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CHAPTER FOUR

AVA

My baby…

I gained consciousness to the sound of beeping machines, the sterile smell of antiseptic and something worse underneath—blood. The ceiling was different here and the tiles were white with tiny holes.

I tried to move and pain ripped through me. Instantly, my hand went to my stomach in launch..

"My baby."

The words came out as a croak. I tried again, louder. "My baby. No, no, no—"

"Ava."

I turned my head at the sound of the unfarmiliar voice. A man sat in the chair beside my bed. Dark hair, tired eyes, with a jaw that looked like it had been clenched for days.

Who is he?

But his eyes… they were red and swollen like he'd been crying.

"Who are you?"

He leaned forward. "My name is Daniel Harrington."

Harrington….

My brain grabbed the name and turned it over. That's Julian's family. “Julian–”

"Julian's brother," he finished for me. "His younger brother."

I tried to sit up but failed, the monitors beeping faster.

"Get out. Get out, get out—"

"Ava, stop. Please." He held up his hands. "I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here because I've been looking for you for three days."

Three days?

“I don't want to have anything to do with that cursed family! Get out!!”

Uncontrollable tears spilled from my eyes and for a second he looked alarmed.

“I swear, I'm not here to hurt you.”

I swallowed and looked down at my body. I was in a hospital gown, bandages, with an IV in my arm.

"My baby." The words came out broken. "Where's my baby?"

Daniel's face crumbled for a second before he steadied himself. But I saw it, and the silence that followed told me everything I needed to know.

I screamed.

The sharp sound tore through my throat, hurting its walls in an endless ring. The monitors shrieked as nurses ran in and hands pressed me down. Voices told me to calm down, to breathe, to stop.

I couldn't stop. No matter how much I wanted to.

They sedated me again and the next time I woke up, Daniel was still there. There were darker circles under his eyes and he was still in the same clothes.

Tears slipped past my eyes. This time, I had no strength left to scream.

"How long?" My voice was sandpaper.

"Another twelve hours." He leaned forward. "Ava, I need to tell you some things. Will you listen?"

I didn't answer, or maybe I couldn't. Every part of me felt dead.

He reached into a bag beside his chair and pulled out a folder.

“News has been circulating. Julian told the world you stole from him and his company and ran off with another man. He said you abandoned your marriage after aborting his child and disappeared into some affair.”

I gave a short dry laugh, tears still slipping.

"But I didn't believe it."

That made me look at him. "Why?"

"Because I know my brother,” he said. "And because I hired investigators the same day you vanished."

He pulled out photographs, documents and pages covered in notes.

"They found the hospital where a Jane Doe was admitted the night you disappeared, bleeding internally, miscarrying and barely alive."

He set a photo of me on the bed, unconscious and hooked to tubes.

"The description and the timing matched. I've been sitting here for three days, waiting for you to wake up."

I looked at the photo, staring at myself, at the woman who had lost everything.

"Why?"

"Because Julian needs to pay." His voice was steel. "And you're the only one who can make that happen."

He spread the folder open.

"Forged financial records, the ones they planned to use against you." He pointed. "Witness statements Sienna and Emma signed, swearing they watched you steal from the family accounts. Offshore accounts Marcus Vale opened in your name to make the embezzlement charges stick."

My hand shook as I picked up a page as I stared at Emma's signature, my sister's handwriting swearing I was a criminal.

"There's more." Daniel pulled out another document. "Phone records. Julian's calls to Sienna, starting two years before you married. Bank accounts he didn't know I could access. Payments Marcus made to the fertility clinic—"

I stopped breathing.

"Julian paid them sixty thousand pounds to swap your samples and make sure you'd never conceive." He looked at me, and for the first time, I saw anger in his eyes. For me. "The pregnancy you had was a miracle. A genuine medical anomaly. "

Yeah… my miracle was gone.

"Stop." I pressed my hands over my ears. "Stop, stop, stop—"

"Ava." Daniel grabbed my wrists gently. "I know this hurts. But you need to see…. You need to know what they did."

Tears streamed down my face and I couldn't stop them. I looked at the papers, the proof of every betrayal. Especially Emma.

Hatred began to burn hot in my chest. I want them to pay!

"There's more." Daniel's voice was quieter now. "Julian told the police you left, so they closed the case. And since the company and money belonged to him, he had the charges dropped. He even presumed you dead. No body was found, so there's no investigation or funeral." He paused. "To the world, Ava Morrison no longer exists."

I stared at him with angry, cold eyes. “Help me."

He reached into his bag one last time and pulled out an envelope, then handed it to me. Inside was a passport, a birth certificate, a bank account statement. He was offering me a different nane, different country and a different life.

"Ava Ross." I read the name aloud.

"Paris. An apartment in the Marais, paid for a year. Enough money to live on while you figure out your next move." He stood. "You can disappear, Ava. Really disappear, start over and never look back."

"What do you want in return?"

"Nothing."

"No one does nothing."

He looked at me for a long moment. "I’ve always suspected my brother for evil deeds, you're not the first victim. And I want him to face what he's done, but that's not why I'm helping you. I'm helping you because it's right."

He walked to the door.

"Daniel."

He stopped.

"Why were you crying? When I first woke up. Your eyes were red."

He remained still for a second or two, then turned around and walked away without giving me an answer.

I laid in the bed, alone, holding my new name, and made a promise to the baby I would never hold.

I will make them pay.

Three days later, I walked out of the hospital and the country. Ava Morrison was dead and Ava Ross stepped into the Paris rain.