You Looked Down on Me Once Now You Look Up (Patricia and Oliver) novel Chapter 759

“Is what Patricia said true?”

“Were you really the one who had me kidnapped all those years ago?”

Even after everything he had just heard, Theo needed to hear it from Ruby’s lips. Before Ruby went abroad, just like Patricia said, he had never let her lose face in front of anyone. Her closet bursting with designer labels, her trips overseas, every glimpse of the world she ever had, he gave it all to her. He made sure she lived in comfort, surrounded by luxury. And how did she pay him back? Back when Tina and Emerson were barely scraping by, Ruby was already showing up to parties in dresses worth hundreds of thousands, all because of him.

The moment Ruby saw Theo, her eyes darted to Patricia. Shock, anger, and humiliation flickered across her face. So this was what Patricia wanted—to put on a show, to force Ruby to confess everything she’d done, to rip off her pretty mask and reveal what was underneath. Patricia wanted Theo to judge her, maybe even to destroy her.

It felt like something inside her had snapped. Ruby crumpled to the floor, her body weak and boneless. On the other side of the door, her child’s cries echoed, sharp and desperate. Outside, the three adults faced off, all pretense gone, their wounds wide open.

Patricia brushed past Theo without looking back. She noticed his eyes, red and wet, tears slipping down his cheeks in silence. Did it hurt? Probably. Once, Theo had treated Ruby like a princess. Even though they never married, he had never doubted the girl he once protected, never imagined she’d turn out like this. He never thought she could be so cold, never thought she would drag his entire family into ruin.

As the elevator doors started to close, Theo’s voice cracked. “Ruby, I did everything for you.”

“I would have given you anything, the stars, the moon, whatever you wanted. And what did you do? You cheated, you got pregnant with someone else’s baby, you tried to pin it on me, and you even had me kidnapped.”

“You wrecked my whole life.”

Ruby just sat there on the floor, silent. She couldn’t even try to explain. Tears streaked down her face as she looked up at Theo, her eyes full of pain and regret. Seeing her like that only made Theo remember all those years he wasted loving her.

“Shut up!”

The word “love” made Theo shake, his whole body tense with anger. He pulled her hair tighter. “You loved me? Your idea of love is cheating and making me take the blame for your mistakes? Making me raise another man’s child?”

“Other people’s love might be worthless, but yours is poison.”

“Ruby, you have no heart.”

“You can cover yourself in gold and diamonds, but you’ll never change what you are inside. Patricia was right. I gave you everything, mountains of it, and all I got back was betrayal. Even if you took everything Patricia had, you’d still be you. No matter what you do, you’ll always be you.”