Novels by bessingedwin

POV: Ava"You have twenty minutes." He dropped into the chair across from me without hurrying, one arm draped over the back of it, studying me like he was trying to decide whether I was worth the time he'd already promised. "Talk."I set the thumb drive on the table between us and slid it forward with two fingers, not quite letting go of it right away."You don't know me. I don't know you either, not really, only the version my husband's described over the years, and given what a spineless excuse for a man he's turned out to be, I'd bet half of that was fiction anyway. None of that matters. What matters is what's on here.""And what is on there." His eyes dropped to the drive, then lifted back to me, unhurried."Information you'll want before tonight is over.""Extortion, then." He said it flatly, testing the word rather than accusing me with it."The opposite, actually." I made myself hold his gaze. "My husband ruined me quietly, over years, and left the evidence of exactly how sitti

POV: AvaPerfect.Let them keep thinking that, because the more they underestimated me, the easier it would be to destroy everything they had built on my suffering.Once inside my room, I set my things down and opened my laptop, because I had far more important things to deal with.Dominic Keller.The man who could change everything.I started researching Keller Group and its mysterious CEO, learning everything I could about the man who had built one of the most powerful companies in the city. He was a businessman, a billionaire, and, according to the rumours that followed him around, connected to people it wasn't wise to ask about too closely.More importantly, he was the one person with enough power to stop the deal Dillan planned to sign that night.I needed him, and I needed to reach him before Dillan could get anywhere near a signature.I sent several emails. Nothing came back. After waiting as long as I could stand, I decided I had no choice but to take a bigger risk.I called h

POV: AvaSharon was right about one thing. I would have worn that stupid dress just to please Dillan. That's how stupid I was, so foolishly in love with a scumbag.This time, the dress they sent stayed in its box.I chose my own, dark green, well-cut, nothing anyone could later describe to a room full of strangers as the outfit of a woman sneaking off to meet somebody. I did my own hair. I clipped the recording, backed up now to my lawyer's server and a drive under my maiden name, and I booked an emergency meeting with the one person who could help me get back my contract and my company.I had a few hours before that meeting. I decided to spend them exactly the way I used to, right up until the moment I couldn't stand pretending anymore.I went downstairs, and for the first time in years, I walked into my own kitchen without being told I shouldn't. I wanted tea. Green tea, nothing complicated, something simple I could make with my own two hands without Sharon hovering over me with her

POV: AvaI came back for my bank card. That's all it was supposed to be.I'd left it on the kitchen counter that morning, right next to the coffee I never got round to finishing. So when I reached the boutique and went to pay for the lingerie I'd finally worked up the nerve to buy, my purse had nothing in it but lipstick and a crumpled receipt from the dry cleaner.I laughed about it in the car, actually laughed, out loud, alone. Ten years married and I still got flustered buying underwear for my own husband, like a teenager sneaking something past her mother.I'd earned that flutter, I told myself. I'd spent a decade earning it. Ten years of learning exactly how he took his coffee, and exactly which silences meant leave me alone, and which ones meant come find me. Ten years of rearranging myself around whatever version of him walked through the door that evening... tired Dillan, distracted Dillan, disappointed Dillan... because somewhere very early on I'd decided that if I could just