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Chapter 9

Author: Marblewrites
last update publish date: 2025-11-08 20:08:25

Malcolm's POV

I was met with a surprise when I walked through the restaurant door with Eleanor. Eleanor, a family friend and business associate, had insisted that I be present at the meeting she'd be having with a particular fashion designer called Sandra.

I hadn't expected anything beyond the usual business conversation. Then, I saw her. Ruby, the secretary at my company. She sat across the table, her makeup bolder than I'd ever seen on her. Her posture faltered as she saw me. Even as she clu
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  • 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 79

    Ruby's POVAn hour in the hospital waiting room felt longer than it should have. Malcolm had not moved from the seat next to me except once to get water from the vending machine at the end of the corridor. He came back with two bottles and handed one to me without asking if I wanted it. I took it and drank half of it without realizing how thirsty I was.The television on the wall was still playing something silent. The man with the sling had been seen and gone. The woman with the child had fallen asleep in her chair with the child curled against her side.It was a strange kind of quiet, not uncomfortable exactly. Just the kind of quiet that settled in when two people had run out of the urgent things to say and had not yet decided what the normal things were."She did not tell you," I said at some point.Malcolm looked at me. "Tell me what.""About the pregnancy," I said. "Or about him abusing her. She did not tell you any of it?"He was quiet for a moment. "No.""Why do you think tha

  • Worthless In Their Eyes, Perfect In His    Chapter 40

    ********Moon walkers camp.When I was just seven, my mother who had been barely taking care of me claimed that she was tired. She wanted to pursue a career and I had to leave for that to be possible.That day, I sat in a bus, sandwiched between two adult strangers as they drove to the famous Moon

  • Worthless In Their Eyes, Perfect In His    Chapter 38

    I leaned closer to the door and she stopped talking on the phone. I moved away from the door. Who was I kidding? Some werewolves actually had sharp senses and could know when someone else was around them. They could easily pick up the scent.“What's it about the Ruby girl?” Her caller on the other

  • Worthless In Their Eyes, Perfect In His    Chapter 37

    The phone vibrated in my hand. I stared at the screen before finally picking the call. I was almost losing hope that he was purposely avoiding my calls.“Hello?”“Ruby,” He responded with just my name.“I've been calling you. You didn't pick my calls.”“I know and that's why I called back. I'm sorr

  • Worthless In Their Eyes, Perfect In His    Chapter 35

    “Everything listed seems believable to me. I took a loan for you, and you've got to repay it. It shouldn't be that hard to comprehend.”My fingers trembled as I held the papers. Mother watched me with an expectant stare. It told me that she saw me as nothing more than a bill, and she finally had to

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