched her belly grow over the following months, I knew our marriage had reached its expiration date.

1.

Tonight was Lyra's birthday gala.

She arrived with a young man in tow, who dutifully carried her designer handbag.

The crowd erupted in hushed whispers the moment they stepped inside.

"My god, is that Liam Quinn standing next to Lyra?"

"Liam's been dead for years. That guy is just a lookalike. I heard she spent a long time searching for someone who resembled him that closely."

"So she's still hung up on Liam? But she's been married to Caleb Sterling for five years now."

Listening to their gossip, I felt nothing. My heart was a flatline.

"Mr. Sterling, hello. I'm Lyra's new bodyguard, Gavin Rhodes."

"I'll be responsible for her safety from now on."

As he approached, the man who looked so much like Liam Quinn smiled and extended his hand for a shake.

My eyes drifted to his wrist. He was wearing a luxury watch worth over a million dollars.

I had seen the box for that exact watch on Lyra's vanity just yesterday.

At the time, I foolishly thought it was a gift for me.

"Thank you, Caleb, for throwing such a magnificent party for me."

Lyra smoothed her hair and gracefully tucked her arm through mine.

For years, she had been obsessed with Liam, hunting for his ghost in the faces of strangers.

She thought I was oblivious to her little hobby.

Because she believed I didn't know, she felt bold enough to bring her new plaything into the light, confident I wouldn't be angry.

But my heart wasn't just broken anymore; it was pulverized.

My assistant had sent me a photo this morning. It was a shot of her at the clinic for a prenatal check-up.

Gavin had his hand on her shoulder in the photo. Anyone would have mistaken them for the husband and wife.

"Sure. You should go up on stage and say a few words first."

I gently pulled my hand away from her grip.

She nodded, lifting the hem of her gown as she made her way toward the stage.

That left me alone with Gavin.

"Mr. Sterling, I noticed you looking at my watch. Don't get the wrong idea. It was just a signing bonus from Lyra."

Gavin offered an explanation, but his eyes were dancing with smugness and provocation.

As a man, I knew exactly what he was thinking.

He wanted to climb the social ladder and replace me in Lyra's bed.

But as long as I was still the husband, I wasn't going to make it easy for him.

"I'm giving you exactly two hours."

I spoke softly, my voice cold.

He blinked, clearly not catching my drift at first.

"Two hours to get out of Silver Creek. If you don't, I'll make sure you can't survive in this city."

"I belong to Lyra. I'm her person."

His face twisted with defiance.

He was essentially asking me what right I had to kick him out.

I let out a sharp, dry laugh. "Before you, there were a dozen bodyguards just like you standing by her side."

"You can choose to ignore me, but you'll have to live with the consequences."

Lyra and I had been married for five years, and to the outside world, we were the perfect couple. We never argued.

I had wanted to keep this marriage going for as long as possible.

So, I played the part of the oblivious husband while quietly getting rid of the men she brought home.

I saw Lyra stepping down from the stage.

I picked up a gift box and walked over to her.

"Happy birthday."

She gave me a radiant smile.

"Thank you, Caleb. Actually, I have a gift for you, too."

"I'm pregnant."

The room erupted in applause.

But I felt absolutely no joy.

2.

Based on the timeline, the child Lyra was carrying couldn't possibly be mine.

The biological father was almost certainly Gavin Rhodes.

Lyra had spent five years hunting for Liam Quinn's ghost, hiring any man who shared even a passing resemblance to him.

Then she found Gavin, a recent university graduate.

He was the closest thing to a clone of Liam she had ever seen.

He had been by her side for months. It was inevitable that they had crossed the line into intimacy.

Tonight was simply the first time she had the guts to show him off in public.

"Good. I'll hire a specialist to make sure you're taken care of."

Coming back to reality, I took her hand.

"There's no need. I have Gavin. He'll take perfect care of me."

"He's much more attentive than the previous bodyguards."

She beamed with a happiness that didn't include me.

Whenever I secretly chased away her previous lovers, she never asked where they went; she just replaced them.

But she seemed particularly fond of Gavin.

I wondered if she would remain indifferent once I made this one disappear, too.

"Lyra, I prepared a high-end collagen tonic for you this morning."

Gavin walked over, holding a thermal flask.

"You need to maintain your nutrition while you're expecting."

He was indeed very sweet and gentle.

No wonder he had managed to charm Lyra so thoroughly.

It seemed he hadn't taken my earlier warning to heart at all.

Instead of leaving, he was doubling down, flaunting his intimacy with my wife right in front of my face.

"Get out."

I didn't try to hide my anger this time.

I usually took pride in my manners, but he was being such a piece of trash that I saw no reason to be polite.

"Mr. Sterling, did I do something wrong?"

