THE BILLONAIRE'S REPLACEMENT BRIDE

Entitled Nathan

Elena walked back to the party after a while and when she looked up She saw him before he saw her.

Same smile, Same shoulders, Same eyes that had once made her believe she was worth loving.

Elena's breath stopped but not with longing, with a physical shock.

Nathan spotted her. His face lit up with a familiarity that made her stomach turn. He weaved through the crowd toward her, one hand raised, already speaking before he reached her.

"Elena.... God. I've been hoping I'd run into you."

She didn't move. She didn't smile. She simply looked at him...the man who had been inside her stepsister hours before he was supposed to vow himself to her and felt nothing where there should have been ruins.

"There's nothing to say, Nathan."

"Of course there is." He touched her elbow. "Just five minutes. Please. I owe you that much."

"You owe me a lifetime," she said. "You're asking for five minutes because it's cheaper."

Nathan's smile faltered. He glanced around, checking for witnesses, then leaned in. His voice dropped to the intimate register he had once used to tell her she was beautiful.

"I know you're angry. I know I handled things badly. But Vivian and I...what we have...it's real, Elena. It always was. I should have been honest with you sooner, but I didn't want to hurt you."

Elena laughed. It was a small sound, it sounded dry and almost bored. "You didn't want to hurt me," she repeated. "So you let me put on a wedding dress. You let me walk down an aisle toward a man who was already inside my sister. You let my father write a press release calling me unstable rather than admit you couldn't keep your hands off Vivian." She tilted her head. "You didn't want to hurt me. You just wanted me to be quiet while you did it."

Nathan's face darkened. The apology curdled into something uglier. "You don't understand. You never understood what it was like between Vivian and me. You were always so grateful, so eager, so.."

"So what?" Elena's voice didn't rise. It sharpened. "So decent? So loyal? So stupid enough to believe you when you said you loved me?"

"I did love you. In my way."

"In your way." She tasted the words. They were ash. "That's the problem, Nathan. In your way wasn't enough. It was never enough and I am done being grateful for crumbs."

She turned to leave butbNathan grabbed her wrist.

"Elena..."

"Remove your hand." The voice came from behind her, deep and low.

Adrian.

He stood two feet away, his body angled between Elena and the rest of the room, his eyes fixed on Nathan's fingers wrapped around her arm. His expression was Terrifyingly calm.

Nathan let go instantly. His hand dropped like it had been burned.

"Blackwood," Nathan said. His voice cracked on the name. "I was just.."

"Touching my wife."

"It wasn't...."

"Yes," Adrian said. "It was."

He stepped closer.

"Elena is not available for your explanations," Adrian said. "She is not available for your regret. She is not available for you to look at, speak to, or imagine you have any right to. Do you understand?"

Nathan looked at Adrian then at Elena. His eyes moved between them, searching for the c***k, the lie, the contract he could exploit. He found none. He found a man and a woman standing shoulder to shoulder, and the distance between them was not the distance of strangers.

He found that Elena was no longer alone and the realization changed his face. The entitlement drained away, replaced by something smaller. Something that looked almost like fear.

"She doesn't love you," Nathan said. It was a child's last weapon.

Adrian smiled. It didn't reach his eyes.

"She doesn't need to," he said. "She chose me. That's more than you ever earned."

He held out his hand and Elena took it.

She didn't look back at Nathan as they walked away. She didn't check to see if he was watching. She simply held Adrian's hand, her fingers steady in his, and felt the last of her old life fall away behind her like shed skin.

In the car, Adrian didn't speak neither did Elena but his thumb traced slow, deliberate circles across her knuckles, and she didn't pull away.