All Chapters of His Ruin: Chapter 81 - Chapter 90

ArmaniThe encrypted drive sat on the table between us. After everything The Broker had said, I should have felt satisfied. I had finally found the connection. But instead, I felt something worse settling inside me. Unease. There was still too much I didn’t know.Marcus stood across from me, examining the drive.“You said he claimed there was something about Raj in here?”I nodded.“Something he found while digging through his records.”Marcus turned the drive over between his fingers.“It’s heavily encrypted.”“Can you open it?”“I can try.”“Don’t try.” His eyes lifted to mine. “Open it.”He studied my face for a moment before turning toward his laptop. I remained standing behind him. The room was silent except for the clicking of his keyboard. I watched lines of code appear across the screen. Nothing moved quickly enough. Every second felt wasted.Drisana was still out there somewhere and now I had something that might finally tell me what happened. I couldn’t afford another dead e

DrisanaSomething changed after that day—more like everything.I couldn’t explain when it happened. Maybe it was when Raj found out about the pregnancy or when Rian walked through that door and saw my father with a chair raised above me.I felt ashamed that I had brought this into his life and my father’s anger had now reached him. He had been dragged into a war he never asked to be part of.I started disappearing from his life while still living under his roof. I slept late so I wouldn’t have to see him in the mornings. I went to bed early so I wouldn’t have to face him when he returned from work.I ate alone, stayed in my room and whenever I heard his footsteps approaching, I found something else to do. Anything to avoid looking into his eyes. It was easier not to see the disappointment I imagined in his eyes. Even though he had never shown me any and had never blamed me. I still couldn’t bring myself to face him.Because every time I did, I was reminded of how much trouble my exist

DrisanaI spent three days running. Every time a train arrived, I found another one going farther. I didn’t care where it was headed. I only cared that it was taking me somewhere I had never been.I changed trains when I needed to. Sometimes I stayed on until the journey ended. Other times, I got off at a station because I was tired and found another train going in a different direction.I slept in a small inn on the first night. The room was barely big enough for the bed and a tiny table, but I didn’t care.The next morning, I bought a cheap burner phone with cash. I threw away my old SIM card. I didn’t connect the new phone to any of my old accounts. If anyone was looking for me, I wanted nothing that could lead them here.Luckily, the new identification Raj had given me wasn’t necessary for most of the things I needed to do. I needed a new name anyway. So I became Anna Reed. It felt strange the first time I said it.“Anna.”I almost looked around for Drisana. She wasn’t supposed t

RianI found the letter before I found the ring. It was sitting on the desk in my study. My name was written across the front in her handwriting. I didn’t open it immediately. I already knew what it meant.Drisana was gone. She left on her own. I found her wedding ring beneath the letter. I stared at it for a long time. She had left it behind. But not everything. Some of her clothes and belongings were missing. And she was nowhere in the house.My first instinct was to look for her. To call every person I knew and send people across the country if I had to. But then I remembered the way she’d been looking at me lately. The distance and shame. The way she’d avoided me.Maybe leaving was what she needed. Maybe she needed to get away from everyone. From Raj. From me. From everything that had happened to her. So I didn’t look for her.I told myself that if disappearing was what she wanted, I had no right to take that away from her. I only hoped she was safe wherever she was. I hoped she

Drisana“Drisana.”My blood ran cold. I stopped walking. For a moment, I couldn’t move. The sound of my name made my fingers go numb. The bags slipped slightly in my hands. I could only stare at the man standing outside my house.Rian.He had found me. After everything I’d done to disappear, after three days of changing trains and leaving behind every familiar road, somehow he had still found me.“How…” My voice barely came out. “How did you find me?”Maya looked at me, then at him, then back at me.“Drisana? You know him?”I forced myself to breathe.“That isn’t my name. He’s…”I couldn’t say husband. Not in front of Maya. Not when I’d spent so much time pretending to be someone else.“My twin sister’s name was Drisana,” I said quietly. “She’s the one he knew.”Rian’s eyes flickered at that. The lie came too easily. Perhaps because I’d been repeating versions of it inside my head for weeks.“She died.”“Oh.” Maya’s expression softened immediately. She looked at Rian again.“I’m sorry