It started with a note.No name, no signature. Just five words written in neat block letters:“Come alone. Trust yourself.”The location was scrawled beneath — an old riverside café that had been shuttered for years, its windows boarded, its door chained from the inside. Ava stood across the street now, her coat pulled tight against the bite of wind coming off the water. The rain had stopped hours ago, but the air still smelled of it — damp wood, rust, and something faintly electric.She shouldn’t have come.Every part of her training, every instinct Liam had drilled into her, said never walk into the lion’s den. But maybe she needed to know if the lion was already inside her home.The lock on the café door had been broken recently; the chain hung loose, one end bent at an awkward angle. She slipped inside.It was dim, the only light coming from a single lamp on one of the corner tables. And there he was.The scar was the first thing she saw — the sharp, deliberate cut across his jaw

Ava slipped back into the penthouse just after one in the morning.The city lights spilled through the floor-to-ceiling glass, turning everything inside into a muted gold and shadow. She moved quietly, heading for the bedroom — and froze.Liam was sitting in the armchair by the window. No phone, no drink. Just sitting there, his long frame relaxed, one arm draped casually over the armrest.“Pier 17,” he said, as if greeting her with the weather report.Her pulse kicked. “You had me followed.”His mouth curved faintly, but not in amusement. “I didn’t need to. I know his patterns. And I know yours.”She stepped further into the room, keeping her chin high. “Then you know I went because you left me with questions you wouldn’t answer.”“You went because you wanted to see if he could make you doubt me more than you already do,” he countered, his voice low, deliberate. “And now I have my answer.”He rose, crossing to her in three slow steps. There was no visible anger in his expression — wh

The ride back was silent. Ava sat in the back of Liam’s car, her body still thrumming with the echoes of gunfire, her ears ringing from every bullet that had split the air in the warehouse. The city lights blurred past the tinted windows, reflections skimming across Liam’s unreadable face. His jaw was tight, hands steady on the wheel, but she saw it—saw the way his eyes kept flicking to the rearview mirror, not just checking for tails but weighing something he hadn’t yet said. She hated the silence more than she’d hated the violence. “You’re not going to tell me, are you?” Ava finally said, her voice low but sharp. “What he meant. What I’m the key to.” Liam didn’t answer immediately. He drove another block before pulling into the underground garage of one of his safehouses—a building Ava had never seen, its steel doors yawning open like a fortress. Only when the car rolled to a stop inside did he turn to face her. “You really want the truth?” he asked, his voice flat but heav

The Hawthorne Holdings boardroom was colder than usual.Ava stood at the center — alone, flanked by lawyers and whispers.Across from her sat the board's PR consultant, tapping a manicured nail against a tablet.“We believe the company’s survival depends on perception,” the consultant said. “Right now, you’re a liability.”Ava smiled. A sharp, elegant thing.“I built the GreenTech division from nothing. I pulled it through the Vale audits. I negotiated clean energy contracts that tripled shareholder value. You didn’t mind my reputation then.”“But that was before Delilah Vale entered the public sphere,” the woman replied. “And before you became romantically linked to the CEO while hiding a child from him.”The implication cut deep.Then came the ultimatum. “If you publicly distance yourself from Mr. Hawthorne, we will back your division as its own entity. Full control. Full future.”“And if I don’t?”The consultant smiled sweetly.“Then you fall with him.”Ava stood slowly, hands fol

Ava stood before a global panel of investors, announcing her next move. NOVA Solutions — an independent, woman-led energy tech firm, built to rival both Vantage and Hawthorne Holdings.“I’m not building this to compete with Liam Hawthorne,” Ava said into the camera. “I’m building it because I no longer need permission to lead.”She launched with two stolen Vantage clients — both of whom Delilah had once cast aside.The move was ruthless.And beautiful.But as her company climbed...A package arrived at her penthouse. No sender. Just a name.Inside was a USB drive. What could this be? Only one way to find out, she decided and plugged it in. And her heart froze at what sher saw. It was a video of her, in Prague.But unedited. The full version.Including the end.Where she said into a burner phone: “I don’t care who gets hurt, as long as I win. Even if it’s Liam.”Her blood ran cold.It wasn’t business strategy. It was personal. And it was real.********The call came at 1:42 a.m.Aar