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.

taking any dance lesson because it wasn’t befitting of a girl in their social class but no. She wouldn’t listen

was her daughter after all. She’d tried to forgive. But every time she looked at Ivy, she saw the

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 her. Ivy was supposed to be wearing that

all the good things meant for her sister, she’d become greedy, wanting to keep them for herself. She wanted to steal another piece

clenched around the edge of

couldn’t allow this to go

was born for it. Groomed for it. She

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

them. Creating connections. Closing deals. And finally, they had

had messed everything up. Again. Just because she’d stepped in

humorless laugh escaped Regina’s lips. "She doesn’t

up abruptly, her energy

Not just to fix the present... but to correct the

the

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

And Ivy?

rightfully hers. No one would question it. Not with Regina orchestrating it all from behind the

window that overlooked the front lawn. The sun was

a

For Ivy. For all the

chance to help the family.

to allow sentiment to cloud

had always been good at

stop until Ruby was out of

but to go back to the love of his life—Ivy. She thought with a

his parked car, just outside the sleek glass building that bore his company’s

looked composed—now dressed in one of his usual tailored suits, sunglasses concealing puffy eyes from lack of sleep, posture relaxed as he leaned back in the leather seat. But inside, his mind was anything but

anxiously on the armrest as

he needed to confront and now he needed to find his real wife