Semua Bab My Stepbrother, My Ruin: Bab 131 - Bab 140

I was silent the whole ride.Ryder kept glancing at me from the driver's seat, his hands gripping the steering wheel like he could somehow steer us away from the mess our lives had become. The radio played softly in the background—some pop song about love conquering all.Bullshit. I reached over and turned it off.The silence was better. The silence matched the hollow feeling in my chest where my heart used to be.My life was a mess. A funny mess. Nothing makes sense. Nothing felt right. I sighed for the nth time, resting my head against the glass. The cloud was gloomy, like me. I bit my lips as tears made it to my eyes but didn't flow. I remembered my mum's face from the restaurant. It reminded me of Ryder's face when he found out that he won't be pursuing his dreams anymore. Was everything somehow…my fault? I tasted blood in my mouth from biting too hard, but I didn't care. Let the blood flow. Maybe I would bleed to death and everyone would be happy without me in it. But that

I frowned at the phone. Alexander was calling me, why?My finger hovered over the green button for a moment before I swiped to answer. "Hello?""Evie." His voice was sharp, businesslike. The warmth from our earlier conversation had evaporated completely. "We need to talk."I shifted on the bed, pulling my knees up to my chest. The laptop was still warm against my legs, Victor Langston's corporate headshot frozen on the screen. "About what?""About your little investigation. You need to stop."My spine straightened. "Excuse me?""I know what you've been doing. The database searches, the financial records, the digital forensics. You need to stop poking around immediately.""Poking around?" Heat rose in my cheeks. "I'm trying to help you. I found evidence linking Victor to the photo leak, to the media campaign—""I don't need your help."The words hit like a slap. I blinked at the phone, wondering if I'd misheard. "What?""You're not helping anything, Evie. You're just causing problems.

I woke up to nothing.Complete, suffocating darkness pressed against my eyelids like a living being. My head throbbed where I'd been struck, each pulse sending waves of nausea through my stomach. The floor beneath me was concrete, cold and unforgiving against my cheek.I tried to sit up and immediately regretted it. The world spun violently, and I had to press my palms flat against the ground to keep from falling over again.Where was I?The last thing I remembered was Ryder's face, twisted in pain and fury as blood spread across his shirt. The sound of his voice calling my name as hands dragged me away."Ryder?" I whispered into the darkness.No answer. Just the echo of my own voice bouncing off walls I couldn't see.I crawled forward on my hands and knees, feeling along the floor until my fingers hit a wall. Concrete again, rough and cold. I followed it to a corner, then along the next wall, mapping out the dimensions of my prison.Small. Maybe eight feet by ten feet. No windows. O

Ryder's POVThe pain hit me in waves every time I tried to move my right arm. Three days since the attack, and the wound wasn't healing the way it should. The doctors kept talking about complications, about damaged nerves and possible permanent loss of mobility. What they didn't say, but what I could see in their eyes, was that I needed better care than this public hospital could provide.I needed resources. The kind of resources that came with the Caldwell name.I stared at the ceiling tiles, counting the water stains while Lorelei dozed in the chair beside my bed. She'd barely left the hospital since I woke up, surviving on vending machine coffee and guilt. Every few hours, she'd start crying again, mumbling apologies about Evie, about how she should have done something different.But apologies wouldn't bring Evie back. Only action would.I reached for my phone with my good hand, ignoring the spike of pain that shot through my shoulder. Alexander's contact information stared back at

Ryder's POVThe last person I expected to see walking into my hospital room was my mother.Serena Caldwell stood in the doorway looking like she'd been through hell—her usual perfect appearance replaced by bruises that makeup couldn't fully hide, her designer clothes wrinkled, her confident posture reduced to something almost fragile."Hello, Ryder," she said quietly."Mom?" I struggled to sit up straighter, ignoring the spike of pain in my shoulder. "What are you doing here?""I came to help." She stepped inside, her eyes immediately going to my bandages. "I heard about the attack, about Evie. I'm so sorry."Dad appeared behind her, his expression grim. Lorelei followed, looking confused and worried."Serena has information about Victor's operation," Dad said. "She's agreed to cooperate.""Cooperate?" I looked between them. "Mom, what's going on?"Serena moved closer to the bed, her hands shaking slightly. "I made a terrible mistake, Ryder. I thought I was being smart, playing both s