The Billionaire's Silent Wife (Ryan and Eve) novel Chapter 47

Chapter 47 The House of Ghosts

Eve’s POV

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The road to Bexlin stretched endlessly before her, gray and glinting beneath a low sky. The city skyline rose like a bruise on the horizon, familiar, unwelcoming. Eve sat in the back seat of the taxi, hands clasped over her small, trembling belly, feeling the weight of everything she was returning to.

Her pulse throbbed at her throat. Every breath hurt.

She could still remember this city as the place where her dreams had died quietly, behind marble walls, beneath silken sheets, in a house that smelled of wealth and loneliness. Now,

she was coming back not as a wife, not even as a woman seeking closure, but as a living ghost returning to clean up the debris of her own disappearance.

The driver hummed softly to the radio, unaware that the woman in the back seat was counting down her heartbeats.

Four months, she thought bitterly. Only four months and everything has changed.

Her fingers drifted to her belly, resting protectively there. The life inside her was small, silent,

a secret she carried like a fragile promise. “Just a little longer,” she whispered under her breath. “We’ll do what we came to do and leave. I’ll get us out.”

The driver turned the corner, and the Ashbrook mansion came into view, tall iron gates, pristine hedges, the same cold grandeur that had once taken her breath away.

The moment the taxi stopped, her palms went clammy.

Nothing had changed. Not the manicured lawn. Not the sharp-edged perfection of the marble steps. Not the silence that seemed to hum in the air around the place.

She paid the driver, her hands shaking, and stepped out,

The gates slid open automatically, She froze.

For a moment, it startled her, the sensors still remembered her signature. After all these months, Ryan hadn’t updated the system.

Her chest tightened. It shouldn’t have meant anything, but it did.

Maybe a small part of him hadn’t let her go either.

The path to the door felt longer than it used to. Her footsteps echoed faintly. The main doors

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< Chapter 47 The House of Ghosts

recognized her fingerprint, and the soft click of unlocking sounded like betrayal.

When she stepped inside, the air was the same, cold, expensive, empty.

Nothing had changed.

Her heart clenched at the sight of the familiar furniture, the untouched glass vases, the neatly folded throw on the couch. Four months ago, she had walked out of this house.

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And now she was back, standing in the same living room where she had once begged to be

heard.

For a moment, she thought she was alone. Then footsteps echoed from the hallway.

Her breath caught.

Ryan appeared.

He looked different, leaner, sharper. The grief had carved new edges into his face, and the faint stubble on his jaw made him look almost cruel. But his eyes, those storm-gray eyes,

were still the same.

They froze when they met hers.

Neither of them moved. The silence stretched between them like a wire drawn too tight.

Then his gaze dropped, and he saw it, her belly. Small, barely noticeable, but enough.

The change in him was instant. His body tensed, his expression shifting from disbelief to fury so fast it was dizzying. His hands clenched into fists, his jaw locked.

Eve’s heart sank. She had known this would happen, but seeing it in his eyes was worse than she’d imagined.

He tried to breathe, once, twice, before speaking, his voice raw. “Eve.”

She swallowed hard, lifting her chin even though her insides were trembling. “I didn’t want to come here,” she said softly, “But your sister said my father told the police you’d murdered me. I came to clear your name. That’s all.”

Her tone was controlled, distant.

Ryan’s lips twitched in something that wasn’t quite a smile. He took a slow step forward.” You came to clear my name?”

”

“Yes.”

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< Chapter 47 The House of Ghosts

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“After taking ten million dollars to do it.” His voice was quiet, but every word landed like a blow. “After disappearing for months. After…” His eyes flicked to her stomach again, rage and heartbreak tangling in his voice. “After this.”

She said nothing.

He laughed once, bitterly. “To think I was beating myself up for you. Searching everywhere like a fool. Fighting everyone, my parents, the press, my own sanity. I was losing my mind while you were out there playing house in Westwood, having the time of your life.”

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