Substitute Wife for the Mafia King R18-Chapter 95: The Queen of Hearts

The manager was serious about the debt that I owed and whether I liked it or not, I had to acknowledge that the casino does have rules. I didn’t even want to imagine what would happen to those who couldn’t manage to pay for their losses.

“This is so unfair. You probably have years of experience with this while I have absolutely none. How do you expect me to win?” I protested at once.

“It’s really a simple game,” he replied casually.

“What kind of game is it?” I asked.

“A simple one. Come with me for a bit and I’ll explain it to you,” he said as he headed for the door.

Sean was nowhere to be seen by the time that we were out in front of the room. It seemed like I wasn’t walking fast enough for Bradon’s liking because he ended up holding my wrist so that he could pull me along. Now that I thought about it, Bradon has been holding my wrist like this for almost the entire day. He only let me go just enough for when I had to use my arms to engage in the games.

“Oh...” I made a small sound when I realized that he had brought me to a card table.

A familiar face was there to greet me as well. Jake smiled brightly at me as he stood behind the large card table. I guessed we needed a proper table for the game of cards that we were about to play.

“So, what do you want to play?” I asked as I grew impatient.

“A very simple game. The dealer will spread a deck of cards on the table and we both pick one card. Whoever has the highest card wins. Simple, right?” he said before grinning my way.

Although I hated to admit it, it sounded simple enough. All I had to do was pick a card and that was it. The game didn’t seem to involve any skills at all, but it seemed to involve quite a lot of luck. If that was the case, then the real question was whether or not I had better luck than Bradon.

Do I really have better luck than the Mafia King?

Then again, what other choice did I have?

“What kind of wish are you going to make if you win?” I asked as I stared up into his face.

“Why are you asking? Are you already convinced that you’re about to lose?” he replied before chuckling softly.

“Answer me. What kind of wish are you planning to make?” I repeated my question one more time.

“One that you’ll be happy to comply with. Shall we start the game?” he said invitingly.

The request that I had for him that I wouldn’t tell him and the wish that he wanted to make that he wouldn’t tell me. It felt like he was trying to get even with me. Either that, or we were similar in ways that I didn’t quite understand.

“Fine. Let’s do it,” I said with renewed determination.

If it was just picking a card out from the deck, I might have a chance to beat Bradon. Jake seemed to already understand the game that Bradon had in mind. I watched as he opened a brand-new pack of cards and began shuffling it. His hand moved faster and faster until I thought that I might get a little dizzy from watching their movements. Suddenly, his hands came to a stop, and he swiftly handed the dec of shuffled cards to me.

“Split the stack into two and hand it to me. You can choose to split it however you want,” he instructed with a polite smile.

“Ok...” I murmured.

I could tell that that was Jake’s way of making me trust that the process of shuffling the cards was fair. Although I could feel Bradon’s eyes on me, he did not have a chance to touch the cards. In one swift and smooth movement, Jake laid out the entire deck of cards onto the table in the shape of a semi-circle. I immediately thought that he resembled a very experienced fortune teller at that moment.

“Ladies first,” Bradon said to me as he gestured with his hand toward the cards laid out on the table.

Even though the game was supposed to be an easy and simple one, when the time came for me to pick a card, I found myself hesitating. My eyes scanned the back of the cards carefully as I wondered how I could tell which one would be the highest card. I pursed my lips into a thin line as tension started building inside of me. I told myself that it was fine even if I didn’t pick the highest card from the pile as long as my card was decently high enough.

“I’ll go with this one,” I announced as I firmly slid the card I had chosen out of the pile.

“Flip it over,” Bradon instructed.

I gulped before praying that the card would be a high one before I slowly flipped it over to reveal the front of the card.

“The Queen of Hearts,” Jake announced while sounding quite pleased.

The Queen of Hearts wasn’t the highest ranking queen, and it was lower than the kings and the aces; however, it is still considered a relatively high ranking card. Perhaps my luck had improved somewhat from what it had been doing before. It would have been too much for me to ask to pick up the Ace of Spades which was the highest card. I felt slightly better after seeing the card that I had picked because it felt like I did stand a chance at winning this game after all.

“My turn,” Bradon said as he approached the table.

I almost didn’t want to watch as Bradon looked down at the cards spread out on the table. I told myself repeatedly that this was a game based purely on luck and that I had a fair chance of winning. Bradon smiled a little my way before he reached out his hand and slid a card out from the semi-circle formation.

--To be continued...