Aveline
After days of nursing Ruby back to health—watching over her fevers, cleaning her wounds, making sure she ate—she was finally standing again, whole, untouchable as if she'd never been fragile at all. I should've felt relieved. Instead, I sat in the sunroom with Leon on my lap, absently running my fingers through his soft fur, pretending my heart wasn't still a battlefield.
That's when Mr. Han came in, his calm voice breaking the fragile peace.
"Madam Aveline… your mother and Lady Eliza have come to see you."
My stomach sank. Oh no. Not them. Not now. I'm not in position to answer them about anything.
I stood, brushed off the invisible dust clinging to my dress, and forced myself toward the living room. My mother rose instantly, her embrace firm, protective. Aunt Eliza followed, her perfume sharp and grounding, her arms wrapping around me in a hug that felt too much like a question.
But their eyes—worried, searching—spoke louder than their touch.
Please, please, let Mireline and Alia have kept their mouths shut. Please.
My mother wasted no time. She's always been that way—straight as an arrow, sharp as a blade.
"Aveline, my dear."
"Yes, Mom?" My smile felt thin, a weak disguise.
Her sigh cut deeper than any scolding. She glanced at Aunt Eliza before pinning me with her eyes.
"I heard… you and Ruby have had many arguments. That you even left abroad."
Shit. My blood iced. I could almost see Mireline's loose lips, Alia's worried face. I'll make them both pay with endless silent treatments.
"It's—it's nothing, really. I'm fine. I'm happy, Mom." I tried to laugh, but it came out like a crack in glass.
Aunt Eliza leaned forward, arms folded. "No. I don't think so."
Her voice had that weight—the one that made me feel ten years old again.
"Aunt, I'm fine. Really."
But she wasn't buying it. Her stare drilled straight into me, like she could see every scar I had hidden behind closed doors.
"Then why," she said slowly, dangerously, "have you stopped taking your dance classes?"
Her words landed like a stone in my chest.
I froze. Dance—my anchor, my lifeline. The one thing they thought I'd never give up. She was right. She had me cornered.
"I… I was just tired," I muttered. "And Ruby—she was sick. I had to care for her. Her hand… she injured it badly, it hasn't healed yet."
That's when I left for abroad. Luna told me how harshly she hurt herself.
Mom's lips pressed tight, her disappointment cutting. Eliza's sigh was heavier than the room itself.
"Aveline," Mom said softly this time, almost pleading, "if there's something we don't know… then tell us."
And oh, there was so much.
Andrew's proposal. Ruby's rage. The beast that sometimes roared behind her eyes. The way she shattered glass and nearly shattered me with it. My inner war—my love, my fear, my weakness.
So many truths sat on my tongue, begging to fall.
But I couldn't. Not yet. Maybe not ever.
I forced a smile, but my eyes burned. "There's nothing to tell, Mom. I promise."
And then, as if fate wanted to tear the seams wider, Ruby's footsteps echoed into the living room.
She entered in her usual storm of quiet power—black suit, wrist still bandaged, her aura dark as a thundercloud. The air shifted instantly.
My mother and aunt straightened, staring at her like she was both savior and danger. Ruby's gaze flicked to me, lingering, unreadable, before settling on them with polite coldness.
"Mrs. Vale. Lady Eliza," she said, voice low, perfectly controlled.
But beneath her calm… I felt it. That storm again. And I realized—things weren't just worse.
They were far, far more than worse.
---
She sat with me, her hand still bandaged, still fragile. She smiled politely, speaking gently with my mother and aunt, and thank God—they didn't ask her about anything that could wound her further. By afternoon, they left. Ruby, too, disappeared back into work. I was alone again.
She never asked why they had come. Never asked what we talked about. Nothing.
When she returned briefly, it was only to grab a few files. No words, no warmth. Just a faint look, and then she was gone again—into another meeting, another battlefield.
By nightfall, I was waiting. The dinner table was cold, untouched. My chest felt heavy. It was already past dinner, and still Ruby hadn't come home. I called Mr. Ben, and his words made my breath falter.
"Mr sun… she left the office half an hour ago. But—Adam came in… and she shattered everything in her office."
My throat tightened. Something inside Ruby was breaking again.
I couldn't sit still. I needed to breathe, to quiet the ache, so I turned to dance. My feet moved through the hallway, searching for rhythm in the silence. The house felt hollow—until the front door slammed open.
A sound like thunder.
Ruby stood there—red eyes burning, jaw tight, her anger radiating like fire. I froze mid-step. She brushed past me without a word, storming straight into our room, slamming the door with such force I flinched. The walls seemed to tremble with her fury.
I swallowed, then followed her. My steps were soft, cautious. She stood with her back to me, fists clenched so tight at her sides that her knuckles were white. Her whole body was trembling.
Slowly, I reached out, letting my fingers brush against her injured palm. She didn't pull away.
So I stepped in front of her. And that's when it happened.
Her control shattered.
Her red eyes finally met mine—like a wildfire clashing against the ocean. Fire and water, rage and ache, colliding in one gaze.
