The Billionaire's Bought Bride and Instant Mom Chapter 113

Aveline

The moment Grandma Eleanor and I stepped into the living room, Richard and Monica threw themselves at her with such dramatic force that she nearly lost her balance. I quickly steadied her, shooting them both a withering look.

"Mom!" Richard wailed, his voice breaking with what sounded like genuine anguish. "I finally brought this ungrateful daughter back to face what she's done! She's confessed everything! She came here willingly to apologize!"

"She knows how wrong she was," Monica added, tears streaming down her face in perfectly timed rivulets. "She wants to make things right with the family!"

I followed their pointing fingers to see Vivian collapsed on her knees by the coffee table, her head bowed so low I couldn't see her face. Her shoulders shook with what appeared to be genuine sobs.

"It's all my fault," she whispered, her voice barely audible. "I was so stupid, so blinded by greed and status. I trusted Dwayne when I should have known better. I put those drugs in your drink, Aveline. I almost let him... let him..." She couldn't seem to finish the sentence.

"Don't you dare," I snarled, my hands clenching into fists. "Don't you dare act like saying sorry makes any of this okay! You tried to have me raped, Vivian! You think a few tears are going to fix that?"

I pulled out my phone with shaking hands. "I'm calling the police right now. This isn't something that gets resolved with family therapy and crocodile tears."

"No, please!" Richard rushed forward, grabbing at my arm. "She's already admitted her mistakes! Look at her—she's devastated by what she did!"

"Mom, don't forget that Vivian is your granddaughter!" Monica pleaded desperately to Grandma Eleanor. "Surely that has to count for something!"

Grandma Eleanor's expression was carved from stone. She looked at them with such cold disdain that both Richard and Monica actually took a step back.

"Blood doesn't excuse attempted rape," she said, her voice cutting through their pleas like a blade. "Aveline's right. Some things are for the courts to decide, not the family."

Richard and Monica's faces went ashen as they realized their emotional manipulation wasn't working on Grandma Eleanor.

I was already dialing 911 when Vivian's sobbing suddenly stopped. She lifted her head slowly, and when she spoke, her voice was eerily calm.

"Go ahead," she said, meeting my eyes with an expression of resigned defeat. "Send me to prison. Send me away for the rest of my life. It doesn't matter anymore anyway."

Something in her tone made me pause, my finger hovering over the call button.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I demanded.

Vivian's laugh was bitter and hollow. "Dwayne's gone, Aveline. Fled the country the moment he found out there were people looking for him—dangerous people. Left me with nothing but his mess to clean up."

"What mess?" Grandma Eleanor asked sharply, though I could see a flicker of unease in her eyes.

Vivian's hand moved unconsciously to her stomach, and I noticed for the first time how carefully she'd been sitting, how she seemed to be protecting her midsection.

"I came here to confess and face the consequences," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "Yes, I was greedy. Yes, I climbed into Dwayne Blackwell's bed thinking I could use him to get ahead. Yes, I betrayed Aveline for money and status." Her voice broke completely. "But now... now I have more than just myself to think about."

She reached into her purse with trembling hands and pulled out a folded piece of paper. "Here," she said, holding it out to Grandma Eleanor. "This is why I can't just disappear."

Grandma Eleanor took the paper with shaking hands, her eyes scanning what was clearly a medical document. I watched her face go pale as she read.

"You're... you're pregnant?" she breathed.

Vivian nodded, tears streaming down her face. "It's the only reason I have left to keep breathing. The only thing that matters now."

Grandma Eleanor sank back into her chair, her face going pale as the words hit her.

"Six weeks," Vivian confirmed, her hand moving protectively to her still-flat stomach. "And before you ask—yes, I'm sure it's his. There wasn't anyone else."

"Oh my God," I whispered, the phone slipping from my nerveless fingers.

Richard seized the moment, his voice thick with manufactured emotion. "Mom, you told us to find her and make her face what she'd done. Do you know where we finally tracked her down?"

Grandma Eleanor looked up from the medical report, her eyes wide with growing horror.

"Where?" she asked, though I could tell she was dreading the answer.

"Living on the streets," Monica said through fresh tears. "Six weeks pregnant and sleeping in doorways. No money, no food, nowhere to go. That's where your granddaughter ended up after she realized what kind of man she'd gotten involved with."

I felt like the ground was shifting beneath my feet. This couldn't be real. This had to be some elaborate manipulation, some new scheme to avoid consequences.

But the medical report in Grandma Eleanor's hands looked genuine. And the hollow look in Vivian's eyes...

"Grandma," I started, but she was looking at Vivian with unmistakable sympathy in her eyes.

"Aveline, sweetheart," she said gently, turning to me with a conflicted expression. "Perhaps... perhaps we could postpone involving the police? Just for now?"

I stared at her in disbelief, then looked at Vivian's tear-stained face. My finger still hovered over the call button, but suddenly I couldn't bring myself to press it.

"I... I don't know, Grandma," I said, my voice wavering with uncertainty. "After what she did to me..."

She turned to look at me, her eyes pleading for understanding. "I'll watch her like a hawk, Aveline. Every single moment. If she so much as looks at you wrong, I'll march her to the police station myself. But please... let's find another way to handle this."

The situation was impossible—how could I send a pregnant woman to jail?

I looked at Vivian again, really looked at her. She was thinner than I remembered, her clothes slightly wrinkled like she'd been sleeping in them. Dark circles shadowed her eyes, and there was a fragility to her that I'd never seen before.

It could all be an act. Probably was an act. But the medical report was real, and the idea of sending a pregnant woman to jail...

"Fine," I said finally, hating myself for the words even as they left my mouth. "This time—this one time—I'll believe you're genuinely sorry. I'll believe you're as much a victim of Dwayne's manipulation as I am."

Vivian's face crumpled with what looked like genuine relief.

"But," I continued, holding up a warning finger, "like Grandma said, we'll all be watching you. One false move, one hint that this is just another scheme, and you'll be in handcuffs so fast your head will spin. Pregnant or not."