Chapter Three: The Truth Beneath

Ava woke up to silence.

She hadn’t meant to fall asleep, not really. One minute she was staring at the ceiling, trying to mentally outpace her anxiety. The next, she was blinking in soft early morning light pouring through the floor-to-ceiling window.

Her phone buzzed.

Harper:

Still alive or kidnapped and sold to a billionaire cult?

Ava snorted, sitting up.

Ava:

Still alive. Can’t speak for the cult part yet.

She rubbed her eyes and headed into the bathroom, hoping a splash of cold water would quiet the storm still brewing behind her ribs. The message from the night before he’s lying. He always lies.refused to leave her head.

And Luca the more she watched him, the more convinced she became that he was playing two games at once.

But what she couldn’t figure out was this:

Was he protecting her or controlling the narrative?

Luca didn’t sleep.

He stood in his private study, the photo of Ava still in his hand. The one showing her outside his childhood home place she’d never been. A time she couldn’t have known.

And yet there she was.

Smiling.

Innocent.

Completely unaware of what her presence in that photo meant.

Someone was playing with both of them.

But this was aimed squarely at him.

He tucked the photo away in a drawer and locked it.

Then he picked up his phone.

“Trace the source of the envelope,” he told his head of security. “I don’t care how deep you have to dig.”

“Yes, sir,” the voice on the other end said. “Anything else?”

Luca hesitated. “Make sure nothing about this reaches her. Not yet.”

Ava walked into the kitchen barefoot, hair messy, coffee on her mind. She found Luca already there, dressed in another stupidly perfect suit, reading something on his tablet like he hadn’t just been a hostage.

“You always this put-together at 7 a.m.?” she asked, reaching for the espresso machine.

He glanced up. “Old habit.”

“From what? Modeling for control-freak billionaires monthly?”

His lip twitched. “From surviving boardrooms with people who smile to your face while planning your funeral.”

“Charming.” She poured her coffee. “So what’s today’s plan? Cameras? Trackers? Armored car?”

Luca looked at her, serious now. “We’re going to find out who’s behind the messages. Quietly. No public attention. No panic. You go back to your office. Keep everything looking normal.”

“You want me to go back into the open?”

“Yes. If we retreat, they win. But I’ll have people in place. You’ll have shadow security and a direct line to me.”

Ava studied him for a beat. “You like being in control, don’t you?”

“I like keeping people alive.”

She sipped her coffee. “Same thing to you?”

“Sometimes,” he said quietly.

And just like that, the conversation turned. Something softer settled between them something that shouldn’t have felt like understanding, but did.

“Are you ever going to tell me what you’re not saying?” she asked.

Luca looked up sharply. “What?”

“I’m not stupid. Something’s bothering you. You’re more wound up than usual. You’re hiding something.”

He didn’t respond. Just stared for a long second, jaw clenched.

“You’re not ready to trust me,” she said. “But you want me to trust you.”

“That’s not what I”

“It’s exactly what you’re doing.”

A beat of silence stretched.

Trending.

Ava’s phone lit up again. One new image message. No number.

She opened it.

It was the same photo Luca had seen hours earlier.

Her. Younger. Smiling. Standing in front of a house she didn’t recognize.

The same one from the envelope in his office.

She went still.

“Luca,” she said quietly. “What is this?”

He walked over, looked at the photo, and his face changed.

That was her answer.

“You’ve seen this before,” she whispered.

He didn’t lie. Didn’t deny.

But he didn’t lie. Didn’t deny

Ava’s hands trembled as she turned the phone toward him again.

“This was taken years ago. Why am I in front of your house, Luca?”

He didn’t answer.

Because he knew the truth.

And it was the one thing that could destroy everything between them.

Ava’s voice was sharper now, her hand gripping the edge of the marble island.

“This isn’t just some random photo, Luca. That’s your house. And that’s me. Only I don’t remember it. At all.”

She shoved the phone toward him again. “Why am I standing there like I belong?”

Luca didn’t speak right away. His expression was unreadable, but his silence was too heavy to be innocent.

“Say something,” she demanded. “I don’t care how careful you usually need the truth.”

He exhaled slowly and set his tablet down with a quiet thud. “You were seventeen. Maybe eighteen.”

Ava froze. “You know when it was taken?”

Luca’s eyes met hers. “Because I was there.”

Ava stepped back, heart thudding.

