Chapter 30
ALEX
The waitress led them to a secluded spot by the window, but Ruby didn’t even pay attention to the view. She was absent minded. They had gone ring shopping before this, but even that didn’t seem to interest her. He had offered to buy her some additional jewelry, but she wasn’t interested in that either. She had been like that since she came back from seeing her mother this morning. He moved his chair closer to her, so he was sitting next to her rather than opposite her. “What’s the matter?” he asked.
She looked at him with a sad smile on her face. “My father hasn’t checked up on me since I turned eighteen, since my mother got into an accident. We lived in the same house and it was almost like I didn’t exist, but he takes such good care of, Melanie” she says, her voice breaking. “He doesn’t even seem to care whether I’m dead or alive, and being in that room today, watching my mother’s unconscious frame, I just felt utterly alone and helpless.”
He saw the tears pooling in her eyes and grabbed her hand. Watching her almost break down in tears, he couldn’t do it and he hated to see her that way. “I know it isn’t the same, but you have me now, Ruby, he said involuntarily, not knowing if he believed the words coming from his own mouth.
She looked at him and nodded. “I know I do have you,” she said, her eyes filled with so much trust that it physically hurt him to keep looking at her. But still, her eyes never left his as she spoke. “There are a few things I want to do, Alex… but I don’t think that I can do them myself. Will you help me?”
He raised his brow in question and she tightened her grip on his hand. “I want to hire a private investigator. I’d like to look into my mother’s car accident. I know it’s been almost seven years, but some of the details never made any sense to me, and I just need to know. Even if we don’t find anything. I need to be completely certain that there’s nothing to find. Besides, Melanie clearly somehow had access to my mother’s caregivers. Nothing about this sits well with me.”
He smiled at her and lifted her hand to his lips. “Ruby, you know you don’t even have to ask me for something like that. You have a whole security team at your disposal, most of them are ex–FBL Give Blake a call and tell him what you want done. I told you they answer to you now, and you know that the cost isn’t a concem.” he stared back at her with a strange feeling in his chest. With the way she was looking at him right now, he would bring the moon to her feet if she demanded it. Every single thing she had ever asked him for had been for her mother. She had not once asked him for anything for herself not even for his time, Every other woman he had dated in his life never hesitated to selfishly ask for anything that came to their mind, but not Ruby. She wasn’t like all the others.
“There’s more…” she added, sounding soft and unsure.
He dragged his chair closer and wrapped his arm around the back of her chair. “Tell me.”
She bit down on her lip nervously and he took in a sharp intake of breath. He hated seeing her so vulnerable, so breakable. She was his wife, she was Mrs Blackwood. She probably didn’t really know all that it entailed yet, but she was easily amongst one of the most powerful women in the damn country, yet here she sat in front of him, full of nerves, uncertain and hurt. “When my mother became unconscious and I wouldn’t give up on her, my father deceived me, just like he did before our wedding. He said that the only way he would sign the papers that allowed me to be her sole guardian was it documents for him. He told me that if 1 wanted to save my mother’s life, then I’d better be serious about it He said he would never let me take care of her on my own, so I agreed, I had no choice but to sign the papers.” She hesitated, her eyes
I signed some dropping to her lap. He placed his index finger underneath her chin and raised her face so that she was looking at him.
“What is it that you want, wife? If it’s within my power, I will give it to you.” he assured her, meaning every word of it.
She nodded and inhaled deeply. “I want the shares I signed away back. I want everything that’s my mother’s. I don’t care about my father’s stuff, he can keep that. But I want every single thing my mother has worked for. I don’t want Beatrice getting her hands on any of it. I want to go to war with them.” She said with a whole new sense of determination.
He nodded and smiled when he saw the flash of determination and the fire in her eyes. “All right, Mrs Blackwood. Let’s make that happen then, let’s go to war. But what about Cole’s shares?”
She hesitated and stared at him as though she was trying to guess what he was thinking. “I want those too,” she said.
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eventually, the spark back in her eyes again. “I know you hate him, Alex. And I may not know all the details but, I do know that there’s bad blood between you two. So you could treat this as your own revenge. Take whatever you want from him. Take it all. I don’t care. I’m done caring about their feelings when they don’t even give two shits about me. He was happy to let Mom die, so I don’t see why he should have anything she left him.”
He nodded. “With pleasure.” he told her. “This is hardly a request. It’s more of a present to me really. A whole new way to screw over your brother, I’ll gladly do it with a smile on my face
Ruby laughed, but he could see the heartache that she was trying to hide. She still loved her brother, that much was obvious, but it was also inevitable that she lost faith in him. She had given up on him. Cole was a fucking idiot.
Everything was all very gradual, but somehow it all happened very fast at the same time,” she suddenly said. “My mom got into that car accident, and she fell into a comma. For a little while, my father, brother, and I were a team, we were united, we were hoping for her recovery. My grandparents passed away years ago, so all we had was each other. I didn’t even notice Dad slipping away. I was completely blindsided when he introduced me to Beatrice, and I was a wreck when he brought her home with a daughter and said that he was going to marry her. I realized that if he already had a daughter with her that was only one year younger than me, then it must have been happening way longer than I could even comprehend. I was heartbroken for my mother. I expected Cole to side with me, but he didn’t. He welcomed Beatrice and Melanie with open arms, and they returned the love he showed them.”
Ruby inhaled shakily, “I couldn’t do it, Alex. and it caused a lot of friction, a lot of arguments, and endless accusations about my refusal to accept Beatrice into the family. I was accused over and over again of not wanting my father’s happiness, of wanting him to live in the past. And it wasn’t that at all, you know? I was just sad about my mother, you know? and all of a sudden. I was asked to pretend my mother doesn’t even exist. At that point, I didn’t even know my dad was trying to get the doctors to declare her brain dead.”
A tear dropped from her cheek and he caught it with his thumb. She smiled shakily, and she looked so damn broken and hurt. It made him want to tear the world apart for her. She was never supposed to mean anything to him. She wasn’t supposed to be something he’d care about. All he wanted was for her to be his trophy wife, someone to keep his bed warm. someone that would keep his mother happy and entertained, and his grandfather off his back. Someone to support him while he went against his father and took back everything that was his. He shouldn’t care about her tears, but he did. That was where the problem lied.. Ruby Blackwood made him want to give the world to her. And he didn’t know how he felt
about that.
SEND GIFT