He spoke to me, but his eyes were directed at Lyra, brimming with feigned hurt.

Lyra's expression remained neutral as she looked at him.

"Gavin, go outside. You shouldn't be here in this setting anyway."

Lyra had always been a poised, proper wife who knew how to maintain appearances.

I thought that as long as we didn't tear down the final curtain, I could live out the rest of my life with her.

3.

But the peace didn't last long.

I had assumed Gavin would have the sense to flee Silver Creek.

Instead, he went straight to Lyra to play the victim.

"Did you threaten Gavin to make him leave town?"

The moment I stepped through the front door, Lyra was waiting for me with a cold stare.

In our five years of marriage, even though her heart belonged to a ghost, she had always been affectionate on the surface.

This was the first time she had looked at me with such icy detachment.

"Caleb, I let it slide when you chased off my other bodyguards, but don't even dream of touching this one!"

I hadn't realized she was aware of what I'd been doing behind her back.

That meant she also knew that I was fully aware of her obsession with finding Liam's replacements.

And yet, she hadn't stopped.

"Is it because he looks like Liam Quinn?"

I sat on the sofa, my voice barely a whisper.

It was the first time I had ever spoken his name out loud to her.

Since our wedding day, we had a silent pact never to mention him.

Yet, our home was a shrine to his memory.

The vase on the coffee table was a gift from Liam.

A pair of leather shoes belonging to him sat in the foyer.

Even the red silk cord on her wrist had been hand-woven by him.

"You have no right to say his name!"

Lyra snapped, her eyes turning bloodshot with rage.

"Caleb, I married you, but don't think that gives you the right to interfere in my life."

"I'm telling you right now: Gavin stays. If you try anything, I'll fight you to the end, and I'll get rid of this child!"

Normally, she was the picture of a refined, sophisticated lady. She never lost her cool.

In all our years together, she had never raised her voice at me until today.

I had clearly underestimated how much space Liam still occupied in her soul.

I used to believe that time would heal her and make her love me, but I realized now how wrong I was.

4.

Liam Quinn used to be my best friend.

He came from a distinguished, scholarly family and was the most sought-after bachelor in Silver Creek.

Naturally, that included Lyra, the girl I had grown up with.

The first time I introduced her to Liam, her eyes lit up like stars.

"Hi, I'm Lyra. We must be soulmatesDour names both mean songbirds."

That was how they met.

I thought introducing the girl I loved to my best friend was the right thing to do.

I didn't realize that in that one moment, I was handing over the girl I had adored for ten years.

Lyra fell for Liam at first sight and began a relentless pursuit.

She followed him to his piano practice every day, bringing him home-cooked meals and expensive gifts.

She even posted on her social media: Liam Quinn is the man I'm going to marry.

My heart shattered. The person I loved was in love with my best friend.

It was the most pathetic position a man could be in.

Liam knew how I felt about Lyra, so he tried his best to avoid her.

But during her persistent pursuit, he eventually fell for her too.

They went public shortly after.

That red silk cord was their promise to one another.

Liam felt too guilty to face me, so he vanished from my life.

Lyra deleted me from all her contacts, cutting me out completely to prove her loyalty to him.

It wasn't until Liam was on his deathbed with cancer that Lyra finally called me.

"Liam is fading," she said. "He wants to see you."

I reached the hospital at dusk. The sky was a bruised purple and red.

Liam was pale and skeletal, but he mustered the strength to speak.

"I knew I was dying, so I was selfish just once. I stole the girl you loved most."

"Please... take care of Lyra for me."

"I'm... so sorry."

He died at twenty-five. I'm thirty now. Five years have passed, and I still haven't forgiven him.

5.

Lyra, who used to be home like clockwork, stopped coming back.

When we crossed paths at the office, she treated me like a total stranger. She even took off her wedding ring.

She spent every waking hour with Gavin. My assistant told me they were out dating and traveling.

It was a carbon copy of how she used to date Liam.

I saw her post a photo on social media.

It was a picture of her and Gavin making handmade rings together.

The caption read: Just like the old days.

Looking at it didn't hurt as much as I expected.

After all, I had caught her and Liam in bed together years ago. That pain was a hurricane compared to this.

I tried to convince myself she was just acting out.

But I went to see Gavin anyway.

We met at a cafe. He wore an expensive white designer shirt and a pair of glasses.

Liam always wore glasses and dressed like that. He loved quiet piano practice and calligraphy.

Lyra, who used to be so loud and vibrant, had changed her entire personality to match his.

She believed that to be Liam's woman, she had to be gentle and sophisticated.

"I'll give you five million dollars. Just leave Silver Creek and never see Lyra again."

I pushed a check toward him.

He looked at it with disdain and let out a mocking laugh.

"Five million? You think I'm that cheap, Mr. CEO?"

