Transmigrated: I Became My Nemesis's Woman novel Chapter 158

Chapter 158: Ivy ... I’m sorry

France’s eyes flickered with amusement. He had always found Ivy attractive, but seeing her stand before him so boldly only made her even more enticing in his eyes.

"You really think Xander will keep you once he finds out you tried to seduce your own stepbrother?" France taunted, the corners of his lips curling into a sinister grin.

The remark only filled Ivy with disgust.

"You may be with that man now," France continued, his smile fading as his expression darkened, "but don’t forget who you truly belong to."

Ivy stared at him without flinching.

He was nothing more than a vile man who had made her life miserable—not only while she lived in the Ford household, but even after she escaped that suffocating place.

"You think blackmailing me will get you what you want?" she asked coldly. "Looking at your face doesn’t just disgust me—it makes me want to wipe that smug expression off it until you finally understand who you’re dealing with."

She took a deliberate step closer, her eyes blazing with a fierceness France had never seen before.

"Go ahead. Do whatever you think you can," Ivy said. "But let me warn you, France—I am not the frightened girl I used to be. Back then, you manipulated the situation and twisted everything against me because you were too much of a coward to face the truth. If you try it again, I’ll make sure you pay for it."

Despite the music and conversations echoing through the hall, every one of her words reached him clearly.

And for reasons he couldn’t explain, they unsettled him.

The timid girl he used to intimidate into silence was gone.

In her place stood a woman he barely recognized.

"We’ll see about that," France replied, masking the unease creeping into his chest with a confident smirk.

Deep down, he still believed Ivy couldn’t stand against him. He had always relied on intimidation and power, convinced she would eventually break under pressure.

Holding her gaze for another moment, he turned and walked away.

Ivy watched him leave, her jaw clenched and anger simmering beneath her composed exterior.

Raven had no idea how Ivy had endured years in the Ford household. Every member of that family seemed twisted in one way or another, but France was by far the worst.

Just thinking about him made Raven want to tear him apart.

"Why didn’t you stand up for yourself, Ivy?" Raven murmured under her breath, unable to hide the frustration in her voice.

Ivy didn’t answer.

The encounter with France had left a bitter taste in her mouth, and all she wanted now was to leave the reunion as quickly as possible. But she couldn’t—not yet.

She still hadn’t found the person she had come here looking for.

Nathan... where are you? she wondered, her eyes scanning the crowded hall.

Out of everyone from her past, Nathan was the only one she had ever truly trusted. If there was one familiar face she wanted to see tonight, it was his.

Watching Ivy search the room, Raven’s thoughts drifted elsewhere.

She remembered the photograph of Nathan she had once seen on Ivy’s phone. Curious about the man who meant so much to her, Raven had quietly asked Sal to look into his whereabouts.

What Sal uncovered, however, was something Raven had never expected.

The information was so surprising that even now, she was still trying to make sense of it.

Ivy’s eyes continued searching the crowd for a familiar face, but no matter where she looked, Nathan was nowhere to be seen.

"Is everything okay? You don’t seem to be enjoying yourself."

Kevin approached her after noticing the tense exchange between her and France.

At first, he had assumed it was nothing more than an ordinary conversation between siblings. But the longer he watched, the more he sensed that something was wrong. He waited until France walked away before making his way over.

Ivy turned to look at Kevin, giving him a suspicious glance that made him immediately raise both hands in surrender.

"Hey, don’t look at me like that," he said with an awkward chuckle. "I wasn’t spying on you. I just happened to see you talking to France, and something about it didn’t sit right with me."

Kevin was being honest. Even back in school, he had never liked the way France hovered around Ivy. There had always been something unsettling in the man’s gaze whenever he looked at her—a predatory glint that Kevin had never been able to ignore.

Ivy’s expression softened slightly.

"Don’t worry," she said. "He heard exactly what he wanted to hear."

Then she folded her arms and looked Kevin up and down with a faint smile.

"But you haven’t changed either. You’re still just as persistent as ever."

Kevin laughed and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Some habits are hard to break," he admitted. "Besides, someone has to make sure you’re doing okay."

"Thanks, but I can take care of myself," Ivy replied with a polite smile.

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