You Looked Down on Me Once, Now You Look Up. novel Chapter 443

Emerson’s voice was casual, almost careless, like he had nothing to hide and nothing to explain.

“Just hanging out with a few people from work, at the club,” he said, same old relaxed tone.

A club, huh. Those places were never exactly wholesome.

Things had mellowed out over the years, but Tina still remembered the old days, when things got out of hand all the time. She’d had to bail them out more than once—covering their tabs, smoothing over drama, even calming down furious wives who showed up to drag their husbands home.

Emerson still carried that faint trace of cologne. If he really had just come from the club, well, she couldn’t exactly complain.

She just made a little noise of acknowledgment and tossed her jacket over the arm of the couch. “I’m going to grab something to throw on. Make us some tea? Let’s talk for a bit.”

When Tina came back downstairs, Patricia was standing by the kitchen counter, phone in hand, waiting for the kettle to boil.

“Working this late?” Tina asked.

“Just going over some files. Skyline Entertainment’s acquisition isn’t going well,” Patricia said, handing her the phone, open and honest.

That was enough to put Tina’s doubts to rest.

“What’s the latest from Skyline?” Tina asked.

“They say they’re still working on it. Told us to wait.”

“Riley’s back now, right? Then we can wait a bit longer.”

Everyone knew Skyline belonged to Riley, but he hadn’t really been hands-on these last few years. Now the company was barely hanging on, and selling was the only option left. All Tina and her people had to do was wait for it to play out.

“How’s Ruby doing?” Tina asked, voice soft.

“She’s getting used to the prosthetic. Watching her push through all that rehab these past few years… it’s been tough to see,” Patricia said quietly. “She’s five-five and barely weighs ninety pounds.” Tina let out a long sigh. “Life wasn’t easy for us in the beginning, but nobody suffered like she did. Sometimes I wish I could take her pain for her.”

“No parent wants to see their kid go through that,” Patricia murmured. “But all we can do is keep moving forward.”

Emerson let out a quiet sigh. All he could hope was that Ruby would figure things out for herself. Otherwise, what was going to happen to everything he’d built?

After a while, they headed off to bed.

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