"I'm not an idiot. As long as I'm with Lyra, I have access to unlimited wealth."

"By the way, just so you know... the baby she's carrying? It's mine."

"Do you even realize you're just a replacement?"

I smirked. Before he could answer, I tipped my coffee all over my own suit.

Then, I mimicked his pathetic, wounded look.

"I'm still Lyra's husband. We aren't divorced yet. Are you really that desperate to mark your territory?"

Lyra happened to walk in right at that moment. She heard everything.

She walked over, her eyes cold as ice, and slapped Gavin hard across the face.

"Who do you think you are?"

"You're nothing but a dog to me."

Gavin clutched his cheek, his face a mask of shock.

"Lyra, it wasn't me..."

"Don't you dare speak to me like that!"

Lyra cut him off.

"He would never have said something so uncouth."

I laughed bitterly in my head.

I didn't do this because I thought she loved me.

I did it because I knew she loved Liam too much to let Gavin ruin the illusion.

Liam was a refined gentleman. He would never splash coffee on someone or get into a petty argument.

Gavin had the face, but a face wasn't enough to keep Lyra satisfied for long.

6.

As I expected, Lyra fired Gavin on the spot.

She had only married me because Liam had entrusted her to me before he died.

Her heart was never mine. She had spent all these years looking for a ghost.

She was a perfectionist; she wanted someone who was Liam's exact double in every way.

She couldn't tolerate someone whose personality deviated too far from the original.

"Caleb, I don't love you. You should know that by now."

Once we were home, Lyra dropped that line with brutal honesty.

But a second later, she softened. "But you've been good to me. I won't leave you. I'm sorry for losing my temper earlier."

"We have a child on the way. Let's just live out our lives properly."

She leaned in on her tiptoes to kiss me, but I turned my head. Her lips only grazed the corner of my mouth.

She looked stunned. Honestly, I was surprised by my own reaction, too.

I had never pulled away from her before. But for some reason, my body was recoiling from her now.

She didn't get angry. She just mentioned she was going to take a shower and walked away.

I stood there, staring at our wedding portrait in the living room.

In the photo, she wasn't smiling. She wasn't even holding my arm. We looked like strangers who happened to be in the same frame.

She never gave me a real smile.

Suddenly, her phone on the coffee table lit up.

She never bothered to hide her phone from me, so I knew the passcode.

I opened it to find a message from Gavin.

Lyra, don't worry. I won't upset you ever again.

The message above it from Lyra read: Stay at the villa and wait for me. Just stay out of Caleb's sight.

My grip tightened on the phone. My entire existence felt like a bad joke.

I thought that as long as I kept other men away, she would eventually grow to love me.

I was dead wrong.

"Are you looking through my phone?"

Lyra had finished her shower and was standing there.

I looked her in the eye and said, syllable by syllable, "Lyra, let's get a divorce."

I had loved her for over a decade. I thought sincerity could move mountains.

But a dead tree doesn't bloom, and a heart of stone doesn't melt.

7.

"You want a divorce?"

Lyra stared at me, her eyes wide with disbelief.

Her shock made sense.

I had been her shadow for over ten years, spoiling her and giving her everything she ever wanted. Even when she was with Liam, I never gave up on her.

"Yes. I want a divorce. We have a lot of business ties, so once I've sorted out the logistics, we'll go to the courthouse."

I thought leaving her would feel like the end of the world. I thought I would be drowning in despair.

But I wasn't. I felt a strange, quiet peace. It felt like I was finally being set free.

"Caleb Sterling."

Lyra's voice was trembling now.

"I'm carrying your child."

"Are you really going to abandon me?"

I looked at her stomach with a flat expression. The thought that she was carrying another man's seed made my skin crawl.

I hadn't felt that way before.

But now, I did. Once the love was gone, everything about her felt repulsive.

I suppose that was how she had felt about me all these years.

"You know exactly whose child that is."

"Until the divorce is finalized, let's not see each other."

I turned to leave, but she grabbed my arm.

"You aren't going anywhere! Tell me, what did I do wrong?"

"I've been a good wife to you all these years. I've never crossed the line."

"Never crossed the line?"

I turned back to look into her eyes.

"You slept with another man. You're pregnant with his child. And you're telling me you didn't cross the line?"

"I didn't! This is your baby!"

She was digging in her heels.

I knew her too well. Unless I had hard evidence in my hand, she would never admit the truth.

I didn't have the energy to argue with her anymore. I was just too tired.

I peeled her fingers off my arm and walked out without another word.

She screamed after me, "Liam told you to take care of me!"

"Stop bringing up his goddamn name!"

My voice was a roar of fury.

It was the first time I had ever yelled at her.

I used to be afraid to even speak harshly to her, but now, it didn't matter.

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