The Billionaire's Bought Bride and Instant Mom Chapter 198

Aveline

The leather seats of my Porsche had barely warmed up when Vivian settled into the passenger seat with her arms crossed, her expression as neutral as if she were boarding public transportation.

"I hope whatever restaurant you're taking me to is worth the emotional damage," she said flatly, staring straight ahead through the windshield. "You know I don't particularly enjoy spending alone time with you. Being around you is... how should I put this... gives me a headache."

I couldn't help but smile at her brutal honesty as I started the engine. "Is it really that unbearable? You're sitting in a Porsche, and we're going to Le Bernardin—one of the finest restaurants in the city."

Vivian's head turned toward me with cool assessment. "But I have to look at you across the table. And let's be honest—we may be stepsisters, but we're not the same kind of people at all."

The bluntness of her response actually made me laugh. "You still can't accept the differences between us?"

She was quiet for a moment, her fingers drumming against her crossed arms. When she spoke again, her voice had lost some of its edge, replaced by something more contemplative.

"If I told you I was perfectly fine living in your shadow forever, I wouldn't be myself anymore," she said matter-of-factly. "But I'm also done caring about it. If I keep fighting reality, I'm only destroying myself."

Despite our complicated history, I felt a unexpected pang of sympathy. But I wasn't about to start offering false comfort.

"I'm glad you've stopped torturing yourself over it," I said coolly. "Though I won't pretend to have any comforting words for you."

Vivian's laugh was sharp and genuine. "Good. If you dared to say something sympathetic, I'd throw myself out of this moving car."

The mental image made me burst out laughing despite myself. There was something refreshing about this version of Vivian—bitter, yes, but without the exhausting pretense of civility.

We were driving through the upscale shopping district when Vivian suddenly straightened, peering intently out the passenger window.

"Aveline, slow down!" she said with unexpected urgency. "Turn right at the next corner, then drive about a hundred meters and turn left into that alley. There's a pharmacy there—I almost forgot I need to pick something up for Grandmother."

I glanced at her curiously. "What do you need?"

"Her arthritis medication—those glucosamine supplements with the anti-inflammatory compounds. She asked me to grab some while I was out, and I completely forgot until I saw that street sign."

That made sense. Grandmother had been complaining about joint stiffness recently, and I'd noticed the household staff making regular pharmacy runs. I made the right turn as instructed.

"You really do pay attention to Grandmother's needs," I observed.

Vivian shrugged. "Well, she's the closest thing to a real mother I've ever had. You know how awful Monica can be."

The mention of Monica immediately caught my attention. "Having Monica in my life for only eighteen years was one of my greatest strokes of luck."

"See?" Vivian said with bitter satisfaction. "That's exactly the difference between our fates." She paused, then added more quietly, "Though I can't pretend my personal choices haven't contributed to my situation."

As we approached the location Vivian had directed me to, I felt my mood shift. The pharmacy she'd indicated was nothing like the well-lit, professional establishments I was accustomed to. It was housed in a narrow, run-down building squeezed between two vacant storefronts. The street was poorly lit, with broken streetlamps casting uneven shadows across the cracked pavement. The entire area felt abandoned, like something from a different city entirely.

A chill ran down my spine, though I couldn't quite identify why. Something about this place felt wrong.

I pulled up to the curb and started unbuckling my seatbelt. "Glucosamine supplements, right? How many boxes does she need?"

But when I looked over at Vivian, she was watching me with an expression I couldn't read—something between amusement and pity.

"You're still so naive," she said softly.

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

Vivian's smile was slow and deliberate. "Grandmother doesn't need arthritis medication. She's never bought pills from sketchy little places like this. That's not a pharmacy, Aveline—it's a drug den. The kind of place where people go to buy things that aren't exactly legal. Late at night, a beautiful woman like you walking in there alone..." She let the implication hang in the air. "You probably wouldn't walk back out."

My blood turned to ice. "Then why did you tell me to—"

"I wanted to remind you," Vivian said calmly, "that you shouldn't let your guard down around me. I can still bite back whenever I choose to."

The casual way she delivered this threat made my hands tremble slightly as I rebuckled my seatbelt. But I forced myself to maintain a facade of composure.

"Well," I said, starting the engine again, "at least you've proven that even when you had the perfect opportunity to let me get hurt, you chose not to follow through. You're not as vicious as you like to pretend."

"Don't you dare underestimate how much I hate you!" Vivian snapped, her composed mask slipping for the first time.

But I could feel the psychological upper hand shifting in my favor. I pulled away from the curb with deliberate calm.

"Don't worry, my dear Vivian," I said sweetly. "There will be plenty more opportunities for you to show me how cruel you can be. But right now, I have a dinner reservation to keep."

In the rearview mirror, I watched the sinister pharmacy disappear into the darkness, and realized that whatever game Vivian was playing, I was finally starting to understand the rules.