Ryan froze at the top of the stairs, Eve’s letter still crushed in his hand. His mother’s voice, shrill and sharp, pierced the walls again.
“Don’t pretend you can’t hear me!” Leah snapped. “You should be ashamed of yourself, parading by my son’s side while the whole city whispers. Three years, you gold-digging b***h! Three years of humiliation. How much longer do we have to endure this charade? Have some dignity and leave my son alone!”
Her words scraped along his nerves, igniting a fire he didn’t know he still had in him. Every syllable carried venom, the kind Eve had absorbed in silence for far too long. If Eve had still been here, if she had walked into the room just now, Leah would have cut her to pieces with that tongue.
But Eve wasn’t here to take it anymore.
Ryan descended the s
