Chapter 89 Ruby

Chapter 89 Ruby


~ Anyssa's Pov ~

Two days hiding away from Ronan and everyone. Two days in my room, back at my father's house.

After giving it much thought, I decided to leave. I showered, dressed nicely, and walked out of my room. My phone pinged with another notification from Ronan, of course.

He should just leave me alone. I'm not ready to talk unless he tells me the truth. Besides, I had decided to start something of my own. I had sent in a few applications to work at a bank. My college certificate was some years old. I shot a quick text to Vanessa. She had been working in Boston for a brand recently, posting on social media, and I couldn't be happier for her.

I continued down the stairs, not noticing when I bumped into someone.

“Finally, you decided to come out.”

“Dad. I've been waiting for you, my sweet.”

He held my hand as we walked downstairs. The house was empty, with some of the servants around but barely anyone else.

“Where is everyone?”

“Oh, your stepmother decided to join the help to cook today. Your sister? I have no idea.”

I nodded and took a seat beside him while Betty brought us coffee.

“So… did you decide not to check your phone while you were rotting inside?”

“Oh, come on, Dad. It's not like I decided to rot inside. I just needed space.”

“From what exactly?”

“From everyone,” I confessed. “He keeps hiding everything from me.”

“He wants to protect you, always. Ronan had a son… Mavis. Everything started after that accident.”

I leaned closer with interest, the coffee mug in my hand.

“Mavis, although married to Ruby, had a particular obsession with you.”

“Why?” I asked, and the door opened wide with Ruby running inside. We both watched her as she ran upstairs and then back down.

Her eyes immediately landed on me, and her expression suddenly turned sour.

“Are you okay?” I asked.She started laughing hysterically, flipping her hair back.

“Oh please, just stop it! Stop pretending… I’ve had enough!”

I slowly set my mug on the side table and stood up.

Ruby marched toward me. “You think you’ve got it all figured out? You think you’re the best because everyone somehow ends up choosing you!”

“I don’t—”

“Anyssa, the kind one. Anyssa the swan. Anyssa never does any wrong. Anyssa is so forgiving,” she spat, disgust written on her face. This was more than disgust—it was hate.

“I’m tired of you!” she screamed. Dad stood up and stepped in front of me.

“Stop this, Ruby.”

“Even you, Dad. I thought you loved me. I’m your daughter, your biological daughter. Not this outcast! Yet you show her more love than you’ve ever shown me.”

“I show you both equal love. Anyssa is my daughter, and I treated her badly, which I’m trying to make up for.”

She took a few steps backward, brushing her hand over her hair. Rosa walked in, and some of the servants stood watching the show.

“Ruby, honey…”

She was acting different, as if she were high or something.

“Mavis left me because of you. Somehow in his fucked-up head, he wanted you. He saw me as nothing but something he acquired. You came into my life and ruined everything! You took my husband from me! You killed him in that accident! And somehow, everyone still took care of you. Dad suddenly changed toward you; even Mom pretended to like you. But what about me? What about me, who suddenly became a widow?”

My heart thrummed in my chest as several questions raced through my head. Flash-like memories clouded my brain, causing me to feel dizzy.

Dad noticed, wedged me against him, and urged me to sit down.

“Ruby, I don’t know what I’ve done to you to warrant this disrespect.”

“Go to your room, Ruby. You’re not in the right state of mind.”

“Anyssa this, Anyssa that. Always the golden child… never the one who fucks up. I thought with Mavis out of the picture, we would be even. But you got married to Ronan, and it pissed the fuck out of me,” she said, pulling out a gun.

Everyone gasped. The servants shook in fright, and I could see the fear run through my father’s eyes. I slowly stood up, trying to hide the fact that I was scared for my life.

“Don’t shoot…” Dad’s voice trailed off.

“I’m not going to shoot you,” she said, and pointed the gun directly at me.

“I want you gone. Maybe if you’re gone, Ronan will finally look at me and not at you! Maybe then, everyone will focus on me for once.”

“D-don’t do this, Ruby,” I stuttered, both my hands in the air.

“I didn’t think you would go through with the wedding, especially with the way you got injured. So I waited for a long time. I waited for over a year before you got pregnant. I was the one who kept drugging you, complicating your pregnancy. On that night—”

“Ruby! Drop the fucking gun!”

Everyone turned to Ronan, who stood at the entrance. He walked toward her, not scared at all. Ruby mellowed slowly, her eyes dropping down, but the gun still pointed at me.

“This isn’t how it should be.”

“You want her, not me. What are you doing here when you just rejected and humiliated me in front of your employees?”She chuckled and faced me.

“I hate you, Anyssa. I will always hate you, and I pray you die by my hands.”

Everything went so fast. I tried to move away, Dad with me, when she pulled the trigger. Ronan rushed in front of me; the bullet hit him in his arm.

He still stood relentlessly, pouncing on Ruby. They both struggled with the gun. Rosa and the servants hid for cover, and another shot rang out—but this time, in Ruby’s leg.

“Fuckkkkkkk!!” she screamed in pain.

Ronan snatched the gun in a flash and threw it across to me. He held her arms together as she tried to resist, tied them with a black rope that appeared from nowhere in his hands, and stood up.

“Fuck you, Ronan! Fuck you! Fuck all of you!”

“Will she be okay?” Rosa asked as she crawled out of her hiding place.

“I hope so.”

I stood up with Dad, and my eyes darted between her and Ronan. My heart thrummed loudly in my chest because of fear.

What else had happened three years ago?