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Chapter 22
publish date:
2025-11-25 21:04:01
Latest chapter
Worthless In Their Eyes, Perfect In His Chapter 85
Ruby's POVI picked out a plain green dress for work, the one with the small pockets at the hip that made carrying my phone around easier when I didn't want to deal with a bag all day. Joey didn't comment on it this time, which I took as approval.I tied my hair back, grabbed my keys off the dresser, and headed downstairs. The driver was already waiting by the car when I came out, and the drive to the museum passed the way it usually did, quiet streets giving way to busier ones, the radio playing low.Linda caught me near the front desk the moment I walked in, my bag still over my shoulder."Everything all right?" she asked."I had a family emergency," I said. "It's handled now."She nodded like that satisfied her completely and didn't push further, which I was grateful for. I made my way to the back office, tucked my bag under the desk, and got the cataloguing log open before Andrew found me."You're back," he said, leaning against the doorframe."I'm back.""You were away for two da
Worthless In Their Eyes, Perfect In His Chapter 84
Ruby's POVI worked past dinner without noticing it had passed. The base layer dried enough by then for me to start building on top of it, and once I started, time stopped mattering the way it always did when a piece finally found its shape.I'd settled on a figure standing in water, knee deep in a river that wasn't quite real and wasn't quite imagined, somewhere between the two. I built the riverbed up with the modeling paste first, working in long strokes to suggest current, then pressed thin strips of plastic wrap into the wet surface and peeled them back slowly. The texture it left behind caught the light in broken, shifting patterns, almost like real water moving.For the figure herself I used actual fabric, a scrap of sheer white cotton soaked in diluted paint and pressed into the canvas, letting it dry stiff and folded the way a dress might cling to someone standing in a current. I built her face last with a few careful strokes for the eyes and the line of a jaw, leaving the
Worthless In Their Eyes, Perfect In His Chapter 83
Ruby's POVI changed out of the court clothes the moment we got home, glad to be out of the formal fabric and back into something that actually let me move. My studio corner, the one Malcolm had cleared out for me weeks ago without making a big deal of it, had paint tubes lined up on the desk and a canvas leaning against the wall, untouched for days.I pulled the canvas onto the easel and stood back, looking at it. Flat acrylic wasn't going to cut it this time. I wanted something that came off the surface. I wanted layers that a person could actually feel if they reached out, even if the gallery would tell them not to. I'd been thinking about it for days. Mixed media would be the best as a competition entry. It will have built up texture with modeling paste, real fabric pressed into wet paint, maybe wire underneath to give certain shapes real depth instead of just the illusion of it.I started mixing the modeling paste, scraping it across a test board to check the texture, when I he
Worthless In Their Eyes, Perfect In His Chapter 82
Ruby's POVThe party wound down close to late evening. By then most of the guests had filtered out, leaving behind crumpled napkins and half-finished glasses for the cleaning staff to deal with in the morning. Malcolm walked the last few people to the door himself, thanking them, shaking hands one more time.I didn't see June again after she walked off from the cake table. She'd disappeared somewhere upstairs before the candles were even blown out, and nobody mentioned it, like that was just how June left rooms now.That night, the house had gone quiet in a different way. Malcolm had been on the phone with his lawyer most of the morning, his voice low through the closed room door.I caught pieces of it walking past— Court date, witness statement, June's name mentioned more than once. That was when I decided to go upstairs. I knocked on June's door twice before she answered."What?""Can I come in?"There was a pause. Then the door opened a few inches, just enough for her to look at m
Worthless In Their Eyes, Perfect In His Chapter 81
Ruby's POVTHE NEXT DAY, MALCOLM'S BIRTHDAYThe mansion looked different by evening. Caterers had taken over the kitchen since noon and string lights ran along the garden fence outside. By seven the driveway was already lined with cars I didn't recognize. I stood in front of my mirror doing one last check. The dress was navy, simple, with sleeves that hit just past my elbow. Joey had picked it two hours earlier and refused to let me change my mind."You look fine," she said now, when I turned sideways for the third time."I look fine or I look good?""Both, just stop touching your hair."I dropped my hand and grabbed my clutch.Downstairs, the living room had been rearranged. Furniture pushed back. There was a long table near the window holding drinks, and at least thirty people were already moving through the space in small clusters. Malcolm stood near the entrance in a dark suit, shaking hands, accepting claps on the back. He spotted me crossing the room and something in his face
Worthless In Their Eyes, Perfect In His Chapter 80
Ruby's POVJune was discharged two days later. I followed Malcolm to the hospital to pick her up. The drive home was quiet in a way that was different from the quiet in the hospital.June sat in the back. I sat in the front with Malcolm driving. She had not said much to either of us since the night she woke up and found us both there. She answered the doctors. She ate what was brought to her. She let the nurses do what they needed to do. But she had not really spoken.When we pulled into the driveway and the car stopped she got out before either of us had opened our doors. Malcolm and I exchanged a look and got out. She was already at the front door.Malcolm opened it and she went straight upstairs without looking at either of us. He followed her. I stayed downstairs and gave them space. I went to the kitchen and put the kettle on because I needed to do something with my hands and tea was the most neutral thing I could think of.I heard their voices upstairs after a few minutes. I cou
Worthless In Their Eyes, Perfect In His Chapter 70
Malcolm's POVShe was asleep. I could tell by the way her breathing had evened out and her eyes were closed and she nestled in my arms. She looked different when she was asleep.I was on my back with her curled into my side and my arm around her and I was looking at the ceiling.I had not slept. I w
Worthless In Their Eyes, Perfect In His Chapter 69
The room went very quiet. Malcolm understood what I meant "Did he touch you?" he asked. His voice was even but there was something under it that was not even at all.“He tried to once.”I was crying properly now, not loudly. Just tears running down my face that I was not stopping anymore because I
Worthless In Their Eyes, Perfect In His Chapter 62
He smiled at that. "If I were you, I would still chase my dreams. Contract or no contract. Whatever arrangement you are in with whoever you are in it with, that is separate from who you are as a person and what you want for yourself. You should not have to shrink what you want because someone else
Worthless In Their Eyes, Perfect In His Chapter 61
Ruby's POVI could not sleep properly. I kept waking up and then lying there staring at nothing and then almost falling asleep and then waking up again. By five in the morning I gave up and just got out of bed. I sat on the edge of the mattress for a while doing nothing. Then I got up, brushed my
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