Chapter 4

The kiss followed Ava everywhere. It followed her into the hallway after she fled Adrian’s office. It followed her into her bedroom. It followed her through breakfast the next morning and through every awkward second that came after.

Ava dropped her head onto her desk with a groan. What had she been thinking?  One minute she had been demanding answers. The next she had kissed her husband. Then she had run away before he could say a single word.

The memory made her want to disappear.  

It wasn’t romantic. It wasn’t magical.  

It was a disaster. A complete and humiliating disaster. Which was exactly why she needed to stop thinking about it. Every minute she spent obsessing over Adrian was a minute she wasn’t spending on the thing that actually mattered.  

Her future. Or rather, the future she intended to change.

Ava sat up and opened her laptop. The Laurent Group had suffered several major setbacks during the year before her death. Most people had dismissed them as unfortunate business decisions. Ava remembered what came after. The lawsuits. The financial losses. The pressure. The endless pressure that had slowly hollowed Adrian out from the inside.

Back then, she had watched it happen without understanding where it began.  

This time would be different. If she could change enough pieces, maybe she could change the ending. Maybe she could change everything.

The boardroom was already tense when Ava walked in. There were eight executives waiting. Adrian sat at the head of the table. And across from her, was Victor Hale.

Victor smiled at her like he was proud. "Ms. Laurent. Good to have you with us."

Ava nodded and took the last open seat that was directly across from Adrian. He didn’t look at her. Not once. But she felt him anyway, like a weight she couldn’t ignore.

The projector lit up. A major overseas tech investment. 400 million dollars. Ava’s stomach dropped. She remembered this. The aftermath of the investment. Six months later, the company collapsed. Millions vanished. The press called it "Laurent Group’s biggest mistake in a decade."  

And Adrian took the blame for all of it.

The CFO finished his presentation. "All signs point to growth. I recommend we proceed immediately."

Heads nodded. Pens moved. And no one questioned it.

Ava’s hands clenched under the table.  She could stay quiet. A year ago she would have. But a year ago she died.

"We should postpone." Her voice cut through the room.

Every head turned.

Victor frowned. "Excuse me?"  

Adrian finally looked at her. His expression gave nothing away. But his fingers had stopped moving over the papers.

Ava opened the report in front of her. Her pulse was hammering. "The projections don’t make sense."

A few executives exchanged looks. 

The CFO cleared his throat. "Our analysts have reviewed everything."

"I’m sure they have." Ava flipped to the last page. "But if these growth projections are accurate, why is 60 million in debt hidden in an appendix instead of the primary report?"

Silence settled heavy, sharp and dangerous.  

Victor leaned back. "That’s a standard accounting practice."

"Is it?" Ava met his eyes. "Because it looks like someone buried it on purpose."

Victor’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. "That’s a serious accusation."

"I’m not accusing anyone." Ava’s voice stayed steady. "I’m asking why we’re about to invest 400 million dollars into a company that’s already drowning."

Adrian hadn’t spoken. He was watching her, like he was trying to figure out who she’d become overnight.

The CFO shifted. "We can… review the appendix further."

"Review it?" One of the younger executives spoke up. "If there’s hidden debt, we shouldn’t touch this deal."

Within ten minutes, the vote flipped. Within twenty, the proposal was suspended pending a full audit. Ava sat back. Her heart was pounding so hard she could hear it. She had done it. She had changed it. The future wasn’t fixed. 

But when she looked up, Victor was staring at her, calculatingly. And Adrian was still watching her too. Like she was a stranger. As though he didn’t know whether to be proud or afraid of her.

        *.   *.   *

The meeting dragged until midnight. By 11:30 Ava regretted ever staying. The room was full of nothing but numbers, forecasts, budgets, and charts that all blurred together. Adrian hadn’t said a word to her the entire time. Of course he hadn’t. The man appeared physically incapable of exhaustion.

Ava rubbed her eyes because the projector light was too warm. The voices around the table blurred into a dull hum.  

She rested her cheek against her hand for just a moment. She only meant to close her eyes. She did not mean to fall asleep.

When she woke, the room was dark.  

The conference table was empty and the chairs had been pushed in. The projector had been turned off. Silence pressed against the walls.

A jacket rested across her shoulders. It was heavy and familiar. She knew whose it was immediately because the scent gave him away. It smelled like cedar and rain.  

It was Adrian’s.

For a moment, she just sat there while memories surfaced. She remembered the coffee he used to leave for her before early meetings. The way his hand stayed on the small of her back at crowded events. She remembered his jacket around her shoulders after late nights at work. There had been a time when gestures like this were normal. Before everything became complicated.

Her phone vibrated. The sound shattered the moment. An unknown Number. Ava frowned and opened it.

`‘YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO SURVIVE.’`

The words didn’t make sense at first.  Then they did. The phone slipped from her fingers and hit the table with a sharp crack.  

The sound echoed through the empty room. Ava stared at the message. At the certainty behind it. Someone knew about her survival. About her.

A chill crawled down her spine. Because for the first time since waking up one year in the past, she knew something with absolute certainty. Her death had never been an accident. And whoever sent that message…knew she was alive.