THE SPITEFUL BRIDE: Marry To Rival's Son novel Chapter 137

Chapter 137

Elena’s head pounded as she fumbled with her keys at the front door. Her dress from last night was wrinkled, her makeup smeared, and she could still taste the regret on her lips.

The metallic taste of too much alcohol mixed with the bitter flavor of poor decisions made her stomach churn as she tried to steady her shaking hands.

“Please let everyone still be asleep,” she prayed silently, turning the key to her room as quietly as possible.

The last thing she needed was to face anyone in this state, disheveled, reeking of whiskey and shame, wearing the same dress she’d left in the night before.

But of course, life had other plans.

She had managed to slip inside Stefan’s penthouse quietly, the expansive space eerily silent in the early morning light. The penthouse was massive but right now, it felt like a tomb.

The penthouse had six bedrooms spread across two floors, and hers was at the end of the hallway upstairs.

She was still fumbling with her room key at her door, she held her heels on her other hand. Her hands shaking from the hangover and emotional exhaustion, when she heard footsteps on the hardwood behind her.

*Shit. No, no, no…*

She turned, and there he was. Mose – James – whatever she was supposed to call him now. He was dressed for an early morning run in dark athletic shorts and a fitted gray t-shirt, earbuds dangling around his neck, completely focused on his phone as he checked what looked like a running app.

He must have come out of his room, which was just three doors down from hers.

They nearly collided as he looked up from his phone.

Elena’s heart stopped. Here she was, doing the walk of shame, and the one person she least wanted to see was right there.

His eyes swept over her briefly-taking in her disheveled appearance, her wrinkled red dress that had looked so elegant the night before, the way her hair fell in messy waves around her face, the smudged mascara under her eyes, the way she reeked of alcohol and poor decisions.

For a moment, she thought she saw something flicker in his expression. Concern? Recognition? But it was gone so quickly she might have imagined it.

Then he did something that hurt more than any look of disgust could have.

He stepped around her like he didn’t see her. No acknowledgment. No raised eyebrow. No concern about where she’d been all night. No questions about why she looked like she’d been through hell. Nothing.

He was about to head toward down the stairs when Elena found her voice, desperate for any kind of interaction, even a cold one.

“Mos…” She paused and corrected herself, the name change still feeling like a knife in her chest. “James.”

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He stopped mid-step, and for a moment she thought he wouldn’t look back. But he did, turning with a raised eyebrow, his expression perfectly neutral. Not annoyed, not concerned, not curious.

Just… blank.

“Hmmm. Good morning,” she managed to say, her voice hoarse from the night before.

He nodded curtly, a polite acknowledgment one might give to a neighbor they barely knew. Then turned and walked down the step without another word, leaving her standing there in the hallway with her mouth half open and her heart in pieces all over again.

The old Mose would have demanded to know where she’d been. Would have been furious that she’d stayed out all night without a word. Would have probably followed her to make sure she was safe, even if they’d been fighting.

This Mose couldn’t care less.

Elena finally managed to unlock her door and stumbled inside her room, closing it behind her and leaning against it.

The memories from last night were coming back in painful fragments, like pieces of a broken mirror that cut her each time she tried to put them together.

She pressed her back against the closed bedroom door and squeezed her eyes shut, but she couldn’t escape the

memory.

The dance with Ethan, the way his hands had felt on her waist, warm and gentle and completely different from

Mose’s touch.

Then, She recalled Mose’s word to Stefan, it had shattered something inside her chest.

That’s when she’d turned to Ethan, grabbed his face, and kissed him hard on the dance floor.

She had kissed Ethan!

Mia’s little brother. Her best friend’s baby brother. Someone who’d always been sweet to her, who’d always been completely off-limits.

And she’d used him. Used him to try to hurt someone who didn’t even care enough to be hurt.

She’d been so wasted that she didn’t even recall how she and Ethan had ended up in his apartment. The last clear thing she remembered was dancing with him, then kissing him.

She had wanted revenge on Mose, wanted to make him jealous, wanted to do something-anything- to make him feel even a fraction of the pain she was carrying. But Mose wasn’t at the club with them, she was too drunk to think straight.

*Fuck! Mia is going to kill me.* There was no escaping this. How could she do such a thing? Ethan is Mia’s younger brother, someone Mia was fiercely protective of.

Even if she wanted to get back at Mose and make him jealous, Ethan wasn’t the person she should be using. She and Mia were best friends – had been since college- and she shouldn’t hurt her younger brother like this.

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She had woken up in Ethan’s bed that morning, still wearing her dress but with her shoes carefully placed beside the bed and a glass of water on the nightstand.

Her head had been pounding, her mouth dry as cotton, and for a terrifying moment she hadn’t known where she was. Then she’d seen Ethan asleep on the couch in the living room, a throw blanket pulled up to his chin, his face peaceful in sleep.

Even drunk and hurt and being used, he’d been a gentleman. He’d taken care of her, made sure she was safe, given her his bed while he took the couch. The realization had made her feel even worse.

She had sneaked away the moment she opened her eyes, grabbing her shoes and creeping out of his apartment like a thief. She couldn’t face him.

Couldn’t face the conversation they would need to have. Couldn’t face the kindness in his eyes or the inevitable hurt when she told him it had all been a mistake.

Now, standing in her bedroom with the morning light filtering through the floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the city, the tears finally threatened to fall.

But she didn’t let them. Not yet. She had to pull herself together, had to figure out how to handle this mess she’d created.

The next few days were torture for Elena. She was lacking sleep, tossing and turning each night as guilt and heartbreak settled in her chest.

Dark circles appeared under her eyes, and she found herself drinking too much coffee just to function. She and Mose saw each other every day at work – they couldn’t avoid it since they both worked together – but he ignored her completely.

It was like she’d become invisible to him. He would walk past her desk without a glance, sit through meetings without acknowledging her presence, even when she spoke up with ideas or suggestions.

His relationship with Sienna had become more serious too. They hadn’t officially announced they were together, but they acted like a couple – sharing lunch breaks, whispering together in the hallway, Sienna stopping by the office to pick him up after work.

Each interaction Elena witnessed felt like another small death. This was what she’d lost. This was what she’d never get back.

She was also avoiding Ethan, who was trying his best to talk to her. He would text her, call her, even show up at the office sometimes with coffee and that hopeful look in his eyes.

Every time he approached, she would tell him there was nothing to talk about, that what happened was a mistake, that she would love Mose until her last breath and wait for him until he regained his memory.

The hurt that flashed across Ethan’s face each time almost broke her resolve, but she couldn’t give him false hope. She couldn’t be that cruel twice. He deserved so much better than being someone’s rebound, someone’s weapon of revenge.

“Elena, please,” he’d said just yesterday, cornering her in the parking garage after work. “We need to talk about what happened.”

“Nothing happened,” she’d replied firmly, not meeting his eyes. “I was drunk. I made a mistake. It won’t

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