THE SPITEFUL BRIDE: Marry To Rival's Son novel Chapter 180

Chapter 180

+25 Bonus

Outside her bedroom door, she could hear Margaret’s laughter and Elena’s soft voice responding to something

She thought about Stefan’s words from that morning: We’re supposed to be partners. We tell each other everything.

But how could she tell him this? How could she explain that the mother who she’d always thought was dead was being used as leverage against them? How could she ask him to choose between her past and their future?

The phone buzzed again, and with shaking hands, she opened the new message.

Unknown Number: You have two hours. Come alone, or she dies.

Attached was an address on the outskirts of the city, in a part of town where screams wouldn’t be heard and bodies disappeared without questions being asked.

She stared at the screen until the words blurred together, her mind racing through impossible choices and unthinkable consequences.

Stefan wouldn’t forgive her if he found out what she was about to do. They’d lose everything – the trust they’d built, the partnership they’d forged, maybe even their marriage.

But even if they lost it all now, they could still build it up again, just the way they did before. Stefan was brilliant, resourceful, unstoppable when he set his mind to something.

But if her mother died for real this time, nothing could bring her back.

She didn’t have time to weigh the consequences anymore. She had to get to her mom, but first she needed to do something that would destroy Stefan’s faith in her forever.

She already knew where the documents were. Stefan had shown her the safe in his study, had given her the combination because he trusted her completely. Because he believed in their partnership.

Now she was about to destroy that trust. She could only hope he’d forgive her someday.

Her legs felt like jelly as she crept to his study, her bare feet silent on the hardwood floors.

The safe was hidden behind a painting of their first home together. Her fingers trembled as she entered the combination, each beep of the keypad sounding like thunder in the quiet penthouse.

Inside were stacks of documents, USB drives, and files that represented everything Stefan had built. Her marriage certificate sat on top, and seeing it made her chest tight with guilt.

Below it were the incorporation papers for Sterling Industries, property deeds, offshore account information their entire empire reduced to paper and digital files.

She grabbed what she needed and closed the safe, her heart hammering so hard she thought it might let her actions out to everyone in the building.

Back in her room, she brought out a pen and paper, her hand shaking so badly she could barely hold it steady. She wrote quickly, tears dropping onto the page and smudging the ink.

She folded the note and left it on their bed, then grabbed her purse and stuffed the documents inside. Her hands moved automatically, but her mind was screaming at her to stop, to trust Stefan with this impossible situation.

1/3

WHAT KIND OF FATHER WANTS HIS OWN cimb ha

+25 Bonus

But there was no time. The clock on her nightstand showed she had exactly ninety-three minutes to get across the city. 1

Stefan sat in his office, while Ethan and Mose sat across.

“We have everything we need,” Mose said, scrolling through photos of evidence on his tablet. “Financial records, communications, even video footage from the security cameras they thought they’d disabled.”

“It’s time,” he said, getting up from where he’d been crouched beside a piece of twisted metal that should have supported a forty-story building. His voice was cold, final.

“Make sure everything goes smoothly,” he said to Ethan, who nodded and pulled out his own phone to coordinate with their legal team. Stefan turned to Mose. “Let’s go.”

Ethan took over the coordination of evidence collection while Stefan and Mose got into Stefan’s black sedan.

Mia’s hands shook as she parked her car behind a rusted shipping container, following the directions she’d been given.

The moment she stepped out, she sent a message to the unknown number: I’m here.

Her phone was slick with sweat from her palm, but she forced herself to take deep breaths. She was Mia Meyer Sterling, and this was the only option she had to get to the bottom of it all. To save her mother and protect her family.

Her hand instinctively went to her stomach, where the tiny life inside her was growing. Still flat, just the smallest hint of a curve that only she and Stefan could feel.

“You really are strong, baby,” she whispered, her voice barely audible over the wind whistling through the empty containers. “I need that strength just this once. I promise to protect you with my life.”

A figure emerged from the shadows between two warehouses – a man dressed in all black, his face uncovered and wearing a smile that made her skin crawl. He didn’t bother hiding his identity, which meant exactly what she thought it meant.

He wasn’t planning to let her leave alive.

But she knew she’d be walking out of here with her baby and her mother, no matter what this man thought.

He pulled out what looked like a metal detector wand and gestured for her to raise her arms. “Gotta make sure you didn’t bring any friends,” he said, his voice carrying a slight accent she couldn’t place.

The device beeped and whirred as he moved it around her body, checking for recording devices, tracking chips, or weapons. When he was satisfied she was clean, he pulled a black cloth hood from his jacket pocket.

Mia looked at the hood and then back at his face, her chin lift: Dod from his jacket pocket.

“Put this on,” he ordered.

His eyebrows shot up in surprise.

in defiance. “No.”

“I’m already here,” she continued, her voice steadier than she felt. “I brought what you wanted. Let’s get down to business so I can take my mother and leave.”

2/3

WHAT KING OF BATHER WANTS IN OWN CHILDPADY

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify