The Spiteful Bride, Marry to Rival's Son-Chapter 190

SHE COULD FEEL HIS HEART RACING BENEATH HER PALM

Stefan turned from the window and his eyes were moist, Mia heart ached for him.

He was the one that had to feel the heat if the rivalry mostly.

He was still a baby when it all started. Their fathers are both trash.

"I went home that afternoon," Elizabeth said. "And two days later, Samuel came to see me. He looked different, clean-shaven, dressed in an expensive suit I’d never seen before. He sat in my living room and he told me he’d found a way forward. That he’d met someone who could help him fight back."

"My mother," Mia whispered.

"Your mother," Elizabeth confirmed. "She was the only daughter to her parents, who were one of the billionaires. They had old money, lots of it.

Samuel had met her at some charity event the day before and he’d charmed her completely. He was good at that, when he wanted to be, Samuel could make you feel like you were the only person in the world who mattered."

Ethan’s face had gone carefully blank, the way it did when he was processing something painful. "He used her."

"He married her a month later," Elizabeth said. "Quick, quiet ceremony. Nothing like the wedding he’d planned with Annabelle. Your mother thought it was romantic, this wounded man who’d been betrayed finding love again so quickly. She had no idea she was funding a war."

"Did you tell her?" Mia asked, leaning forward. "Did you try to warn her?"

Elizabeth’s face crumpled. "I should have. God, I should have. But I was twenty-three years old and pregnant and terrified, and Samuel came to me before the wedding and asked me to stay quiet. He said if I kept his secrets, he’d keep mine. He said he’d make sure Jeremiah never found out about you, Stefan. That he’d help me disappear if I needed to."

Stefan’s jaw clenched. "A deal."

"A deal," Elizabeth agreed. "I was young and scared and I took it. I let your mother marry him without knowing what she was walking into. And I’ve regretted it every day since."

The room felt smaller suddenly, the air thicker. Mia stood up and went to Stefan, wrapping her arms around him from behind. He covered her hands with his, his grip tight enough to almost hurt.

"What happened next?" Sienna asked quietly. "With Jeremiah, with my mother?"

Elizabeth’s expression shifted, something darker moving across her features. "Jeremiah called me three weeks after his wedding. Called me at two in the morning from a payphone because he didn’t want Annabelle to know. He said we needed to talk. I hung up on him. He called back seventeen times. Finally I answered and he said we needed to meet, that there were things we had to discuss about ’the situation.’"

"The baby," Elena said. "He meant Stefan."

"He meant Stefan," Elizabeth confirmed, and her voice had gone cold. "I met him at a diner outside the city. He showed up in sunglasses even though it was evening, paranoid someone would recognize him. He sat across from me and he said..." She stopped, visibly steeling herself.

"He said he couldn’t be a father to this child. That it would ruin his marriage, his business relationships, his reputation. That Annabelle’s family was very religious and very wealthy and they’d cut him off if they knew he’d gotten another woman pregnant before the wedding."

"Oh God," Mia breathed.

"He asked me how much," Elizabeth said flatly. "How much money it would take for me to make it go away. Like Stefan was a problem that could be solved with a check."

Stefan made a sound like he’d been punched. Mia’s arms tightened around him and she felt his whole body shaking.

"I told him to go to hell," Elizabeth said, and there was steel in her voice now. "I told him I was keeping my baby and he could either be a father or he could walk away but he couldn’t pay me off like I was some kind of..." She stopped, shook her head sharply.

"He got angry then. Said I was being unreasonable, that I was trying to trap him, that if I really cared about the child I’d give him a better life than I could provide alone."

"He tried to manipulate you," Ethan said, his voice hard.

"He tried," Elizabeth agreed. "But I’d already seen what he was capable of. I’d watched him betray Samuel and marry Annabelle and steal a business contract all in one smooth move. I knew he was dangerous. So I told him I was keeping the baby and he was never to contact me again."

She looked at Stefan, her eyes full of old fear and fierce protection. "He got very quiet then. Very still. And he said, ’If you keep this child, Elizabeth, I’ll make sure you regret it. I’ll make sure everyone knows what kind of woman you are. I’ll tell them you tried to trap me, that you were sleeping with other men, that the baby might not even be mine. I’ll destroy your reputation so completely that no one will believe a word you say.’"

The room erupted.

"He threatened you?" Sienna was on her feet, her voice sharp with shock and fury.

"While you were carrying his child?" Elena’s hands were pressed to her chest like she couldn’t breathe.

Stefan pulled away from Mia and turned, his face transformed by rage, he’d known all these but hearing it again brought memories that weren’t sweet.

