The Billionaire's Silent Wife (Ryan and Eve) novel Chapter 108

108 The Reckoning in the Great Room 2

108 The Reckoning in the Great Room 2

+25 Points

Ryan moved further into the room, his steps unhurried. He finally lowered himself into the armchair opposite his father. He crossed one leg over the other, his posture relaxed in a way that felt completely at

odds with the storm in the room.

He didn’t look away.

“It’s interesting,” he repeated, “that when you believed Eve had committed that same crime… you weren’t

angry at all.”

The words dropped between them like stones.

Jonathan went still.

Leah sniffed loudly, visibly bracing, her fingers twisting the handkerchief like a rope.

Ryan kept going, his voice calm but sharp enough to cut.

“You weren’t this furious when the police labelled my wife a thief,” he said. “You didn’t shout at anyone to stop them. You didn’t demand an explanation or insist there had been a mistake. No one in this room said, ‘Maybe we shouldn’t do this.””

His father’s jaw tightened.

“That’s different,” Jonathan muttered.

“Is it?” Ryan asked, arching a brow. “Is it really?”

“Eve,”

“Eve,” Ryan cut in, his tone suddenly razor-edged, “is my wife. My lawfully wedded wife. The woman you were perfectly happy to feed to the dogs so you could make a point to her father.”

Jonathan stared at him as if he could not quite reconcile the man in front of him with the son he thought

he knew.

Ryan was not done.

“I told you the money wasn’t worth involving the police,” he said. “I told you I would cover it. I told you she was innocent. I told you you were going too far.”

He leaned forward slightly.

“You called them anyway. You let them plaster her name and her face all over the media. You let her be branded a thief. You watched that happen. And you did nothing.”

Leah let out a frail sob. “Something bad will happen to my daughter,” she cried, her voice trembling. “Our

daughter is not a criminal,”

Ryan did not look at her.

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108 The Reckoning in the Great Room 2

He kept his eyes on his father, unblinking.

+25 Points

“Now,” he said softly, “your precious daughter has been caught. And suddenly, it’s too much. Suddenly,

police involvement is harsh. Suddenly, reputation matters in a different way.”

He smiled, a bitter, humourless twist of his mouth.

“I don’t think so, Father.”

Silence dropped over them like a heavy curtain.

Jonathan’s expression held traces of shock, disbelief, anger, and something else Ryan had rarely seen

there before, uncertainty. For once, his father did not seem to have a rehearsed answer ready.

“You’re being emotional,” Jonathan said at last, though even that sounded weaker than usual. “You’re not

thinking clearly. We could have handled this quietly, as a family.”

“We tried handling things as a family,” Ryan replied. “That’s how Eve ended up on every news channel

accused of a crime she didn’t commit.”

Leah dabbed her eyes, voice shaking. “Kimber is your sister, Ryan. You can’t let them do this to her. You

can’t let her experience that… that humiliation. That shame…”

He finally turned his head to look at her.

There was no softness in his eyes.

“What I don’t understand,” he said, his voice calm in a way that made Leah flinch, “is why she would commit such a heinous crime and then pin it on my wife.”

Leah froze.

Jonathan shifted in his chair.

“The timing wasn’t random,” Ryan continued. “It happened right around when Eve left me. If she hadn’t left, she would have been the one behind bars now. That was pretty convenient, don’t you think?”

His gaze slid back to his father.

“Tell me, Father,” he said, “would you be this angry if it was still Eve in a cell instead of Kimberly? Would you be talking about how much the family is ‘going through’ then?”

Jonathan didn’t respond.

“Would you be worrying about the reputation of my family?” Ryan pressed, his voice tightening around the word my. “Because Eve and I are married. That makes her my family. Anything that happens to her happens to me. Anything done to destroy her name destroys mine as well. Would that have mattered to

you then?”

He leaned back, letting the question hang.

He didn’t rush them.

108 The Reckoning in the Great Room 2

“I want to know why,” Ryan said. “And I want to know what she needed the money for.”

He looked between them.

+25 Points

“I have told you both repeatedly to come clean so I can decide how best to deal with Steven. You refused. You chose secrecy. You chose pride.”

Jonathan’s jaw worked.

“You don’t know what you’re meddling with,” he said at last, voice low.

“I know enough,” Ryan replied.

He straightened slightly, his posture still relaxed, but there was nothing relaxed about his eyes.

“Steven told me this is just the beginning,” he said. “That these scandals are just reminders of what he can

1. And I believe him. Because you don’t betray and underpay and discard a man like that after twenty-five

years of service and expect him to go home quietly and knit.”

Jonathan’s eyes widened.

Leah’s spine stiffened.

“I know he wasn’t just a driver,” Ryan said. “He was your fixer. Your handler. The man who covered your

tracks. The man you used when you didn’t want things traced back to you.”

Jonathan stayed silent.

“And I know,” Ryan continued, “that there was a day when Mother asked him to do something he refused. Something so serious he actually drew a line. Two years later, he was gone. Forced out. Blacklisted. Cut off from his retirement. Every benefit he earned, blocked.”

He watched the dawning horror spread across his father’s face.

“You cannot treat people like gum under your shoes,” Ryan said softly. “Step on them, scrape them out of your way, and then be shocked when they decide to fight back.”

Neither parent responded.

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