All Chapters of The CEO’s Vengeful Bride: Chapter 81 - Chapter 90

The chains were gone.Not the metal ones – those still dug into her wrists, blood seeping where the skin had once been smooth. But the invisible ones – the fear, the doubt, the helplessness – they were breaking, link by link.Elena Crest no longer waited to be saved.She was the storm coming.The underground holding cell was dank and suffocating, the air thick with the stench of mildew and the sharp scent of blood that had soaked into the walls long before her. It was a place where hope was meant to die. Where time, isolation, and pain were supposed to peel away your humanity. Where one was meant to break. But Elena had been through worse, had lived through it. She had learned that a woman could be shackled by her body, but never by her mind.She had been surrounded by vipers her entire life – her family, the Montroses, the blackmail, the deceit. It had all built her, piece by piece, until there was nothing left inside of her but fire and fury. Celeste – no, Viper - had thought she co

I didn’t escape the cage.I dismantled it.The underground cell Viper had me trapped in had no clocks, no light, no hope – until one of her guards got too close and too arrogant. A loosened bolt in the wall. A moment of distraction. A shard of glass. Blood on my hands, but not mine.I emerged into the world a ghost of the woman I used to be.But ghosts don’t haunt – they avenge.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------By the time I reached Damien’s private hideout – one of his last remaining secure compounds – my body was bruised, torn, soaked in sweat and blood. But my spine? Steel.He ran to me the second I entered, arms wrapping around me so tightly I thought he might shatter. His voice cracked with a thousand emotions. “Elena. God – Elena.”I didn’t cry. I didn’t collapse.I simply looked him in the eye and whispered, “We end this - Tonight”-------------------------------------------------------------------

The last gate fell with a hiss of broken circuits.We were inside. Viper’s estate was more fortress than home – hidden within the mountains beyond the coastline, cloaked in security systems, thermal detection grids, and aerial surveillance. Damien had mapped every inch of it from satellite images and old estate blueprints. But nothing could’ve prepared us for the silence that hung in the halls.It wasn’t absence.It was the expectation.“She's waiting,” Damien muttered as we crept through the west wing. His gun was drawn, eyes scanning every corner, every shadow. “She’s always been three moves ahead”.“Not anymore,” I said, holding the access key we’d stolen from one of her mercenaries. “This is checkmate”.We passed the portraits first. Her trophies.Damien’s father. My mother. Allies. Enemies. All caught in candid moments, framed and hung like artifacts in a museum of betrayal. Viper didn’t just conquer – she collected. Power. Secrets. People.And now, her two most dangerous pieces

The call connected after three rings.“Elena?”My father’s voice was rough, older than I remembered. Time had aged him, but guilt had done worse.“I need to see you,” I said flatly. “Now”,A pause.Then: “I’ll send an address”.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------One Hour Later – Abandoned Chapel, Outskirts of the CityThe moment I stepped into the candlelit ruins, I saw him.Gray hair. Sunken eyes. The once-proud man who taught me how to hide fear behind a smile now looked like he hadn’t smiled in years.“Elena,” he said, swallowing hard. “You look like your mother”,I didn’t return the sentiment. “I’m not here for nostalgia”,“I figured”, He motioned to the pews. “But I can’t imagine you came here for forgiveness either”,“No,” I said. “I came for the truth”,His eyes flinched.I stepped forward. “I know you worked with her. Viper.I know you helped her cover her crimes”,He didn’t deny it.Instead, he exhaled

The night felt different – heavier, like the air itself was holding its breath.Outside the safe house, the world moved on as if the storm wasn’t brewing. But inside, silence reigned. The kind that comes after too many truths have been spilled, and the ground beneath your feet no longer feels like home.I sat on the window ledge of the upper floor, knees tucked to my chest, staring out at the moonlit horizon. Below, Damien was on the phone, coordinating with Lucien and the last of our loyal allies. But his voice, calm and commanding, couldn’t reach the chaos within me.The boardroom betrayal. The media smear campaign. The reappearance of his ex offering aid laced with poison. Every move we made felt like it cost us another piece of ourselves.When the door opened behind me, I didn’t turn.“You’re not going to sleep,” Damien said softly.I shook my head. “Sleep feels like surrender”,He crossed the room without a sound, his presence so familiar now it didn’t startle me. When he sat bes