The Overnight Chosen Wife: darling, kiss me deeper-Chapter 584: Estranged

He shifted his glare between the two of them. "Do the two of you think I was born last night?"

"Xiehan..." Wen Lin pleaded, reaching out to hold his arm. He flung her hand away, settling his glower on Ji Huifen. As expected, the man was alright and breathing on his own. It was a facade all along.

He had suspected that he was faking it when he studied the monitor. His heartbeat pulse seemed to be too steady and perfect for a man who was knocking on death’s door minutes ago. Then there was the fact that he was talking a bit too much.

Although he did a good performance pretending to be weak as he spoke, the bombshells Xiehan dropped on him should have made his pulse speed up or dramatically slow down. Again, nothing seemed to change.

Perhaps they were betting on the fact that he would be too emotional to spare the monitors a thought but they were wrong. He already suspected something strange was going on when he heard Ruby’s anxious voice earlier.

He balled his fists in anger. "My wife is pregnant. You made me leave her on her own this late at night, anxious and worried, because of a farce?"

"Son, we... we only wanted you to come back and talk to us." Wen Lin explained desperately.

He wasn’t having it. "What were you hoping to achieve, huh? To emotionally blackmail me into letting aunt Meiling go? Did you want me to drop the charges? Or was this your way of getting me out of the house so you would get the chance to hurt my wife in my absence?"

"How can you think that way of your parents?" Ji Huifen scolded, not in the least bit ashamed of himself.

Xiehan narrowed his eyes at him. "I can alright. After all, my parents have the nerve to feign a near-death emergency. I should be careful with my wife henceforth."

He turned to leave the room, ignoring his parents.

"Xiehan, I’m sorry." Wen Lin called behind him, but he ignored her too. She was not sorry. She only pretended to be because she had been caught. To think he had believed that she had turned on a new leaf. He felt hurt and betrayed.

And when he met Ruby in the hallway, he finally understood why she was not trying to rush into the room to see her father.

"Brother." She called out softly.

"Are you in this too?" He demanded. Part of him hoped she wasn’t. Just so there would he one person he could still trust.

She shook her head, her eyes teary. "I wanted to tell you. I only found out accidentally when I went downstairs in search of a drink to help me fall asleep faster. I overheard them planning to call you and tell you the fake news in the morning. When mother knew I wanted to tell you and ruin their plan, she took my phone away and called you immediately. Then I couldn’t dare to reach out to you in fear that you were driving. I called sister-in-law instead but you had already arrived."

She looked into his dark, expressionless eyes. "I’m so sorry they did this to you. And I’m sorry I didn’t tell you as soon as you arrived."

He pulled her into a hug. "None of it is your fault."

She wrapped her arms around him, relieved that he was not blaming her for being part of it. But then again, if Wen Lin had stopped the entire plan altogether, it would never have come to this.

"I’ll drop you off, okay?" He offered.

"It’s already so late. Why don’t we go back to the old mansion first? You can go back home tomorrow." She suggested. If he had to drive back, he would only get a few hours of sleep at most.

"I would, but your sister-in-law would be worried to death. She still thinks this is true." He shot a final glare at the ward. The Oscars owed those two an award—and hell owed them a place. Did they stop to think about what would have happened if he believed their acting and did as Ji Huifen asked?

Ji Meiling and Lanni would be in the same frame and then what might have happened?

Or maybe, they thought of it. They just didn’t care. Since that was the case, then he wouldn’t care either.

___

When Xiehan dropped her off, Ruby thought she would fall asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. Alas, she had a long night ahead of her. She couldn’t fall asleep no matter how many sleep sounds she played on her phone so she gave up and slid off the bed. Her body seemed to move on her own and by the time she was done, she had everything packed in a large bag, except the necessities she needed to use in the morning.

The next day, Wen Lin and Ji Huifen acted as though nothing had gone wrong. They even gave her back her phone, but she was no longer certain whether she wanted to use it. So, she backed up her contact list, bought a new phone and disposed of the old one. She wouldn’t put it past them to bug her phone just to get intel of Xiehan’s life. She sent Lin Jian a text message and when he answered, she wrote a note, snuck out and showed up at his doorstep.

"Ruby?" He was pleasantly surprised to see her. He eyes the large suitcases she had lugged along and gave her a thoughtful look.

She shifted her body as if that would help her block his view of them. "I’m sorry to show up at your door like this. Do you mind if I crash at your place tonight? I’ve already contacted a real estate agent and I’ll go check out the potential houses tomorrow."

He pulled her in. "That’s unnecessary. You can stay here for as long as you want. But do you mind telling me why you are moving out of your home on such sudden notice?"

She sat on the couch and held her face in her hands. "My parents pulled a stunt." She explained what had happened the night before and sighed. "Maybe I’m overreacting but... I don’t know Lin Jian." She sighed. "Don’t get me wrong. I’m happy to have finally found my home. I love them both very much. But after what they did, I can’t trust them anymore. They would hurt their son’s feelings without even thinking through it just because they want to have their way. I suddenly don’t feel safe being there. Besides, I only want to be on my brother’s side.

He brought her a glass of water and sat down next to her as she sipped it. "If you had told me this yesterday, I would have told you to bolt away from there as soon as possible. They have become toxic. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, thinking of everything Ji Meiling had done. If he was being honest, he didn’t think Ruby was safe from her aunt either. Being Lanni’s friend might have cost her more than having her phone snatched away and although he didn’t think it was good for any child to leave their parents the way she did, he wouldn’t have done it differently if he were in her position.