THE SPITEFUL BRIDE: Marry To Rival's Son novel Chapter 140

Chapter 140

Mia blinked. Then she laughed.

“You’re joking,” she said, waiting for Elena to crack a smile.

But Elena just stared back at her without blinking, her face completely serious.

The laughter died on Mia’s lips.

“You’re serious?” she asked, her voice rising in disbelief.

Elena didn’t answer. She just continued to look at Mia with that same unwavering stare, her dark eyes steady and determined in a way that made Mia’s stomach drop.

Mia slowly pulled her hands away as if Elena had suddenly caught fire.

“You’re SERIOUS?” she said again, much louder this time. She could hear her own voice cracking. “You want to get married to my brother?”

“Do you love him?” Mia demanded, standing up from the couch so fast the coffee table shook. “Tell me right now, Elena. Do you love Ethan?”

Elena remained silent, and that silence told Mia everything she needed to know. It screamed louder than any

words could have.

*She doesn’t love him,* Mia thought, her heart pounding. *She doesn’t love him and she wants to marry him anyway. She wants to use him.*

Mia jumped up and started pacing around the room like a caged animal. Her hands were shaking and she kept running them through her hair, messing up the neat style she had spent time on that morning.

“It can’t happen,” she said, shaking her head frantically. “Never. Absolutely not. I won’t let you do this to him.”

“Why?” Elena spoke up for the first time since dropping her bombshell, her voice quiet but defiant.

Mia spun around to face her so fast it looked like her neck might snap. Her eyes were wide and wild, and Elena could see the hurt and anger building there like storm clouds.

“Did you just ask me that question?” Mia’s voice was getting louder with each word. “You don’t fucking love him, Elena, and you want to get married to him? You want to trap him in a loveless marriage just because you’re running away from your feelings?”

Elena stood up too, her own anger finally bubbling to the surface after months of keeping it buried.

“Didn’t you do it?” she shot back, her voice sharp as broken glass. “Didn’t you marry Stefan without loving him? Didn’t you learn to love him along the way?”

Mia stopped pacing and stared at her friend like she had been slapped.

“This is different,” she said, her voice getting louder. “It’s not the same thing at all.”

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140 MA IS THAT YOUR DAD IS THE REASON

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This was the first time the two women had raised their voices at each other since they were teenagers.

All their adult disagreements had been handled with careful words and gentle tones, the way grown women were supposed to handle conflict.

But there was nothing gentle about this. This felt raw and dangerous, like they were both balancing on the edge of a cliff.

“Why?” Elena challenged, crossing her arms over her chest. “Because you’re Samuel Meyers’ daughter and everything is different for you?”

Mia raised an eyebrow, genuinely confused by the bitter tone in Elena’s voice.

“What do you mean by that?”

“You can do it and it’s okay, but when I try to do the same thing, suddenly it’s wrong?” Elena’s voice was getting shriller, months of suppressed resentment pouring out like water from a broken dam.

“Elena, I need you to think about what you’re saying. This has nothing to do with who my father is.”

“It has everything to do with you being a Meyer,” Elena said, and there was so much pain in her voice that Mia took a step backward.

Weeks of heartache and exhaustion had worn Elena down to her bones, and she was so tired of pretending everything was fine.

She wanted someone else to feel the way she was feeling. She wanted to share the pain instead of carrying it all

alone.

“You all always get away with everything. You get to make whatever choices you want and everyone just accepts it because you’re rich and powerful and connected.”

Mia stared at her friend in shock, her mouth hanging open. Where was this coming from? How long had Elena been harboring these feelings?

“When you got married to someone who hated your guts, I stood by you,” Elena continued, her hands balled into fists at her sides.

“I supported you even when I thought it was crazy. I helped you plan the wedding. I held your hand when you cried about it. But I can’t do the same thing? I can’t marry someone and try to make it work? Because he’s a Meyer and that makes it different somehow?”

Mia looked on with confusion, hearing Elena speak like this felt surreal. This bitter, angry woman didn’t sound like her best friend at all.

“If your father could get away with having someone killed and letting someone else take the blame, then why can’t I use his son to get what I need?”

The words hit Mia like a physical blow. She actually stumbled backward, her face going pale.

“What are you talking about?” she asked, confusion and fear evident in her voice.

“He’s the cause of all this mess,” Elena continued, her voice getting shriller with each word. She had had

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enough of keeping secrets, enough of protecting ryone else’s feelings while her own heart was breaking

She was tires and she just wanted to be fine, even if it meant burning everything down. “This whole nightmare started because of him.”

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