“You’re telling me we met back then?”

“Not exactly.”

“Then explain.”

Luca ran a hand down his face, something in his armor cracking. “There was an event. My family used to host these charity things. Social showcases. For powerful people to parade their causes. You were there. Not as a guest.”

She blinked. “What?”

“You were working,” he said quietly. “I didn’t know your name. You were just one of the teens volunteering. Running food. Carrying trays. My mother used to use kids from community programs. PR points.”

Ava’s stomach turned. She vaguely remembered something like that. A weekend when her after-school program forced them to help at some upscale house in Westchester. She hadn’t thought about it in years.

“You didn’t recognize me when we met?”

“No. Not then. I didn’t remember the face until I saw that photo last night.”

Ava processed in silence.

“And you didn’t think to tell me?”

“I wasn’t sure how much you remembered.”

“You think I forgot to meet you?” she snapped. “You think I forgot being dragged to some rich asshole’s mansion and treated like furniture?”

Luca winced but he didn’t try to defend it.

Ava stared at him, his breath shaking. “Is this what the messages are about? Is someone digging up your family’s mess? Or mine?”

“I don’t know yet. But they’re watching both of us. Closely.”

She turned, pacing now, fury and fear colliding in her chest.

“All this time I thought I was dealing with a power-hungry businessman,” she said. “But now? I don’t know what the hell I’m dealing with.”

“You’re dealing with someone who’s trying to protect you.”

“No,” she shot back. “I’m dealing with someone who sees me as a liability with a memory gap.”

Luca didn’t answer that.

Because it wasn’t entirely wrong.

Ava turned to leave the room, chest tight.

But before she reached the hallway, her phone rang.

Unknown number.

She almost didn’t answer until she saw what flashed on the screen.

LIVE VIDEO FEED  HER OFFICE.

Inside. Empty.

Then a figure appeared on camera.

Wearing a black hoodie.

Placing something on her desk.

Looking straight into the lens.

Then the call cut.

Ava’s thumb hovered over the screen.

“What the hell was that?” she whispered, breath shallow.

Luca stepped in beside her. “Replay it.”

She tapped the screen. Nothing. The video was gone.

No history. No file. Not even a trace in her call log.

“Whoever sent that doesn’t want it tracked,” Luca muttered.

“They were inside my office,” Ava snapped. “They knew exactly where the camera was. They wanted me to see them.”

“What did they leave?” he asked.

“I don’t know. I couldn’t see.”

Luca was already pulling out his phone. “I’m sending someone to sweep your office.”

Ava caught his wrist. “No. I’m going.”

His eyes narrowed. “No, you’re not.”

“You don’t get to make that call.”

“I do if someone’s using your life as a chess piece.”

“I’m not a piece, Luca.” She stepped closer, her voice rising. “This is my business. My team. My life. You don’t get to sideline me because you think you’re the only one qualified to fight back.”

He stared at her, jaw tight. Then, finally: “Fine. We go together.”

Ava blinked. “We?”

“You’re not walking into that alone. And I’m not sending you in while I wait for another video of you in the crosshairs.” He paused, voice lower now. “This is bigger than business. You see that now, right?”

She didn’t respond.

Because she did. She just wasn’t ready to admit how far they both were.

Twenty minutes later, they pulled up in front of her office.

Ava’s nerves twisted. She knew every inch of the buildinghad poured everything into it but right now, it felt foreign. Like it had been touched. Contaminated.

She unlocked the door, Luca closed behind her.

The lights were off. Everything is quiet.

She stepped inside cautiously.

Nothing looked broken or out of place. But something felt off.

Luca moved ahead of her, scanning the room like he’d done this before.

Then Ava saw it.

On her desk.

Another envelope.

Black this time.

And heavier.

She approached slowly, Luca beside her.

This one didn’t have her name on it. No label. Just sealed shut.

She opened it carefully.

Inside: a single flash drive.

And a folded note.

She unfolded it.

Two words. Handwritten.

“Watch this.”

Luca took the drive from her hands and plugged it into her office monitor.

The screen lit up.

A grainy video began to play.

A woman’s voice distorted spoke first:

“This isn’t about money. It never was.”

Then Ava’s face appeared on the screen.

Younger. Crying.

Wearing the same clothes from the photo in front of Luca’s childhood home.

And behind her?

A man’s voice.

One she didn’t recognize.

But Luca did.

His entire body went still.