Substitute Wife For The Blind CEO

Chapter 84: Unbelievable!

He didn’t sleep that night. Not even for a second. Just lay there in the heavy dark, waiting for the sun to rise like it might bring her back. f|ree(w)ebn\o.vel.com

But morning came cold and hollow.

By six-thirty, Stefan was showered and dressed in black slacks and a charcoal sweater—he’d picked up before leaving— simple but clean. His face in the mirror looked unfamiliar—haunted. He hadn’t shaved. His eyes were bloodshot, jaw tight. But he didn’t care.

He wasn’t going for a reunion.

He was going to face the woman who’d orchestrated the beginning of this collapse.

His mother. Elizabeth Winters.

The woman who had smiled and said she loved him while helping replace his bride with another. The woman who had knowingly allowed Ruby to carry the burden, thinking she was protecting him. The same woman who had welcomed Ivy back like a prodigal daughter while the real woman who had held Stefan’s heart walked out the door with tears in her eyes and a life growing inside her.

He slammed the door of the hotel room behind him without hesitation and once he got into his car, he drove off.

The streets of Zeden blurred around him, and he barely felt the weight of the steering wheel beneath his hands. His thoughts were on fire. His heart was a drum of fury.

You don’t get to call it love if it’s built on silence and betrayal. How could his mother ever do something like that? He didn’t need to think much since he’d be getting the answers straight from her any moment. He told himself as he focused on the road and soon he arrived at his mother’s place.

As he pulled into the driveway of his family’s estate, the gates opened without resistance. Familiar. Automatic.

But he wasn’t the same son returning home.

He was a man on the edge.

Elizabeth was in the sitting room when he walked in, a book in her lap, glasses perched on her nose. She looked up at the sound of his footsteps and blinked.

"Stefan," she said, surprised. "You left the office early yesterday. I was—"

He held up a hand, stopping her cold.

"Don’t," he said sharply. "Not a word. Not yet."

drawing together, concern etched across her delicate features. "What do you mean?

to face her, his voice

clouding her features even more. "Do

room like lightning. "Don’t lie to me, and don’t even pretend with me, not now. You knew the truth about Ivy. You knew she left. You knew

found out so soon? What had Ivy done? Had

didn’t know what to say, whether to come clean or deny the

thing or if letting Ivy back thinking she was the real person

would you let her stay, knowing she wasn’t the woman I was supposed to marry? And after she stayed, why did you cast her out that

"I— I thought I was protecting

By letting me fall in love with someone under false pretenses, only to rip her away when the truth finally

looked down.

breath caught. "Scared of what exactly?" he half yelled

things together. I didn’t expect you to fall for her or for her to fall for you. I thought I could let her stay beside you until I y returned and knowing she was the one you loved, I thought letting Ruby go was the best thing to do. I didn’t know you’d fall for her

the only thing that wasn’t a lie. The only real thing in the middle of all this. She loved and

meant to hurt you, son. I

he said, voice like stone. "Because if I don’t—if something happens to her

a step forward, face inches

just break loose, Mother. I’ll bring

her face pale

left her, his words echoing like gunshots in

She loved and nurtured me with everything in her... And you let her walk away like she was

that clung to her—it was the revelation. Ruby was

She hadn’t known.

seen it. Hadn’t

didn’t she

it. How far along was she? Did she leave because of the baby? Did Ivy know and keep it from her? Or worse... did Regina know? Where was

either of those women had known and kept it

made a colossal mistake, but she was not going to sit back and wallow in regret. No. That wasn’t who she was. She had lost control once—letting emotions blind her, letting Ivy back into Stefan’s life under the illusion of repair—but she wasn’t going to let her son pay the

would fix this. She had to fix

forward, she needed answers. She needed to know the extent of the deception. She needed to hear it from