The Billionaire's Silent Wife (Ryan and Eve) novel Chapter 79

79 THE CRISIS CALL 2

For a long moment, he stood there in the quiet alley, the weight of years pressing on his shoulders. Then his phone buzzed again, another call. He glanced at the screen and saw Kim berly. Of course.

He answered.

“Ryan! I’m trapped, reporters outside the house, Mom’s losing it, Dad won’t wake up, please, you have to come,”

He ended the call mid-sentence. He couldn’t deal with her hysteria. Not now.

When he returned inside, the noise of the restaurant washed over him like balm. Laughter, music, the sizzling of oil. For a few seconds, he could almost pretend the world outside didn’t exist.

Eve looked up from behind the counter. “Everything okay?”

He nodded. “Just work.”

But his eyes were darker now, the storm barely contained.

After closing, they gathered around a small table at the back of the restaurant, Camila, Mitre, Eve, and Ryan. The night crowd had thinned; the chairs were upturned, the lights dimmed. Camila poured coffee into mismatched cups, her motherly fussing a comfort Eve hadn’t realised she needed.

Mitre was telling an old story about how he and Camila had met when Ryan’s phone vibrated again across the table. He reached for it, hesitated, then ignored it. Eve caught the motion but pretended not to notice.

Camila leaned toward Eve. “You should eat more, niña. You’re getting thin.”

Eve smiled weakly. “I’m fine, mamá,”

Mitre patted her shoulder. “You’ve always been too brave for your own good.”

Ryan smiled faintly at their banter, though his thoughts were far away, back in Bexlin, in the corridors of his father’s empire now trembling under the weight of scandal. He didn’t want to tell them what was happening. Not tonight. He just wanted a few hours of peace.

Then, out of nowhere, the phone rang again. The sound cut through the laughter like a blade.

This time he answered.

It wasn’t Leah or Kimberly. It was his lawyer.

Ryan’s jaw tightened. “Thank you, Julian,” he said curtly, then hung up.

He stared at the phone for a long time before calling Steven.

The call connected on the first ring.

“Well,” Steven said, voice thick with smug amusement, “I see you finally understand the meaning of leverage. It won’t let up Ryan,”

Ryan’s voice was quiet, lethal. “You went too far. He is currently in the hospital. Once they are dead it ends.”

Steven laughed, the sound grating and ugly. “Oh, really. You don’t know the half of it. Too far? Oh, my boy, this is only the beginning. I told your family to stop pretending they could defy me. But no, they thought I was bluffing. So now the world knows what your noble father really is. A criminal in a suit.”

“You think this makes you powerful?” Ryan asked coldly. “You’ve just declared war.”

“Oh, I was born in war,” Steven snapped. “You Ashbrooks never understood that. I clawed my way up from the dirt while your family drank champagne on rooftops. I made your father and mother free; I gave them their freedom. They’d be behind bars, everything lost, if it weren’t for me! And now he’s forgotten his debts. Well, I haven’t. You all want to play high society? Let’s see how you like prison food. I have enough to end the Ashbrook legacy. Don’t test me, Ryan.”