The Billionaire's Silent Wife (Ryan and Eve) novel Chapter 104

CHAPTER 104 Blood Isn’t Always Family

The morning sun spilled across the front porch in warm, golden streaks, dappling the concrete and

brushing over Ryan’s face as he stepped outside. The door shut softly behind him, a controlled click,

gentle enough not to disturb Eve inside.

He barely had time to inhale the cool morning air before his phone vibrated violently in his hand again.

He didn’t need to look at the screen.

He knew.

He pressed the phone to his ear.

A breath hadn’t even formed in his lungs when a high-pitched, furious voice tore into him.

“RYAN ASHBROOK, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!”

Leah Ashbrook didn’t greet.

Didn’t breathe.

Didn’t pause.

She launched straight into the attack, her voice shattering the peace of the quiet neighbourhood like a

glass thrown against stone.

“We just got off the phone with the Chief of Police!” she shrieked. “He told us YOU reopened that case! YOU gave them evidence! YOU insisted on arresting your sister! Have you completely lost your mind?!”

Ryan closed his eyes.

It was far too early for this.

He had expected the call, he had known it would come before midday. But knowing it and hearing it were

two very different things. Leah’s voice wasn’t merely angry; it was accusing, dripping with entitlement and

outrage, as though shewere the injured party.

Ryan inhaled once, slowly, deliberately, wrestling down the heat rising in his chest.

“Mother,”

“No!” she screamed, slicing over his voice like a whip. “Don’t you ‘Mother’ me! How dare you?! Do you think this family isn’t going through enough? Your father is LIVID! You are dragging our name through the mud! Do you want to ruin us completely?!”

Something in Ryan snapped.

Not loudly.

Not visibly.

<CHAPTER 104 Blood Isn’t Always Family

Internally.

A thread that had been stretched too long finally broke.

Because the moment she said “your sister” he realized something:

Not once, not once, had Leah shown the slightest concern for his wife.

Not when Eve was falsely accused.

Not when Eve’s face was splashed across television screens like a criminal.

Not when Eve walked through the world alone, terrified and pregnant.

But Kimberly?

Kimberly received immediate outrage, sympathy, defence, and protection.

The difference burned through him.

“You are a wicked person.”

The words left him before he fully realized he’d spoken them.

The other end went dead silent.

+25 Points

As if Leah Ashbrook had never, in her entire privileged, shielded life, heard the truth reflected back at her.

Ryan didn’t give her time to recover.

“When Kimberly framed Eve,” he said, voice low but slicing sharp, “you were the one who urged Father to call the police. You insisted on it. You begged him to put Eve’s picture on national television. You wanted

her humiliated.”

“That is NOT true,”

“IT IS TRUE!” Ryan exploded, the anger he had held for months crashing through him like a breaking dam. ” You were enthusiastic about it. You stood there and watched my wife be blamed for something she DID

NOT DO!”

“She embarrassed this family!” Leah spat.

“No,” he said, voice darkening into something lethal. “You embarrassed this family. You destroyed her

name. You encouraged a lie. You let her walk into the world carrying shame YOU manufactured.”

His voice cracked, but not from weakness, from the force of everything he’d buried for too long.

“You left her alone while she was pregnant,” he said, almost whispering now. “Pregnant, Mother. And you

didn’t care.”

Leah didn’t respond.

Because she couldn’t.

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CHAPTER 104 Blood Isn’t Always Family

+25 Points

Ryan laughed, hollow, sharp. “You have a double standard, Mother. You always have. And you are wicked

for it.”

“Kimberly is your sister!” Leah snapped, desperate, clinging to the argument she thought should end

everything.

Ryan’s jaw clenched so tightly his teeth ached.

“And EVE IS MY WIFE.”

Silence.

The type of silence that felt like the world holding its breath.

Shocked.

Disbelieving.

Offended.

On the other end, Leah inhaled sharply, then unleashed a whisper soaked in disgust.

“That girl,” she hissed, “is just a woman you were forced to marry. Forced, Ryan. Don’t pretend she is anything more. She is carrying ANOTHER MAN’S CHILD. And you would destroy your own sister for that,

Ryan didn’t hear the rest.

Because the moment Leah said “that girl” something primal detonated inside him.