Mose stood up slowly, his usually calm demeanor cracking. "That’s why you ran. That’s why you hid."

Elizabeth nodded, her face wet with tears now. "I was terrified. Jeremiah had money, connections, power. I had nothing. I was a secretary living in a one-bedroom apartment with barely enough savings to cover a month’s rent.

So I ran. I moved to a different city, changed my last name, paid for everything in cash so he couldn’t trace me. I worked waitressing jobs until Stefan was born, then cleaning houses so I could bring him with me."

Stefan’s hands were fists at his sides. Mia had never seen him like this, shaking with barely contained fury, his usual careful control completely shattered. She went to him but he didn’t seem to see her, his eyes fixed on his mother.

"You did all that alone," Ethan asked, and his voice broke on the word alone.

"I did," Elizabeth said. "Because I loved my child more than I feared him. And because I knew, I knew that if Jeremiah found us, he wouldn’t just threaten me. He’d try to take you. Or worse, he’d try to make you disappear so his perfect life with Annabelle wouldn’t be tainted by the truth."

Sienna was sobbing openly now. "My mother didn’t know. She never knew she’d married a man who abandoned his pregnant girlfriend, who threatened her, who..." She couldn’t finish.

"Annabelle didn’t know," Elizabeth confirmed gently. "I made sure of that. I never contacted her, never reached out. As far as she knew, Jeremiah’s past was clean. And maybe that makes me a coward but I couldn’t, I couldn’t risk it. Not when Stefan’s safety was at stake."

Mia turned to look at Sienna, saw the devastation on her face, the way her hands were pressed to her stomach like she was trying to hold herself together. Mose pulled her close, murmuring something low that none of them could hear.

How could she tell her, her mom was aware and that she even tried to murder Stefan.

That there was more none of them knew and that Stefan was the one that took the hit more.

She couldn’t help as the tears fell down her face uncontrollably.

"Samuel knew," Ethan said suddenly, his voice cutting through the emotion. "Samuel knew all of this?"

Elizabeth nodded. "He helped me leave, actually. Gave me money, helped me find an apartment in the new city, set up a bank account under my new name. He said it was the least he could do since we’d both been destroyed by the same man."

"But he changed," Mia said, understanding dawning cold and hard in her chest. "Over the years, he changed into someone just as bad."

"Yes," Elizabeth said quietly. "Your mother’s money gave him power and power changed him. He spent years building his business up to rival Jeremiah’s, and somewhere along the way he forgot what he was fighting for. The revenge became everything. And your mother..."

She looked at Mia with such sadness. "Your mother tried so hard to love him, to build a real marriage, but Samuel was never fully there. He was always fighting Jeremiah, always trying to win, always trying to prove something."

"She deserved better," Mia said, and her voice was steel over pain.

"She did," Elizabeth agreed. "She deserved so much better than she got."

"You both deserved better than what you got" Elizabeth nodded her head sadly.

The silence that followed felt different than before, heavier, more final. These weren’t just old stories anymore. They were explanations, origins, the roots of everything that had brought them all to this moment.

Stefan finally moved, crossing the room to kneel in front of his mother’s chair. He took her hands in his, pressed them to his forehead. "I’m sorry," he said roughly. "I’m sorry you had to do all of that alone."

"You have nothing to be sorry for," Elizabeth said, cupping his face with both hands. "You were the only good thing that came from all of that mess. The only purely good thing."

Mia’s vision blurred with tears. She watched Stefan with his mother and thought about all the years Elizabeth had spent running, hiding, protecting. About how she’d built a life in the shadows just to keep her son safe from a man who’d wanted him erased.

She’d even spent so many years in the asylum. That was much, that was so much and painful.

Elena stood and went to Ethan, pulling him close. He wrapped his arms around her automatically, his chin resting on top of her head, both of them processing what these revelations meant for their understanding of his father.

"I don’t know how to feel," Ethan said into the quiet. "About Samuel, about any of this."

"You don’t have to know yet," Elena told him gently. "This is a lot."

"It’s too much," Sienna said, her voice muffled against Mose’s chest. "My father did all of this. He destroyed people. He threatened a pregnant woman. He..." Her voice broke completely.

Mose held her tighter, his eyes dark and troubled over her head.

Mia went back to Stefan, touching his shoulder. He reached up without looking, found her hand, held it against his chest. She could feel his heart racing beneath her palm.

She squeezed his shoulder and he looked up at her, his eyes still wet but determined. She nodded, telling him without words that they’d face this together, whatever came next.