THE SPITEFUL BRIDE: Marry To Rival's Son novel Chapter 168

Chapter 167

The next day, Ethan hardly slept at all. He kept turning from one side to the other until morning finally came. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw his father wiping down that gun and dragging the dead body away.

When he was sure his dad had left for work, he crept through the house like a thief. He needed to find something, anything he could use against his father. He needed proof so he could end this nightmare and go back to Elena.

The thought of Elena sitting at Stefan’s house, thinking he had abandoned her, made his chest tight with guilt. But he had to solve this first. He had to clear her name and expose the real killer.

When he reached his father’s bedroom door, he tried the handle. Locked. Of course it was locked. His dad wasn’t stupid enough to leave his private space open for anyone to search.

Ethan walked downstairs and found one of the maids cleaning the kitchen.

“Excuse me, Maria,” he said. “Do you happen to have a key to my father’s room? I need to get something for him.”

Maria shook her head. “No, sir. Mr. Samuel never gave us keys to his room. He keeps it locked all the time.”

Ethan asked two more household staff members, but they all gave him the same answer. No one had access to his dad’s room except he himself.

Feeling frustrated, he was about to give up, but then he remembered something important. His mother used to have a spare key to every room in the house. She was always worried about emergencies and wanted to be able to get into any room if needed.

But where would she have kept those keys?

Ethan had to think like his mother. Cassandra was paranoid about security but also practical. She wouldn’t hide keys in obvious places like jewelry boxes or safes, because those were the first places thieves would look.

She would choose somewhere that seemed ordinary, somewhere no one would think to search for anything valuable.

Somewhere that was right out in the open but completely overlooked.

Suddenly, Ethan knew exactly where to look.

He rushed upstairs to his mother’s bedroom, which used to be Mia’s room before Cassandra had taken it over. Even now, thinking about that situation made Ethan angry.

It wasn’t one of the nicest rooms in the house, though it has big windows and a beautiful view of the garden. But there were other room that was more spacious than this.

So when his dad brought them over into this main house, and his mom had insisted on taking this exact room. Not the master bedroom, not one of the other guest rooms, but specifically Mia’s room.

He had been shocked. “Mom, there are plenty of other rooms in the house. Why do you need Mia’s room?”

“Because I like this one,” his mom had said simply. “It has the best light and the nicest view.”

He had tried to argue, tried to point out how unfair it was to kick a someone out of her room. But he had been even more shocked when Samuel had supported Cassandra’s decision.

“It’s just a room,” Samuel had said with a shrug. “Mia canse any of the other bedrooms. Cassandra should have whatever makes her comfortable.”

That was the moment he had realized what kind of father Samuel really was to his daughter. A man who would

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MIA HAD BEEN THROUGH SO MUCH PAIN AND HUMILIATION

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train his daughter her whole life but couldn’t even protect er right to a bedroom in her own home.

That was the reason he had never blamed Mia for resenting their family. She had every right to be angry.

Now, standing in what had been Mia’s room and then became his mother’s room, Ethan looked around at all of Cassandra’s belongings. Expensive clothes filled the closet. Designer shoes lined the shelves. Jewelry boxes covered the dresser.

All the material things she had ever wanted were here, but she was gone. Still lying cold in the morgue, waiting for a funeral his dad kept postponing for “business reasons”

Ethan shook his head to clear these depressing thoughts and focused on why he was here.

He searched under the bed first, running his hands along the mattress and box spring. Nothing.

Then he checked the closet, feeling around on the high shelves and inside coat pockets. Still nothing.

He was starting to lose hope when his eyes fell on a large framed photograph hanging on the wall. It was a picture from the day Samuel had proposed to Cassandra, right there at Mia and Stefan’s wedding reception.

Even the memory of that day made Ethan cringe. What kind of man proposes to his mistress at his daughter’s wedding? It had been so inappropriate, so selfish, but that was Samuel in a nutshell.

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