He Never Claimed Me

Ava stared at her phone, the screen casting a soft glow across her face in the dim light of her apartment. On the coffee table beside her sat a stack of payroll ledgers and design layouts for Ava’s Glam the beauty parlor she had built from the ground up. Normally, those papers were her anchor, the tangible proof of her independence. But tonight, they were just background noise. The call had ended only moments ago, but Noah’s voice still lingered in her mind. “Don’t come over.” The words replayed on a loop, firm yet layered with something she couldn’t quite name. Confusion settled heavily in her chest, tangled with a sharper, more dangerous anticipation. Why had he called her at all, just to tell her to stay away? She dropped her phone onto the couch, the cushions swallowing it as if it carried a weight too heavy to hold. Ava exhaled slowly, pressing her fingers to her temples. Noah Volkov had always been like this. Close enough to burn, but never close enough to hold. He was th

The drive to her mother’s house always felt like a step backward, stripping away the confident, untouchable “Boss” version of herself layer by layer. As Ava pulled into the driveway of the modest home she grew up in, the chipped white paint on the porch railing made her chest tighten. Family dinner was a performance she had been rehearsing since she was ten. “You’re late,” her mother, Elena, said the moment Ava stepped through the door. There was no hug, just a quick, critical glance at her fitted black dress the same one she had worn for Noah. “I hope you weren’t working too much again. You look tired.” “Just a busy morning at the parlor, Mom,” Ava said, kicking off her heels as she stepped into the kitchen. The house smelled of roast chicken and rosemary, warm and familiar. But the atmosphere felt thin, like it could crack at any moment. Elena still lived in the shadow of a marriage that had ended years ago, carrying the bitterness of a man who walked away and never looked back.

The drive from her mother’s house was a blur of lights and rising desperation. Ava didn’t think about going home, and she didn’t call Tessa. She couldn’t take any more advice tonight. She just needed one thing. Noah. She needed him to look at her and make everything else go quiet. But the moment the elevator doors opened into his penthouse, something felt off. The air was different. Colder. Noah sat at his desk, his back to her, the glow of his monitors reflecting across the glass walls. He didn’t turn. Didn’t pause. “I told you not to come over tonight, Ava.” His voice wasn’t angry. It was indifferent. “I know,” she said, stepping forward, her heels echoing in the silence. “I just… I couldn’t stay there. I needed—” “I’m working,” he cut in. He turned then, but didn’t get up. Didn’t reach for her. He stayed behind the desk. Distant. Untouchable. “You’re always working when things get real,” Ava said quietly. “Is that how this works? You’re only here wh

The morning sun didn’t bring warmth. It only exposed the cold reality of the penthouse. When Ava opened her eyes, she was tangled in Noah’s sheets, but the space beside her was already cold. No lingering touch. No soft conversation. Noah stood by the glass windows, already dressed in a charcoal suit, speaking quietly into his earpiece. His voice was low, controlled, distant. Last night felt unreal. This morning, he was someone else entirely. He didn’t look back as she got dressed and left By nine, Ava was back under the bright lights of Ava’s Glam. She threw herself into work, moving faster than usual, needing the noise to drown everything out. The salon buzzed around her dryers humming, scissors cutting, voices blending into something easy to hide inside. She focused on the mirror in front of her, styling a client’s hair with careful precision. Steady hands. Controlled movements. Like nothing was wrong. “You went back to him, didn’t you?” Tessa’s voice c

Ava stared at the blinking cursor for a long moment. The steady beep of Leo’s monitor filled the silence around her. She had never ignored one of Noah’s messages before. Her thumb hovered, then moved. Ava: I can’t make it to Marcello’s tonight. I’m at the county hospital. No explanation. No apology. She sent it and locked her phone, expecting the usual silence. For a few seconds, nothing happened. Ava stared at the dark screen, her thumb still hovering as if she expected it to light up again. This was what she was used to. Silence. Distance. The quiet reminder that she had stepped outside the boundaries he had drawn. Her chest tightened slightly as she slipped the phone into her hand, already preparing herself for the long stretch of nothing that usually followed. Instead, it lit up almost immediately. Noah: What happened? Are you hurt? Ava blinked, her heart jumping at the speed of his reply. Before she could answer, her phone rang. She stepped away