He didn’t think.

Didn’t hesitate.

Didn’t weigh his words.

They came out like thunder.

“DON’T YOU EVER SPEAK ABOUT EVE LIKE THAT AGAIN!”

He had never raised his voice to his mother before.

Not once.

Not even as a child.

The fury in him wasn’t the loud, violent kind.

It was deep.

Bone-deep.

Soul-deep.

Protective in a way that bordered on feral.

”

< CHAPTER 104 Blood Isn’t Always Family

+25 Points

“My wife,” Ryan said, voice trembling with a barely controlled emotion, “was humiliated. Destroyed. She

suffered because of your lies. And now you want me to protect Kimberly? To pretend this didn’t happen?

To pretend Eve doesn’t matter?”

He didn’t wait for her to answer.

“I will protect her,” he said. “I will protect the mother of my child. That is my duty. My responsibility. My

CHOICE.”

Leah gasped, shocked, scrambling.

“Ryan… listen to yourself, ”

“No,” he said sharply. “YOU listen.”

His voice dropped to a deadly quiet.

“She is my wife,” he said. “And she is carrying my child.”

He heard her inhale sharply, a sound far too raw to be faked.

“You’re lying,” she whispered.

“I’m not.”

“Ryan,”

“The dates match. The timeline matches. I met Oliver. I spoke to him. He cares about Eve, yes, but not like that. He told me everything. There is nothing between them. The baby is mine.”

Leah started breathing faster, a panicked rhythm.

“You cannot, no, Ryan, you cannot adopt,”

“I am not adopting anything,” he said coldly. “This child is MINE.”

Leah’s voice shrilled into hysteria. “You will not allow a bastard to inherit,’

“A bastard?” Ryan repeated quietly.

Too quietly.

The word was poison in his ears.

“Is that what you think of my child?” he asked slowly, dangerously.

He felt his pulse hammering. His fingers trembled, once, before he forced them still.

He steadied his breath, holding the line with a levelness that felt almost supernatural.

“You will NEVER use that word again,” Ryan whispered. “Do you hear me? Never.”

Leah didn’t speak.

She couldn’t.

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< CHAPTER 104 Blood Isn’t Always Family

Ryan continued, each word a dagger.

“Kimberly will face the consequences of what she did.”

+25 Points

“You can’t do this,” Leah whispered, suddenly soft, suddenly fragile, the shift so manipulative it made

Ryan’s stomach turn.

“Oh, I can,” he said. “I already did.”

“Your family is already suffering,”

“And I’m done pretending the suffering is coming from outside!” he snapped. “The suffering is YOU. Father. Kimberly. All of you who would rather maintain appearances than accept the truth.”

He could almost hear the slap of his words landing.

“Let Kimberly go, Ryan,” Leah pleaded. “Please. She is young. She made a mistake. If the public sees this,

if investors see this, we will lose everything!”

Ryan laughed, a short, humourless sound.

“Investors? Reputation? That’s what you’re worried about?” he asked softly. “Not justice? Not innocence? Not the woman who almost went to prison because of you?”

“Of course I care!” Leah cried. “Our business, our legacy, you will burn everything,”

“No,” Ryan said. “You burned it the moment you sacrificed my wife to protect your pride.”

Leah fell silent, the kind of silence that tasted like guilt.

Ryan didn’t let her escape it.

“Kimberly told me you put her up to it,” he said.

A sharp inhale cracked through the phone.

“Ryan, wait, listen,”

“No,” he said. “The police will visit you. They’ll ask questions. And you will answer.”

“You wouldn’t,” Leah breathed.

“Oh, I would.”

“You would destroy your own mother?” she whispered, voice trembling.

Ryan’s grip on the phone tightened.

“No,” he said. “I would hold you accountable. There’s a difference.”

The silence that followed was suffocating, heavy, wet, choking.

Ryan didn’t fill it.

He let it sit, let it choke her, let the weight of her actions settle exactly where it belonged.

5/6

<CHAPTER 104 Blood Isn’t Always Family

Then, in a tone softer but infinitely more dangerous, he said:

“My wife was defamed. And you will pay for what you did. Every single one of you.”

Ryan exhaled slowly.

The war had begun.

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