CHAPTER 7: LOOKING FOR A GHOST

Nathanial : Pov.

It was almost midnight, and I was still in my office.

The entire floor had gone quiet. Everyone had gone home hours ago, but I was still sitting there, staring at my phone like it owed me something.

I never wanted things to end up this way, Ava. But you left me no choice. How could you choose Damien over me? I loved you first. I was there before he ever knew you existed. I was the one who knew you, protected you, stood beside you. But you still chose him. You went ahead and married a man who never deserved you.

And because of that, I made a choice I can never take back.

Her number was still saved in my contacts. I had never deleted it. No matter how many times I told myself to, I couldn't bring myself to erase her name.

My thumb hovered over the call button.

I pressed it anyway.

Nothing. Not even a ring. Just silence, then the automated voice cutting straight in.

The number you have dialed is not reachable.

I lowered the phone slowly.

I wanted to hear her voice. I wanted to know she was safe. But there was another reason I needed to find her, one I hadn't admitted out loud to anyone, not even myself until tonight.

This could be my only chance to get Ava back before Damien discovered the truth.

I knew it was wrong. I knew what finding her would mean, what I had already done to get to this point, what it had cost her. But after losing her once, I wasn't willing to lose her again.

I leaned back in my chair and stared at the ceiling.

If Ava was still hiding somewhere, I had to find her before Damien did. Once Damien discovered what had really happened, everything would change. She would go back to him, and I would lose her all over again.

I couldn't let that happen.

For years, I had watched Damien have everything I wanted. Her love. Her trust. Her life. I had stood beside him and smiled through every single moment of it, telling myself that what I felt didn't matter, that the choice I had made was the right one.

I had never believed that.

Now, for the first time, he had lost her.

Maybe this was my chance. Maybe this time, I wouldn't step aside.

I picked up my phone and called the only person that might know where Ava was.

Maya.

I found her number and stared at it for a long moment before pressing call.

She picked up on the third ring.

"Hello, Nathaniel." Her voice was flat. Not surprised. Not warm.

"Maya, hey." I kept my tone easy, casual, like this was just a friendly check in. "I wanted to ask if you know where Ava is. Is she with you?"

"Why do you want to know?" she asked.

"I'm concerned about her. After everything that happened, I just want to make sure she's okay."

"Concerned?" The word came out sharp. "After you people accused her of stealing eight million dollars? When you know Ava could never do something like that. Did you see the way Damien disgraced her all over the news?"

I said nothing to that.

"Maya, I'm just worried. Have you heard from her since the divorce?"

"No," she said. "I haven't."

I didn't believe her for a second.

"Ava is your best friend," I pressed. "You're telling me you haven't heard anything from her at all?"

"I don't know where she is, Nathaniel." Her voice stayed even. Controlled. "I've been trying to find her too. If you hear anything, please let me know."

"Are you sure you don't know where she is?" I asked one more time.

"I don't know, Nathaniel."

The line went dead.

I sat holding the phone long after the call ended. Maya knew exactly where Ava was. Every answer had been too careful, too rehearsed. She was protecting her, which told me Maya was hiding something bigger than just her location.

The days that followed were worse. I checked my phone every morning hoping for something, anything. Every night I went home with the same unanswered question running through my head.

Where was she?

I sat through a full meeting with Damien without hearing a single word he said.

"Nathaniel?"

I looked up.

"Sorry. What did you say?" I asked.

Damien stared at me. "I asked if you've reviewed the new figures."

"Yeah," I said quickly. "I have."

"Then what do you think?"

I looked down at the documents in front of me. I had barely read a single page.

"They look fine," I said.

He frowned. "You don't sound sure."

"I'm just tired." I looked back at the papers.

He kept talking. My mind had already drifted somewhere else entirely.

Ava.

I wondered if she had eaten. Whether she was sleeping. Whether she was alone and afraid somewhere because of a decision that could never be undone.

Later that afternoon, my assistant came in with documents.

"Sir, these need your signature."

"Leave them on the desk," I said without looking up.

"There's also a call from the legal department. They need your approval before—"

"Not now." The words came out harder than I meant them to.

She stopped.

I looked up and saw the surprise on her face.

"I'm sorry," I said quietly. "Just leave the documents. I'll look at them later."

She nodded and walked out without another word.

I rubbed my face and leaned back.

This wasn't like me.

Then Vanessa walked in.

"Hi baby." She came in with a smile, wrapping her arms around my shoulders from behind. "You've been so distant lately. Don't you miss me?"

She kissed my cheek before walking around my desk and sitting on the edge. "Are you okay? You look worried. What is the matter, sugar? Please talk to me. I miss the way you touch me. Come here, baby."

"Vanessa," I said. "Please, I'm busy. We can do this later, and besides, Damien is in his office."

"Since when do you care about Damien before making out with me in your office? I don't understand you. Or are you feeling sorry for that husband snatcher? That thinks she can come and reap where she didn't sow?"

I looked at her. "What are you talking about?"

She crossed her arms and stared at me. "Don't act like you don't know what I mean."

"I don't have time for this, Vanessa."

She was quiet for a moment, studying my face the way she always did when she suspected something.

"Are you thinking about Ava?"

My head came up too fast. "No."

Vanessa noticed. She always noticed.

A small smile crossed her face. "You're lying."

"I'm not."

"Then look at me and tell me you're not thinking about her."

I looked back at her and said nothing.

Her smile disappeared.

"I knew it," she whispered.

"Vanessa, it's not what you think."

"Then what is it?" She stood slowly and picked up her bag. "After everything we went through together, everything we did, you're sitting here thinking about her?"

She didn't wait for my answer.

She walked out without looking back.

I watched her leave and said nothing.

For the first time, I understood that I wasn't hiding anything as well as I thought I was.

That night, I sat alone in my apartment with the lights off.

I closed my eyes and let myself go back to the first time I met her. She had smiled at me like she trusted me completely, and from that moment something inside me shifted in a way I had never been able to undo.

I loved her before Damien ever knew what she meant to me.

I was the one who introduced them. I told myself I was doing the right thing. I watched them fall in love. I watched him put a ring on her finger. I watched the woman I loved become his wife. And every time I smiled and told them how happy I was for them, something inside me was quietly breaking.

Then things changed. I made a decision I convinced myself was justified. I told myself Damien didn't deserve her. I told myself I was simply evening something out that had always been unfair.

I knew what I had really done.

I told myself I was fine.

I was never fine.

Not once.

My phone rang.

Unknown number.

I stared at the screen for two rings before answering.

"Hello?"

Silence.

Then a voice came through. Calm. Unhurried. A voice I had never heard before.

"You've been looking for Ava Wilson."

I sat up straight. "Who is this?"

The person didn't answer my question.

"Why are you looking for her, Nathaniel?" A pause. "After everything you did."

My blood ran cold.

"What did you just say?" My voice came out barely above a whisper.

"You heard me." Another pause, longer this time. "You think nobody knows what happened? You think something like that just disappears quietly?"

I couldn't speak.

"Who are you?" I finally managed.

Nothing.

"How do you know anything about me?" I asked, my heart pounding faster.

"The question you should be asking," the voice said slowly, "is not who I am. The question is what I plan to do with all the evidence I have."

The line went dead.

I sat frozen in the dark, phone pressed against my chest, unable to move.

Whoever had just called me knew something. Something specific. Something that could destroy everything I had built, everything I had protected, everything I had convinced myself was buried deep enough to stay hidden.

They hadn't said what they wanted yet.

That was the part that terrified me most.