Chapter 31
RUBY
“I found out about that the day my father married Beatrice. That’s when the insurance company called me to say they’d stop paying for her care. I was foolish, because I laughed it off. I was Ruby Smith, after all. I knew we had the money. What I didn’t expect was how hard Beatrice was going to work at erasing every trace of my mother. It started with things around the house, simple things like decorations and furniture around the House, and then it moved to the relationships we had. The Blackwoods, and your mother in particular, are close friends of my mother’s, so Beatrice stopped me from hanging out with Scott, probably because she didn’t want the reminder. If I refused to listen, she’d make sure that I couldn’t go see my mother at the hospital for weeks, so I obeyed, and slowly but surely, I ended up losing all my friends. I’d been so focused on my mother, and I’d been so young. I just didn’t realize what she was doing, not until it was too late. When she convinced my dad to stop paying for my mother’s care, I was all alone. I had no connections left, no one to reach out to. All I had was my trust fund, and I could only pray that it was enough.”
She tried her best to quell the rage she felt, the need to punch her father in the face for everything he had put her through, and from the way that Alex was clenching his jaw, she could tell that he also felt the same need to punch the man in the face.
“I’m sorry I never really asked you to go in depth about this, I should have.” Alex apologized with a remorseful expression on
his face
“It’s okay, it’s not your fault.” she said to him assuringly.
“Do you know what happened to the shares you had in your father’s company? Everyone knows he wouldn’t have come as far as he has without your mother–she famously provided him with the start–up money in return for half his company’s shares. I’ve heard the story at least a dozen times” Alex said.
She nodded and bit down on her lip. “Yes, she did do that. Cole and I inherited those shares. Dad wasn’t able to take my shares from me directly, but he did manage to sign them over to Cole instead, before I turned eighteen. So long as the shares go to either my brother or me, he can get away with that I haven’t fought him on it. I care more about everything my mother built. I’m not really interested in my father’s company.” she had a wistful expression on her face as she spoke. Her mind seemed so far away, even though she was trying her hardest to stay in the present. It was always hard not to drift back off to the past, to relive everything she had been through in the hands of those that were supposed to protect and stand up
for her.
Alex gritted his teeth and shook his head. “Every single thing you’ve lost, Ruby, we’ll get back. Everything.”
She looked up at him with a sparkle of hope in her eyes, but she could feel the fire douse almost as soon as it was lit. she couldn’t dare put her faith in Alex Blackwood, not after everything she had been through. He was essentially telling her he would give her back everything that her family owned, and that was hard to believe, no matter how hard she tried, She could only hope that it wasn’t impossible
“When I gave you the terms of our marriage, I was after a simple girl, someone that would feel so indebted to me that she’d stay out of my way. Someone that wouldn’t dare bother me with useless expectations and notions of love. Ruby, you’re everything I thought I wanted, but now I find myself wanting to give you everything that you’re refusing to ask for. I want you to rely on me more. I want you to ask me for help. I want you to use every single connection I’ve got to regain everything you’ve lost.” Alex said with determination in his eyes.
“Why?” she asked in a small voice.
He hesitated for a while, looking like he was deep in thought before he shook his head. “I don’t know the answer to that either, Ruby,
She wanted to believe him, she wanted to trust in him and his words. But was that even advisable? Wasn’t it stupid to put her trust in a man who would rather die than allow himself to feel anything for her? A man who had forbidden her from having expectations of any kind. She knew the answer. It was simple. Ye… it was stupid, but she was stupid too, because she looked him dead in the eyes and nodded, giving herself to him. “Okay”
He smiled at her, and she felt an air of freedom around her. One that she somehow knew wouldn’t last very long. She had
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Chapter 31
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decided to go to war against her father and his family, and she knew that it wouldn’t be an easy feat. it wasn’t even the technicalities that bothered her, it was her emotions. Despite how she currently felt about her father and brother, it didn’t completely wipe away the years and years of love and affection that she had for them. A love that she had felt from the moment that she was born. She had known them for as long as she had lived. Would she really be able to stay strong till the end? Would she really be able to keep her emotions from betraying her? This wasn’t something that she wanted to start and then abandon or give up halfway on, just because she felt remorseful or anything like that?
“Cheers?” Alex asked, lifting his wine glass.
She smiled and lifted hers too, clinking both their glasses. “Cheers.”
She sipped her wine with a whole new sense of bravery. She was going to go all the way with this fight, no matter what it cost her, no matter what it took from her. If she couldn’t do it for herself, then she would do it for her mother. She would do it so that her mother had a home to wake up to, a new life and a sense of security in that new life. With this thought in mind, she plastered a smile on her face and downed the remainder of her wine.
SEND GIFT
