Substitute Wife For The Blind CEO

Chapter 86: Rightful Place

As soon as Elizabeth left the house, slamming the front door with a level of finality that made the chandelier above the dining table tremble, Regina rose from the couch. Her perfectly manicured nails trembled slightly as she picked up her phone, her face set in stone.

She waited until the sound of the gate shutting reached her ears before dialing a number she hadn’t used in a long time. The line rang once... twice... then a click.

"You’ve reached me," a male voice said.

"It’s me," Regina said sharply, wasting no time. "I need you to find someone. My daughter, Ruby."

There was a pause on the other end. "Ruby? When last did you see her?"

"Three days ago," Regina snapped, her voice tight with irritation and urgency. "She’s not in the city anymore. I’m sure of it. Start at all the travel counters. Bus stations, airports, private transport companies... everything. She must’ve left Zeden."

The man on the other end didn’t ask questions. He’d worked with Regina long enough to know better. "Understood. I’ll report once I have something."

The call ended, leaving a heavy silence in its wake. free\we\bnov(e)(l).com

Regina stood there for a moment, the phone still clutched in her hand. The quiet of the living room felt suffocating. She slowly sank back into the armchair, her eyes fixated on a photo frame on the wall—a family portrait taken nearly a decade ago.

Her husband stood tall, smiling, with his arm wrapped around Ivy’s shoulder. Ivy had been just a teenager then, bright-eyed and full of promise. Regina sat beside them, and on the far end, Ruby stood stiffly, her smile hesitant, her hands clasped in front of her or that was what she wanted to see. Even in that moment, Ruby had always felt like the outsider. The one who didn’t quite fit. The one who ruined everything.

Regina swallowed the lump rising in her throat.

She needed to find Ruby. As soon as possible. Before either Stefan or Elizabeth did. She couldn’t allow them find her and chase her daughter out of her matrimonial home.

"I have to fix this," she whispered to herself, her voice cracking ever so slightly. "For Ivy. For our family."

She stared at the floor, her mind spiraling.

This was Ruby’s fault. All of it.

Her husband had died because of Ruby. If she hadn’t insisted on taking that dance lesson in another city... If she hadn’t begged her father to accompany her... If she hadn’t distracted him with that silly roadside accident on the way back home... he wouldn’t have been there at that exact moment. He wouldn’t have pulled over. He wouldn’t have been shot.

A robbery gone wrong, they had called it.

always been Ruby’s fault. She had been against Ruby taking any dance lesson because it wasn’t befitting of a girl in their social class but no. She wouldn’t listen and her

after all. She’d tried to forgive. But every time she looked at Ivy, she saw the girl who had lost a father. And every

had taken Ivy’s place and didn’t want to return it. They all knew it was Ivy’s place—to be Stefan’s wife. She had only stepped in to help her sister so why wouldn’t she quietly leave and let her sister have what was rightfully hers? Ivy was meant to be living in that mansion, not

for her sister, she’d become greedy, wanting to keep them for herself. She

clenched around the edge of

allow this to go

life," she muttered. "She was born for it. Groomed for it. She wouldn’t be able to live another life that

Ivy had once dreamt aloud about the kind of wedding she wanted. About a

building those dreams with her. Nurturing them. Creating connections. Closing deals. And finally, they had landed

messed everything up. Again. Just because

lips. "She doesn’t even realize what

her energy

fix the

away was the best thing

her to convince Stefan it was Ivy. Or convince her to never show her face in Zeden anymore. Regina

And Ivy?

rightfully hers. No one would question it. Not with Regina

slowly toward the large window that overlooked the front lawn. The

had a debt

Ivy. For all the pain

help the family.

purpose. There was too much at stake to allow sentiment to cloud her judgment now.

been good at

stop until Ruby was out of

would have no choice but to go back to

from there, Stefan sat alone in the backseat of his parked car, just outside the sleek glass building that bore his company’s

of his usual tailored suits, sunglasses concealing puffy eyes from lack of sleep, posture relaxed as he leaned back

fingers drummed anxiously on the armrest

to confront and now he