Chapter 6

The Question I Wasn’t Ready For

Ava’s POV

For several seconds, I forgot there were hundreds of people in the room. The cameras, lights, executives, and presentation my team had spent eight months preparing faded into the background. All of a sudden everything felt so small. There was only one person I could see.

Lucas.

My fingers tightened around the podium. 

And judging by his stare, there was only one person he was intensely looking at…. Ethan.

Lucas was very composed as always, but I knew him too well to miss the tension in his jaw, the curl of his fingers against the armrest, or the unnatural stillness of his body. 

He was the man who made everyone else unsettled. Yet now at this moment he looked like a man facing a question he was never prepared to answer.

His gaze moved over Ethan’s face as though he Was searching for answers. A shallow breath caught in his chest before he slowly released it. 

My son tugged his little fingers in my hand, unaware of the attention around him.

“Mommy,” he whispered, “are we still doing your speech?”

His question pulled me back into the room and I quickly softened my expression.

“Yes, sweetheart.” I kissed the top of his head and straightened.

Lucas was still watching him and analyzing every feature he was seeing. The dark curls, the sharp pointed nose, serious brown eyes, strong jaw, and crease between his brows. 

Ethan looked like me too but more like his dad. He had my smile, softer features, and my one-sided dimple. So much of him was Lucas. I had always known whose child he was, but somehow, I had never stopped to notice just how unmistakably Lucas he looked.

I had known that from the moment he was born but simply never expected Lucas to stand close enough to notice it. I swallowed and looked away.

Five years of protecting Ethan from a past he was too young to understand. Five years of answering questions about why other children had fathers and he didn’t have one. I never lied to him. I had only given him answers he was old enough to understand.

I told myself keeping Lucas away was the right decision, and I never regretted it. Not when Ethan was born, not through sleepless nights, first steps, first words, school, or his questions about the father he had never known.

I built a life around that choice and I refused to let one unexpected meeting make me doubt everything I fought to protect. I drew in a slow breath.

I was Ava Mitchell now. Not Ava Sterling. 

Not the twenty-three-year-old woman who was desperate for love and affection from a husband who made her feel lonely even when he sat beside her.

That woman was gone.

I had built Bennett House from almost nothing, survived men who underestimated me, pregnancy and motherhood without Lucas, sleepless nights, failed collections, impossible investors, and every moment I wondered whether I could hold everything together.

Somehow, I did. 

I turned toward the microphone. “Good evening everyone.” My voice sounded steady, thank God.

For the next forty minutes, I  spoke about the European expansion, the partnership, projected growth, the new collection, and Bennett House’s future. I answered every question, smiled when necessary, and remained composed under pressure.

I did not look at Lucas. At least, I tried not to.

But I could feel him watching me and Ethan.  

When the final slide disappeared, applause filled the room. I smiled, thanked everyone, and stepped away from the microphone. Ethan ran to me and slipped his hand into mine.

“Can we go back to the hotel and swim now?” I almost laughed. My son had just witnessed the most important presentation of my career, and all he cared about was swimming.

“Of course.” I told him with a warm smile. His face brightened.

He had no idea my entire past just walked back into my life or  that the man in the front row who spent forty minutes staring at him as though he were solving the biggest mystery of his life was his father. To Ethan, this was simply another evening with his mother. 

We had barely taken three steps when I heard my name.

“Ava.” My feet stopped.

I closed my eyes for half a second. I had known this moment would come, but hearing my name in his voice still unsettled me. I turned to face him. 

Lucas stood several feet away. Up close, the years were more noticeable. He wasn’t old, just different. Faint lines marked the corners of his eyes, and his face looked sharper than I remembered.

He was still Lucas, the man who could silence a room simply by entering it.

His gaze moved to Ethan, then back to me.

“Can we talk?” My fingers tightened around Ethan’s hand, and I instinctively drew him a little closer to my side. “We have nothing to discuss.”

His jaw tightened. “I think we do.”

“No.” I said firmly. 

“Ava—”

“I’m busy.” It wasn’t true, and we both knew it. But I had no intention of giving him an opening simply because he wanted one. He didn’t deserve one. 

Lucas studied my face for some seconds. “I didn’t know you were alive.”

My fingers went numb around Ethan’s hand. I stared at Lucas, caught completely off guard. “What?”

“Not literally.” His voice held something I couldn’t place. “I mean, I didn’t know where you were. I couldn’t reach your number, your old apartment was empty and Grandma wouldn’t tell me anything.”

Of all the things he could have said after all these years, that was what he chose.

“You never looked very hard.”  His gaze held mine, suddenly more intense. “I did.”

“Did you?”

“Yes.”

“Then you didn’t look hard enough.” Silence settled between us.

Ethan tugged my hand. “Mommy?” I looked down. “Are you okay?” he asked, confusion softening his little voice. My throat tightened.

The question was innocent, but it touched something far deeper. There was a time when I would have given anything for Lucas to ask me that same question. I would have held onto the smallest sign of concern from him and convinced myself it meant more than it did. Because back then even the slightest bit of attention would have given me hope.

But that didn’t matter anymore. 

I brushed my fingers gently over his soft cheek and smiled. “I’m fine, baby.” 

When I looked up, Lucas was watching Ethan. “What’s his name?” My fingers curled tighter around Ethan’s hand. I hesitated before answering. “Ethan.”

Lucas studied him carefully.“How old is he?”

I knew where the question was leading. Before I could answer, Ethan spoke.“ I am five years old”.

Lucas went completely still.

The color drained from his face. His fingers flexed at his sides before curling into fists, and his breath turned shallow. His eyes moved over Ethan’s curls, eyes, and jaw before returning to me.

“Five?” he repeated quietly.

The word sounded more like he was calculating than asking a question. I said nothing.

Five years. Our marriage. The timing. The child I carried and he never known existed.

I kept my expression blank. Whatever conclusion he reached, I wasn’t going to help him reach it.

Lucas looked at Ethan once more, then back at me.

Something changed in his face. He didn’t look curious anymore. Uncertainty had replaced it with something close to fear.

“Who is his father?” Something inside me hardened. I drew Ethan closer to me. “That is none of your business. I’m busy, Lucas. I have no time for this. You should leave.”

He stared at me as though he couldn’t understand how easily I dismissed him. Perhaps he expected me to act like the woman he left behind. The one who would have explained herself and cared about what he thought or how he felt. 

“Excuse us.” I turned away from him before he could say anything else. “Let’s go, Ethan.” I kept my eyes fixed on the door as we walked.

His footsteps followed us across the floor. My heart gave an uneasy beat, and for a second, I wondered if he would stop me. But he didn’t. 

“I just want to talk to you, Ava please.” I kept walking. “Ava.” I stopped but didn’t turn around.

A long silence followed. My heart pounded against my ribs. I slowly closed my eyes, already knowing what he was going to ask.

Then he said, almost uncertainly,

“Is he mine?”