Using Me as a Substitute? Did You Know Your Best Friend Calls Me Wife?

"Let’s go home, let’s go home. I’m tired."

Mia Kane dodged the question, not wanting to discuss the topic.

Adrian Preston looked at her helplessly and had no choice but to drive her back.

On the way, she pretended to be asleep to avoid the awkwardness of being alone with him.

When they got back to the villa, she went straight upstairs and didn’t let him into her bedroom that night.

The next day, she deliberately slept in, missing the time when she would have left with Adrian Preston.

When she came downstairs, she found the maids busily decorating the living room.

"What’s all this for?"

"It’s the master’s birthday in a few days. We’re decorating in secret to give him a surprise."

Mia Kane tapped her head. ’I’ve been so busy I completely forgot about Adrian’s birthday.’

Adrian Preston’s birthday was at the end of the month.

"How does he usually celebrate it?"

"Miss Shannon orders him a cake, personally cooks longevity noodles, and gives him a gift."

"You married my brother, but you don’t care about him at all, do you?"

Shannon Preston’s footsteps sounded from upstairs.

She said with a sneer, "My brother just left. I should call him back and have him hear what you just said."

"Shannon Preston, if it weren’t for your brother, I wouldn’t be putting up with you."

"Hmph. You think I want to put up with you? I just want my brother to be happy. He’d be devastated if he knew you weren’t planning anything. You even forgot something as important as his birthday. Tell you what, you can order the cake. I’ll prepare the dinner and longevity noodles for that day."

"As for the gift, you can figure that out yourself. I’m not going to help you brainstorm."

"You’re being that nice?"

"Hmph, I’m doing it for my brother!"

Shannon Preston left haughtily.

Mia Kane immediately ran to every cake shop in the city and finally picked out a nice one.

But she couldn’t immediately think of what gift to give him.

Adrian Preston didn’t like common things, and with his status, money couldn’t buy him anything meaningful.

Unable to come up with a good idea, she called Old Parrish and Young Zane to ask for their suggestions.

"Why don’t you give him a gun? If it weren’t for family reasons, Adrian would have never left the military."

Young Zane said without a second thought, "But our country’s firearm regulations are strict. Private citizens can’t own them; you need to apply for a permit. Actually, with Adrian’s special status, an application would likely be approved."

"How long does the application take? If he has to apply for it, my gift won’t be a surprise, will it?"

"I can handle the application process without Adrian needing to be involved. But even if I expedite it, the process will take at least a week."

"A week... Adrian Preston’s birthday will have already passed by then."

"If you ask me, just skip it. When Adrian was in our unit, he never celebrated his birthday. Maybe it’s because we were all a bunch of rough guys and never paid much attention. When we were on missions, Adrian was probably too busy to celebrate anyway. Men aren’t that sentimental."

"Help me start the application process for now, and I’ll figure something else out in the meantime. I’ll give him the gun later."

Mia Kane still felt that a gun was the most suitable gift for Adrian Preston.

In reality, with Adrian Preston’s status and connections, he could easily obtain one through his own channels.

But she thought, ’A man as upright and principled as Adrian would never knowingly break the law.’

So, it was best to go through the official application process.

Mia Kane had custom-ordered a suit for him before, so giving another one now wouldn’t be appropriate.

She decided to make a belt and a tie herself, specifically to match that suit.

They might seem like small accessories, but making them with real care was an incredibly time-consuming and exhausting process.

She also knew embroidery. Such a delicate piece couldn’t be machine-embroidered, or it would lack soul. It had to be embroidered by hand, stitch by stitch.

She stayed up for several nights and finally embroidered a landscape of mountains and rivers, interwoven with gold thread, like endless twilight rays falling upon a magnificent land. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Soon, it was Adrian Preston’s birthday.

She was in the living room placing the cake. The belt and tie were in a box next to it.

She looked around. Shannon Preston had said she would decorate elaborately, but now there wasn’t a soul in sight.

The kitchen was empty; no one was cooking. ’Are we supposed to go out to eat?’

