The Billionaire's Silent Wife (Ryan and Eve) novel Chapter 84

84 The House He Returns To

Eve hadn’t expected home to feel so heavy.

When the car rolled to a stop in the driveway, the familiar outline of the Ashbrook mansion rose before her like a memory she’d spent a lifetime running from. She stared at it through the windshield, the wide marble steps, the tall glass windows, the manicured lawn too perfect to be real, and the dread settled in her chest

like a stone plunging into deep water.

Ryan noticed.

He always noticed.

His hand brushed hers before he killed the engine. “I’ll drop you inside first, okay?”

She nodded even though her throat was tight. The Rodrigos’ warmth still clung to her like a comfort she wasn’t ready to let go of. Bexlin’s cold reality came creeping the moment the car turned into the gates. Returning here felt like walking barefoot into a battlefield.

Inside, Ryan set down their bags and breathed in the scent of lemon polish and expensive silence. This place never felt like hers. They belonged to people who hated her existence.

Ryan touched her cheek lightly. “I’ll go see my father. I won’t be long.”

Her worry spiked instantly. “Alone?”

“It’ll be fine,” he said, though the shadows under his eyes betrayed him. “I just need to see him.”

She wanted to go with him.

She wanted to stand beside him.

But she knew this moment, this confrontation, needed to be his.

“Call me,” she whispered.

“I will.”

He kissed her forehead softly, then turned and left.

The door shut behind him with a quiet finality, but it echoed through Eve’s chest like thunder.

The drive to the hospital wasn’t long, but it felt endless.

Ryan gripped the steering wheel with more force than necessary, his knuckles white, his jaw clenched. The city blurred past him, grey buildings, traffic lights, the blur of pedestrians, none of it registering. All he felt was a mixture of frustration, resentment, and a bone-deep exhaustion that no amount of sleep could fix.

He pulled into the hospital’s parking lot and shut off the engine. For a moment, he just sat there, breathing,

gathering the pieces of himself he needed to walk through those doors.

On the passenger seat lay a get-well-soon card he had chosen reluctantly and a bouquet of soft blue lilies.

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84 The House He Returns To

They looked out of place in his world, fragile, hopeful, gentle. Things he didn’t feel.

But he had brought them anyway.

He stepped out of the car, squared his shoulders, and walked inside.

+25 Points

The hospital lobby was crowded. Too crowded. Reporters hovered near the entrance like vultures sensing blood. Flashing lights, murmured questions, cameras, all waiting, waiting for the son of the man who had

disgraced his own name.

Security ushered him through quickly, but he could feel every eye tracing his steps.

The hallway leading to his father’s room was mercifully quieter. But even there, he saw nurses whispering, staff glancing his way. Ryan wasn’t the one who caused the scandal, but he carried the surname, and in

this world, family sins clung like tar.

When he reached the private ward, the door was slightly ajar.

He pushed it open.

His father lay in the hospital bed, looking physically well, too well, yet somehow utterly defeated. The man who once commanded boardrooms with a single look now couldn’t even meet his own son’s eyes. Shame

stuck to him like a second skin.

Beside him sat Leah.

Ryan’s mother turned the moment she sensed someone enter. Her eyes were swollen from crying, her hair slightly dishevelled, but her posture, stiff-backed, dignified, never faltered. She moved like a woman who

believed the world owed her something.

When she saw Ryan, something inside her snapped.

She marched toward him.

Before he could speak,

Before he could even set the flowers down,

She slapped him.

Hard.

The impact stung across his cheek, but he didn’t flinch. He simply stared at her, not surprised, not angry, just deeply, utterly tired.

“You waited two days,” she said through a trembling voice. “Two days, Ryan. Before coming home.”

He exhaled, quietly. “Mother, ”

“Is that slut more important than your family?” Leah hissed, her words sharp enough to cut. “Than us?” Her voice cracked. “She has you wrapped around her fingers. You’re a fool. A fool for her.”

His jaw tightened.

84 The House He Returns To

+25 Points

“I have told you,” Ryan said, voice calm but edged with steel, “not to use such words to describe my wife.”

Leah stepped back, blinking angrily.

“My wife.”

He said it deliberately.

Defiantly.

He turned slightly, reaching for the flowers again, but she slapped them out of his hand. They crashed to

the floor, petals scattering like wounded fragments.

“And this?” she demanded, gesturing to the bouquet now lying crushed. “You think flowers can fix what your father has done? What he’s going through? What we’re going through?”

She moved to block the bed, as if Ryan were a threat.

“You’re not going near him.”

Anger simmered beneath Ryan’s composure, but he swallowed it. Slowly, he bent and picked up the flowers, not because he cared about them, but because he refused to let her see him break.

“Two days, Ryan,” she repeated, quieter this time. “Why?”

Her voice wasn’t angry now.

It was wounded.

And Ryan hated how guilt pricked him despite everything.

“Why didn’t you come?”

He exhaled deeply.

“Because I couldn’t help you,” he said simply. “I care, but what do you want me to do? How do you expect

me to fix this with blind loyalty?”

Leah stared, stunned by the sharpness of his tone.

Father shifted slightly in the bed, still unable to lift his eyes. Shame clung to him so tightly it made Ryan’s

chest burn.

“Dad did those things,” Ryan continued bitterly. “And he was stupid enough to let the help know. Now look at the consequences. Look at what’s happening outside.” He gestured vaguely toward the hall where reporters hovered like shadows. “This entire mess has stained everything. It has created a disaster for me

at the company. I’m cleaning up after him again.”

Leah’s eyes glistened, but she didn’t move.

“I couldn’t rush back,” Ryan said. “I needed peace. I needed to clear my head.” His voice softened, honest in a way he rarely allowed himself to be. “I needed… happiness. Joy. Something good. I couldn’t leave that

and run back into hell.”

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He gestured to the cold, suffocating room.

“This is hell for me.”

Leah’s breath hitched.

+25 Points

“Do you know what it will take to salvage this?” Ryan asked. “To repair the company, the board, the

shareholders, the name? And Steven…” His jaw clenched. “Steven said this is nothing. Nothing compared

to other things he has on both of you.”

Leah paled instantly.

Even his father flinched.

“That’s why I couldn’t rush back,” Ryan whispered, and for the first time since he entered the room, he

looked exhausted enough to collapse. “Because I can’t handle all of this.”

Leah stared at him for a long moment, her expression crumpling, her anger shifting into something hollow

and fearful.

Yet hurt drove her tongue sharper.

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