The Billionaire's Silent Wife (Ryan and Eve) novel Chapter 122

Chapter 122 – A Line Drawn in Blood

Eve didn’t raise her voice.

She didn’t need to.

The air in the temporary office felt tighter, as though the glass panels and plaster had leaned in to listen.

Outside, the murmur of ringing phones and shuffling feet carried on, but in here, the world had narrowed to

just two women and every wound between their families.

Leah sat rigid in her chair, spine arrow-straight, hands gripping the armrests with white-knuckled restraint. Fury simmered beneath her carefully maintained posture. Eve sat opposite her, one hand resting protectively on her belly, the other relaxed on the armrest, knuckles loose, eyes clear.

It was Leah who had come in armed with accusation.

It was Eve who would leave having dismantled her.

“You’ve lived so selfishly for so long,” Eve said quietly, tone steady, unyielding, “that you don’t even

understand the basic rules of engagement when it comes to a mother-and-child relationship.”

Leah scoffed, a harsh sound that didn’t match the elegant lines of her dress. She leaned back like

someone affronted in a board meeting. “Don’t lecture me about motherhood.”

Eve tilted her head, studying her as if considering ingredients she’d just realised didn’t belong in the same

pot.

“I’m not lecturing you,” she replied. “I’m observing you.”

Leah’s lips tightened. “You think you know me?”

“I know enough,” Eve said. “I know what you’ve done to your son.”

Leah’s eyes flashed. “You have no idea what I’ve done for my son. You weren’t there when I carried him. When I bled for him. When I stayed up all night with him while your father’s type was sleeping comfortably

in some staff quarters.”

Eve didn’t flinch. “You did what a mother is supposed to do. That doesn’t make him your property.”

Leah’s fingers dug into the armrest. “You think you’re clever,” she snapped. “You think marrying my son

gives you the right to sit there with your belly and your title and dictate to me,

Eve lifted her free hand, palm up, stopping her mid-sentence.

“No,” she said softly. “I think you’re confusing things. My marriage to Ryan doesn’t give me the right. Your

treatment of him does. Someone should have told you this a long time ago.”

Leah barked a humourless laugh. “And you’ve appointed yourself as the one?”

“No.” Eve’s gaze was calm. “Ryan chose that. When he began to trust me with the parts of him you never

wanted to see.”

Chapter 122 A time Drawn in Blood

Leah’s breath hitched.

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Eve went on, words precise, measured, each one chosen with care. “You behave like a spoiled brat, Leah.

You confuse authority with control. You mistake love for ownership. And none of that has anything to do with my marriage to your son. Those cracks were there long before I came into the picture.”

“Watch your mouth,” Leah hissed.

“Why?” Eve asked quietly. “You’ve never watched yours. Not with him. Not with me.”

Leah leaned forward, eyes burning. “You think you’re better than us, don’t you? Because you cook? Because my son,” She broke off, jaw clenching. “Because my son chose you?”

“I don’t think I’m better,” she said. “I think I’m honest. There’s a difference.”

Leah’s nostrils flared. “You walked into our lives like a curse. Before you, my family was,

“Already lying to each other,” Eve cut in, still calm. “Already exploiting Steven. Already hiding something big

enough to blow all of this up. Already willing to throw anyone under the bus to protect your name.”

Leah’s eyes hardened. “You know nothing.”

“And yet,” Eve said, “here you are. In my office. On my set. In a competition your son made sure had my

name written into its bones. You came to talk to me, Leah. Not the other way round.”

For a brief second, Leah looked as if she’d like to overturn the entire desk. She swallowed instead.

“You think you’ve won,” Leah said. “You think because you’re carrying his child you’ve somehow earned permanent residency in his life. Let me tell you something, you are one scandal away from being replaced.

Eve’s mouth curved faintly. “Scandal? I’ve already survived the worst one you could manufacture. You

signed off on that one, remember?”

Leah’s jaw tightened.

“And as for Kimberly,” Eve went on, her gaze sharpening, “she deserves everything that is happening to her.

Leah shot to her feet so fast the chair scraped against the floor.

“How dare you!” she exploded. “That is my daughter.”

Eve didn’t move.

“Only a malicious person,” she said, voice firm now, “would commit such a crime. Forge documents. Steal

money. Pin it on someone else. Then sit back while that person is persecuted and hunted like an animal.”

Leah took a step closer, hands trembling. “She made a mistake.”

Eve’s eyes narrowed. “A mistake is spilling juice on the floor and cleaning it up. Kimberly planned this. She thought it through. She executed it. I suffered because of it. And she never once came forward to tell the

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Chapter 122 Atine Drawn in Blood

truth.”

“You don’t know,”

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“I know enough,” Eve cut in. “I know she stood in the comfort of her family name while I stood alone, pregnant, humiliated, and wanted by the police for something I didn’t do.”

Leah’s breathing grew harsher. “You think I enjoyed that? You think I wanted my name in the news?”

Eve held her gaze. “I think you enjoyed seeing me out of the picture. I think you liked the idea of me being

removed cleanly. Quietly. Legally. You didn’t have to get your hands dirty. That’s what Steven was for, wasn’t it? That’s what people like my father were for?”

Leah said nothing.

“I wonder,” Eve added softly, “if you wouldn’t have been celebrating if I had been the one arrested.

Disgraced. Dragged through the media. You’d have worn black and pretended to mourn the shame, then slept peacefully that night.”

Silence dropped heavily between them.

Leah’s mouth opened, then closed.

“And to think,” Eve continued, “that you were the one who put her up to it.”

Leah’s face twisted. “That’s a lie,” she spat.

“Is it?” Eve asked quietly. “Because Kimberly already told Ryan you were involved. And you didn’t deny it

when he confronted you. You might not have signed the forms yourself, but your fingerprints are all over

her character.”

“You will not stand there and insult my parenting,” Leah snarled. “I have always believed your father lacked morals. No discipline. No proper governance in that household. Look at him now, extorting the very people

who fed him.”

Eve laughed.

Not mockingly.

Not hysterically.

She laughed because it was absurd.

“My father may be behind my current predicament,” she said, amusement fading into something sharp and

clear, “but my parents and my grandmother raised me well.”

Leah stiffened. “You’re defending him?”

“I’m separating things,” Eve replied. “Whatever is going on between me and my father as adults is about choices. His and mine. But when I was a child, he was present. He loved me. He played with me. He cooked for me when my mother worked late. He bought me recipe books instead of dolls. And my

Chapter A me Drawn in Blood

grandmother,” her face softened briefly, “, my grandmother taught me what it means to fear God and not

man.”

Leah’s throat worked.

“Whatever deals he made with your husband,” Eve said, “whatever secrets they shared, whatever line he crossed, that’s between the two of them. You and him are the only ones who know what truly happened. Not me.”

Leah’s eyes glittered with angry tears. “He used us.”

“Maybe he did,” Eve said. “Maybe you used him too. That’s not my battle. My battle was fighting for my name.”

She leaned forward slightly, eyes never leaving Leah’s.

“But before all this nonsense,” Eve said quietly, “my father was a good man. A great man, even. He took care of his mother. He took care of me and my brother. He taught us to work hard, not to steal, not to envy. He made mistakes, but he wasn’t empty.”

Her voice dropped to almost a whisper.

“Can your children say the same about you?”

The slap came fast.

A sharp crack split the air as Leah’s hand whipped across the desk and connected with Eve’s cheek, turning her head slightly to the side.

For a heartbeat, the world stopped.

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