You Looked Down on Me Once Now You Look Up (Patricia and Oliver) novel Chapter 757

Ruby stared at the little boy, completely stunned. She hadn’t even managed to speak before Patricia let go of his hand. The boy walked over, careful and quiet, and wrapped his arms around Ruby’s waist. He looked up at her and called out, “Mommy,” his voice soft and uncertain.

Ruby’s whole body went rigid. Her eyes snapped to Patricia, full of shock and a kind of desperate anger. She almost couldn’t breathe. “Patricia, you really will do anything for revenge, won’t you?” she said, her voice trembling.

She never thought Patricia would drag a child into this.

Patricia didn’t even flinch. “I learned from you. Or did you forget how you used him when he wasn’t even born yet?”

Patricia’s words cut deep. “Can you tell him the truth? Tell him how he really came into this world? How you tried to get rid of him, but your plan fell apart and you kept him only because you had no other choice?”

“Shut up,” Ruby snapped.

The little boy looked up at her, confused and scared. She quickly nudged him into the apartment, closed the door behind him, and turned to face Patricia in the hallway.

“Did I say anything that wasn’t true?” Patricia’s laugh was low and mocking. Ruby felt her cheeks burn.

Ruby had spent her whole life trying to please everyone. Her parents, Theo, everyone around her. She looked so sweet and docile on the outside, but inside, she was full of resentment. She had pride. She had dignity. She was beautiful. How could anyone expect her to just keep bending over backwards to make others happy? She wanted something for herself, too.

The more she listened to Theo, the more control she had over the man she was seeing behind his back. She always played the innocent girlfriend, claiming she wanted to wait until marriage for anything more than a kiss or a hug. Years went by like that. But the truth was, she’d already crossed every line with the foreign teacher’s son.

Patricia leaned in, her words sharp as ever. “Do you have the guts to tell him all of this?”

“Will you tell him you once thought about finding another man to be his dad?”

“Ruby, you’re unbelievable. You had a baby with a foreigner and thought Theo would just take the fall? Did you really think the Newton family wouldn’t notice the difference between a Chinese kid and a mixed-race one?”

Patricia stepped closer, forcing Ruby back against the door. “Or maybe you weren’t just seeing one guy? You didn’t even know who the father was, so you came up with that whole kidnapping stunt at Grandma’s birthday as a last-ditch gamble?”