Just as she was thinking this, a car horn sounded outside. To her surprise, Shannon Preston and Adrian Preston were together.

Shannon Preston, who was usually lively and chattered nonstop, was now completely silent, standing obediently behind him.

"Adrian, you’re back! Are we going out to eat tonight? Should we bring the cake with us?"

Adrian Preston’s figure stiffened, his eyes fixed on the cake on the table with a dark gaze.

"You prepared this?" he asked coldly.

"What’s wrong?"

Mia Kane instinctively took a step back, a chill running down her spine. His expression was terrifying.

Shannon Preston quickly spoke up, "Brother, she’s new to the family and didn’t know. Please don’t blame her. Sis-in-law, my brother was kidnapped at his birthday party when he was a child and almost died. He hasn’t celebrated his birthday since."

Mia Kane’s face paled when she heard this.

It was clearly Shannon Preston who had told her to prepare for Adrian’s birthday.

She never expected...

No wonder Shannon had been so generous, letting her prepare the cake without any fear of having her credit stolen. She had dug a pit right here, just waiting for her to fall in.

"Mia Kane, don’t do this kind of thing again. I never celebrate my birthday."

It was the first time Adrian Preston had spoken to her in such a cold voice.

"I understand."

"Get this stuff out of here. I don’t want to see it."

After saying that, Adrian Preston turned and left.

"Brother, where are you going...?"

Adrian Preston didn’t say a word and got into the car alone.

"He’s left again. Every year on this day, he stays out all night. I wonder where he goes," Shannon Preston muttered.

Mia Kane handed the cake to a maid. "Take this away. Share it amongst yourselves so it doesn’t go to waste."

The maid said she didn’t dare, afraid that Adrian Preston would blame them for eating the cake.

"Then just throw it away."

Shannon Preston stepped forward and threw the cake on the floor.

The cake tumbled out, smearing cream all over the floor.

That cake... She had run all over Argent, visiting every single cake shop and tasting countless slices before finally choosing that one.

Afraid he wouldn’t like overly sweet flavors, she had specifically ordered a sea salt one, since it was a bit lighter.

But now, all her effort was trampled on the ground by Shannon Preston.

She suppressed her anger and said, "Then you clean it up."

With that, she turned to go upstairs with the gift box, but unexpectedly, Shannon Preston rushed over and snatched the box from her.

Shannon Preston pulled out the tie. "You really spare no effort trying to curry favor with my brother, do you?"

"Give it back."

"I won’t!"

Shannon Preston grabbed a pair of scissors and shredded the tie that Mia had spent several nights embroidering, stitch by painstaking stitch.

The arrogant, triumphant smile on her face made Mia Kane’s eyes sting.

Mia Kane could not take it anymore. She had let Shannon Preston get away with too much for too long.

She strode forward and slapped her hard across the face.

Caught off guard, Shannon Preston’s cheek swelled and turned red. She stumbled backward and fell onto the sofa.

She clutched her face, looking at her in disbelief.

"Mia Kane... you actually dared to hit me?"

"You deliberately set me up, laid a trap for me, and then destroyed all my hard work! Why shouldn’t I hit you!"

"What, did I strike a nerve? What about when you deliberately harmed Vivi?"

"I never went out of my way to harm Vivian Lynch. She was the one who tried to persecute me first."

It was Vivian Lynch who tried to poach an international designer to upstage her, Vivian Lynch who poached all her employees, Vivian Lynch who deliberately suppressed her at the designer conference...

She had only turned the tables on her. Originally, Vivian Lynch could have lost gracefully, but she was too greedy and too vicious, and ended up shooting herself in the foot.

"You harmed Vivi so badly, and you still have the nerve to say that? I’m not a pushover like Vivi is!"

Having been slapped, Shannon Preston couldn’t just swallow her anger. She raised her hand to strike back.

But Mia Kane wasn’t indulging her in the slightest. She raised her hand, grabbed Shannon’s wrist, and slapped her again with her other hand.

Now both of Shannon Preston’s cheeks were symmetrical.