Out of Control: Into Your Everything-Chapter 116: What Were You Doing All This Time?
His old phone number and WhatsApp account haven’t shown up again since she blocked him.
Scarlett Shaw accepted the request and sent a message: Eat, then get the hell out.
Ryan Ford: I want to spend more time with you and Grandma.
Scarlett Shaw: No need.
Ryan Ford: Scarlett, you don’t have to say yes right away. This time, I swear I’ll show you how sincere I am.
Ryan Ford lowered his eyes as he typed, and just as he sent the message, a big red exclamation mark popped up.
Blocked again.
The corners of the man’s eyes, fox-like and seductive, involuntarily lifted. He glanced at Scarlett Shaw next to him, lips curving in a faint smile.
"It’s New Year’s Eve today. Doesn’t Louis Ford have to go home for the holiday?"
Felix Ford didn’t dare call Ryan "Ford Junior," and calling him "the Fords’ Second Son" felt too casual, so he stuck with Louis Ford.
Ryan Ford heard him and the smile on his lips turned bitter. "Whether I’m home for New Year or not, it doesn’t matter much to my family. As long as my brother’s there, that’s enough."
Scarlett Shaw caught his look and frowned. "Why are you acting all pitiful?"
Scarlett had no idea what Chairman Ford and Mrs. Ford were like.
But she knew there’s no way Julian Ford could be entirely indifferent toward his brother Ryan Ford.
Ryan met her gaze, lowered his voice, and said in a tone only the two of them could hear, "I’m the Ford family’s illegitimate child. My mother died when I was just a kid. In that family, I’m just an outsider, living off them. Only my brother—he’s the golden son, the unquestioned heir of the Ford family."
Scarlett looked up at him in surprise.
Ryan spoke softly, "I’m just like you, Scarlett. We’re both abandoned people. I understand better than anyone how you’ve survived all these years."
Scarlett: "Who the hell do you think you’re like? At least I can keep my pants on."
Ryan was holding back, deliberately speaking in a low voice.
But Scarlett didn’t bother.
The instant she said it, the whole table seemed to tremble.
Everyone was shocked, but nobody dared to make a sound.
Ryan’s fox-like eyes dropped, squinting as he looked at her.
He and Julian Ford did have a certain resemblance, but in their eyes, they were nothing alike. Ryan’s peach blossom eyes would look tender even at a dog. Most women who fell for him were trapped by those deeply affectionate—if fake—eyes of his.
But Julian Ford’s gaze was cold.
So cold that not a trace of feeling could be seen.
Sometimes Scarlett thought, maybe it was Julian Ford, cold and withdrawn as he was, who truly grew up in abandonment.
Thinking of Julian, Scarlett drifted off a moment.
Then suddenly heard Ryan saying, as if making small talk, "Did your mom not come home for the New Year?"
Scarlett frowned.
Felix Ford didn’t suspect a thing, assuming Scarlett had told Ryan about her parents, so he sighed, "Scarlett’s dad went bankrupt, and Serena tried to avoid the scandal. We haven’t heard from her in years."
"Is that so."
Ryan’s tone grew full of hidden meaning, a faint chill appearing in his eyes.
"Your mom is truly ruthless, leaving Scarlett all these years on her own."
Felix Ford forced a smile. "Scarlett has me and her grandma to look after her. She’s not really alone."
Felix’s lies slipped out without missing a beat. Scarlett just tuned him out; after all, the one listening was Ryan, and she didn’t care what he thought.
But Ryan suddenly bringing up Serena Ford made her suspicious.
After dinner, Scarlett found an excuse to kick Ryan out. This time, he’d only come to see her, so he didn’t stick around and said directly, "Scarlett, come outside with me—let’s talk."
Scarlett walked downstairs with him, took only a few steps, then demanded, "Ryan Ford, why do you keep mentioning my mom?"
Ryan answered without hesitation, "Because I feel for you. You’ve been through so much."
"If you cared so much, where the hell were you a few years ago?"
Scarlett just found him baffling.
He played dead for years, and now he pops up just to make a scene?
"Don’t act like you care about me, unless you actually want something. You know it, and so do I."
Scarlett stared at Ryan, her tone chilly.
Ryan shoved his hands in his overcoat pockets, careless as ever. "Want something? Then tell me, Scarlett, what is it you think I want?"
Scarlett’s gaze darkened.
Some things—too many coincidences, too many strange feelings—she wasn’t stupid; she’d noticed.
Like, when she and Ryan were dating, maybe she sometimes felt his gentleness and affection. But when he looked at her, what she saw more often was a mysterious complexity she could never pin down.
And, like six months ago, the way his eyes looked when he called her dirty—deep and inscrutable.
At the time, anger and grief nearly swallowed her up. She’d thought Ryan minded her work at the bar when they reconnected. That’s why, even while dating, they’d hardly ever gotten really close.
Now, looking back, that doesn’t really explain all of Ryan’s weird behavior.
But no matter how much Scarlett guessed, if it ever came to an open fight, she still didn’t have the power to truly confront Ryan Ford.
Rather than say what she suspected with no real proof—just for the satisfaction—it made more sense to play it cool, wait, and move when the time was right.
Especially since the thing she worried about most, that she least wanted—
Was if it all ended up involving Julian Ford.
So, until she had undeniable evidence, she’d keep her thoughts to herself.
In Ryan’s memory, Scarlett’s eyes were always bright and clear, but looking at him now, those dark eyes were deep and unreadable, impossible to see through.
They stood there, locked in a silent standoff, until Ryan finally spoke. "There are fireworks on the east side tonight. Want to go see them with me?"
Scarlett: "Goodbye."
She turned to leave, but Ryan took a quick step to block her. With those smoldering eyes, he gazed right at her and said, "Last year around this time, you said you wanted to see the fireworks and I didn’t go with you. I’ll go with you now, okay?"
"Ryan, get this through your head. I don’t like you anymore. Nothing you do will matter. And we broke up over six months ago. You popping up every so often—what’s the point?"
"If it has to do with you, then it has a point."
He curled his lips in a smile, inscrutable, something mocking flickering in his eyes.
"Scarlett, that Aaron Carson—I saw him at some shady bar a few days ago. He swings both ways, you know. He just wants to trick you into marriage, have you be his baby machine for their family. If you don’t believe me, I’ll take you there and catch him in the act."
Scarlett: "..."
"What, you don’t believe me?" Seeing her silent, Ryan smirked. "Scarlett, if Aaron’s managed to trick you, it’s not your fault. Guys pulling marriage scams—happens all the time. If Carson managed to get a job as my brother’s assistant, his ability to fake things isn’t normal."
As Ryan finished, his cell phone suddenly rang inside his overcoat pocket.
He took out his phone, frowned when he saw the caller, pressed to answer, and said quietly, "Dad."
Scarlett saw this and planned to slip away.
As she turned to go, Ryan’s usual teasing face went sharp and cold, and in those fox-like eyes, obvious anxiety.
"What do you mean, my brother fainted?"
