The Billionaire's Silent Wife (Ryan and Eve) novel Chapter 168

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She slid into the chair opposite Eve.

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Up close, Eve noticed details she hadn’t noticed at the engagement party: Alissa’s hands were calm, nails neat but not flashy. Her eyes didn’t scan Eve’s clothes like competition. She wasn’t measuring herself

against Eve.

She looked… careful.

A server approached, and Alissa ordered tea as well. Then she looked at Eve’s cup.

“No caffeine?” she asked gently.

Eve’s mouth twitched. “Ryan watches me like a hawk now.”

Alissa’s brows lifted slightly. “He cares.”

Eve didn’t answer that.

Alissa didn’t push. “How are you feeling?” she asked instead.

Eve’s honest answer was terrified. But she didn’t give it away easily. “I’m… okay.”

Alissa’s gaze softened. “That’s the answer people give when they’ve had to survive too much.”

Eve’s fingers tightened around her cup. “You don’t know me.”

Alissa nodded. “No. I don’t. But I know that you’re carrying a baby, and you’re carrying a lot of history, and you’re doing it with your shoulders still upright.” She paused. “That usually means you’ve had practice.”

Eve swallowed.

They sat in a fragile quiet for a moment, the air between them not hostile but cautious, like glass.

Alissa spoke again, gentler. “I’m not here to replace anyone in your life, Eve.”

Eve’s gaze sharpened. “Good.”

Alissa didn’t seem offended. She looked relieved. “I wouldn’t want to. Your mother, ” She paused carefully,

choosing words. “Your mother is yours. I can’t touch that.”

Eve felt her chest tighten unexpectedly.

Alissa continued, voice steady. “I’m also not here to demand affection. Or call you daughter. Or pretend we can skip over years of pain like it’s a film we can fast-forward.”

Eve studied her face..

No hunger.

No sharpness.

Just… presence.

And presence was rare.

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Disarming.

Eve asked the question that mattered. “Why are you with him.”

Alissa’s eyes didn’t flicker away. She didn’t get defensive. She breathed in slowly.

“Because he can be kind,” she said quietly. “And because I’m not blind to the parts of him that aren’t.”

Eve’s stomach tightened. “Most women are blind.”

Alissa smiled faintly. “Maybe I’m not most women.”

Eve’s gaze stayed on her. “He’s cruel.”

“I’ve seen his cruelty,” Alissa admitted. “Not directed at me. But… I’ve seen it. And I’ve confronted him

about it.”

Eve’s brows lifted slightly. “And?”

Alissa’s mouth tightened. “He hates being confronted.”

Eve almost smiled. Almost.

Alissa leaned forward a fraction, lowering her voice. “But he also… listens, sometimes. After the anger

fades.”

Eve looked away briefly. “He listens when it benefits him.”

“Maybe,” Alissa said softly. “Or maybe it’s because part of him is still human under all that pride and hurt.”

Eve’s fingers tightened around the cup again. The word human landed too close to the wound she’d been circling since Steven’s visit.

Alissa continued carefully. “He’s been deeply upset since he learned about your adoptive parents.”

Eve’s gaze snapped back. “He told you.”

“Yes,” Alissa said. “Not in detail. Just… he was shaken.”

Eve’s throat tightened. “Why.”

Alissa’s eyes softened. “Because it hit him like losing you all over again.”

Eve went still.

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Alissa spoke gently, but her words didn’t coddle. “He thinks he lost your mother. And then he thinks he lost you. And then he finds out you have a mother and father somewhere else now, people who claimed you

fully, and it reopened something that never healed.”

Eve’s jaw clenched. “So now I’m supposed to carry his grief too.”

Alissa shook her head immediately. “No. No, Eve.” She held Eve’s gaze, firm. “You’re not supposed to carry it. I’m not telling you this to make you responsible for him. I’m telling you because… I think understanding

explains why he reacted with that rage. Not to excuse it.”

Eve’s chest rose and fell slowly.

She didn’t want Steven’s emotions to become her burden.

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