---
"Andrew proposed you? How dare he… how dare he propose to Aveline Sun."
Ruby's voice wasn't a voice—it was a whip, it cracked in the air. Her body closed in on me, one hand slammed beside my head against the glass, the other braced at my waist. Her face so close I could feel her breath, hot and ragged, and her eyes… god, those eyes weren't just angry, they were feral, red, unchained.
I shut my eyes, my chest rising and falling like I was standing in front of a beast. Because this time, her anger wasn't the cold, quiet Ruby… it was pure, raw, dangerous.
"Yes… he did," my voice trembled, "he proposed to me. But I— I rejected him, Ruby, I swear—"
Her interruption cut me sharper than a blade.
"That's not the point!" she roared, her voice breaking, "He dared… to propose to my wife."
Her words slammed into me harder than her hand against the glass. My knees went weak. I reached for her, trembling, my hand clutching her arm, the other sliding to the side of her neck. My touch was desperate, begging her to listen, to breathe, to see me.
She didn't pull away.
But she didn't soften either.
Her chest heaved, her jaw clenched, and she was shaking with something bigger than rage—territorial, wounded, obsessed.
I whispered, my voice breaking, "Ruby… please…"
For a flicker of a second, I saw it. The monster and the woman clashing inside her. She looked like she wanted to devour me and destroy the world in the same heartbeat.
Then—
She tore herself away.
Ruby stormed out, her steps like thunder, the door shaking in her wake. And I… I collapsed. Trembling, curling into myself on the floor, clutching my arms around my body, whispering through tears, "Please don't break us, Ruby… please."
---
"Adam… where is she?" I whispered, though I knew my tone carried every ounce of panic clawing at my throat.
There was silence on the other end, then a low sigh. "She's in one of her moods… if she took the sports car, check her private track. You know the one. She always burns herself out there when she's furious."
Luna's voice chimed in the background, hesitant but worried, "Aveline, maybe let her cool down—"
"No," I cut her off, clutching my phone so hard my nails dug into my palm. "If I don't go, she'll drown herself in it. She'll… she'll lose herself."
I didn't even remember how I hold myself, how the world blurred outside the car window, only the thought of Ruby behind the wheel—reckless, red-eyed, fueled by rage—haunted me. Every second she wasn't with me felt like she was drifting farther away into some abyss I couldn't reach.
And then… I saw it.
The black beast like obsidian tearing the track apart, Ruby behind the wheel like a phantom. Her hands gripped the steering with violence, her body leaning into every turn, headlights slashing through the smoke. Tires screamed against the asphalt. It was as if she wanted to kill the car—or maybe herself—with every drift.
I stepped closer to the edge of the track, my knees trembling as the car roared past me. For a second, her red eyes caught mine through the glass, blazing, wild, unchained. My heart stopped.
When I finally got more near, the deafening roar of her engine greeted me before I even stepped in. Tires screeched across the asphalt, smoke rising like ghosts under the floodlights. And there she was—Ruby Sun—the woman I loved, the woman who terrified me in moments like this. Her car spun in violent circles, a beast unleashed, her hair wild, her expression unreadable behind the tinted glass.
I whispered to myself, "Ruby, please… stop before you destroy yourself."
She wasn't Ruby. Not the Ruby who held me, not the Ruby who promised me the world. This was something darker, something dangerous.
Still… I couldn't move away. Because I knew only I could pull her back.
The roar of the engine shook the air, the smell of burning rubber clawing at my lungs. Ruby's obsidian-black beast of a car tore through the track like it owned the night. Her headlights sliced the dark, chasing shadows away—chasing me away.
But I didn't move. I stood right in the dead center of the track, my legs trembling but rooted. My fists clenched, my voice swallowed by the thunder of her engine. If she wanted to destroy herself, fine. But she wasn't leaving me behind in the wreckage.
The car spun into a merciless drift, circling me like a predator—closer, closer, closer—until I swore the tires grazed my soul. I shut my eyes for half a second, bracing for the hit.
But it didn't come.
The car screamed to a stop just inches from me, the smell of burnt asphalt curling around my body. My knees gave way, and I crashed onto the ground, breathless, shaking.
Ruby emerged from the car like a storm in human form—jaw tight, eyes blazing, her presence radiating danger. She didn't even look at me at first. She just slammed the door shut, her fury echoing in that single gesture.
Then her gaze found me—those obsidian eyes locking onto my trembling frame.
"Get in the car."
Her voice was low. Sharp. A command carved in steel.
I tried to speak—my lips parting, a whisper of her name—but the weight of her rage suffocated me. I stayed frozen, half in fear, half in heartbreak.
She stalked closer, towering above me, her shadow swallowing mine. "Aveline Sun," she hissed, voice cracking like a whip, "don't make me say it twice. Sit. In. The. Car."
And even though my whole body shook, even though my heart screamed against it, I knew I couldn't disobey her.
Because Ruby Sun wasn't asking.
She was claiming.