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All Chapters of Avery Cole: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

31 Chapters

chapter 21

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE MY SISTER WHITNEY Maybe he had been watching us the entire time. The thought should have frightened me. Instead, something else bothered me. Something about the photograph. Something about the way Dwayne had reacted. Something about Aurora. I looked at her. She stood beside Aleksandr, arms folded around herself, staring at the photograph on Avery’s phone. Daniel Cross. My biological father. A man who had disappeared before I was born. A man connected to Mikhail Volkov. A man whose brother had appeared eight years ago demanding access to me. And a man who had supposedly given his daughter away. His daughter. I stared at Aurora. Dark hair. Her eyes. The shape of her face. None of those things meant anything. People saw similarities where they wanted to see them. But there was something. A feeling. A horrible little thought beginning to form. Dwayne must have seen it happen on my face. Because he said my name. “Whitney.” Quietly. Too quiet

chapter 22

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO BLOOD FOLLOWS BLOOD WHITNEY They had let both of Daniel Cross’s daughters survive. For the first time since Dwayne told me the truth, I stopped thinking about what had been stolen from us. I started thinking about who had stolen it. My hand was still wrapped around Aurora’s. Neither of us seemed willing to let go. Maybe that was ridiculous. We had known each other before tonight. We had talked. Laughed. Shared secrets. She had trusted me enough to tell me she loved Aleksandr before she could even tell him. But everything was different now. My sister. Every time I thought the word, something twisted inside my chest. Not pain exactly. Grief. Happiness. Anger. