THE SPITEFUL BRIDE: Marry To Rival's Son novel Chapter 138

Chapter 138

Elena’s hands shook as she walked toward the garden where James had asked to meet her. James. Not Mose. She had to keep reminding herself of that.

The evening air was crisp against her skin, and she pulled her cardigan tighter around herself. Her heart was racing so fast she was afraid he would hear it when she got close to him.

He stood by the old oak tree, the one where she’d seen him and Sienna kissing the other day. She buried the thought immediately.

When she reached him, he didn’t turn around immediately. His shoulders were tense, hands shoved deep in his pockets.

“James?” Her voice came out smaller than she’d intended.

He turned, and the expression on his face made her stomach drop. This wasn’t the look of someone who was remembering love. This was something else entirely.

“Elena.” He said her name like it tasted bitter. “We need to talk.”

She nodded, trying to keep the hope alive even as it started to wither in her chest.

That was why they were standing opposite each other, to talk. That’s the only reason he would have allowed her this close, even though they weren’t standing close. But this is how close to him she’d been since he got back.

“I’ve been thinking about what Stefan told me. About us. About our… past.” He ran a hand through his hair, a gesture so familiar it made her heart ache. Some things never changed, even when everything else did.

“Yes?” she whispered.

“I need you to understand something.” His voice was firm but not cruel. “I’ve been watching you these past few days. The way you look at me, the way you wait for something that’s never going to come.”

The hope in her chest turned to dust.

“What I feel for Sienna…” he continued, and each word was a knife. “It’s real. It’s powerful. It’s nothing like what I’m supposed to have felt for you.”

*Supposed to have felt.* As if their love had been just a story someone told him. As if those moments meant nothing.

“But you loved me,” she managed to say. “We were going to be married. You said I was your everything.”

“That wasn’t me.” His words were quiet but final. “That was someone else who might have my blood, but that’s the only thing we have in common, the blood and nothing else.

I no longer have his face, his voice or his name, so I can’t have his woman. I can’t live his life, Elena. I can’t pretend to feel things I don’t feel.”

The tears she’d been holding back for days finally spilled over. “So that’s it? You’re choosing her?”

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138 IM SAYING YOU NEED TO LET GO

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“I’m choosing myself.” He stepped closer, and for a moment she thought he might reach for her. Instead, he kept his hands at his sides. “I’m choosing to be honest about who I am now instead of trying to be someone I’m

not,”

“Who you are now,” she repeated, tasting the bitterness. “And who you are now can’t stand me.”

He was quiet for a long moment. When he spoke again, his voice was gentler. “I don’t hate you, Elena. But I don’t love you either. I can’t force that feeling, and it’s not fair to either of us to pretend otherwise.”

*Not fair.* She wanted to laugh. Nothing about this was fair. Nothing about losing the love of her life to all these and watching him fall for someone else was fair.

This was all Samuel’s fault, he took the love of her life from her. This is all his fault.

“I see the way you look at me,” he continued. “Like you’re waiting for me to wake up from some dream and remember. But this isn’t a dream, Elena. This is who I am now.”

“So what are you saying?” The words scraped her throat raw.

“I’m saying you need to let go.” His voice broke slightly on the last word, and she wondered if somewhere deep down, some part of him did remember what it felt like to love her. “For your own sake. You’re destroying yourself waiting for someone who doesn’t exist anymore.”‘

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She stared at him, this stranger who she thought was her soulmate, and realized he was right. She had been destroying herself. Every day, every stolen glance, every moment.of false hope had been eating her alive.

“I loved you so much,” she whispered. “I still do.”

“I know.” And for the first time since he’d woken up, he looked at her with something that might be kindness.” But loving someone who can’t love you back will kill you slowly. I won’t be responsible for that.”

The finality in his voice broke something inside her. Not her heart – that had been broken for months. Something deeper. The last thread of denial she’d been clinging to.

“So this is goodbye,” she said. It wasn’t a question.

“This is goodbye to what we never really had,” he corrected gently. “Maybe… maybe it can be hello to something else. Not love, but peace. For both of us.”

She nodded because she couldn’t speak anymore. He was right, and she hated him for it. She hated that he could stand there so calmly and dismantle the last of her hopes. She hated that he made sense.

“I’ll try,” she finally managed. “To let go.”

“Good.” He paused, then added, “You deserve someone who chooses you, Elena. Someone who doesn’t have to remember how to love you because they never stopped.”

As he walked away, she sank down onto the bench beneath the tree. The tears came freely now, not just for what she’d lost, but for what she was finally ready to surrender.

She had told him she’d try to let go, but she knew it was all a lie. She couldn’t let go, she could never let go. That was how much she loves him.

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138 IM SAYING YOU NEED TO LET GO

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He’d asked her to wait for him, during when she was at the hospital, before his supposed death.

He’d told her he’d come back for her and that she should wait for him. He said he loved her and a memory loss couldn’t erase what he felt for her, so how could she give up

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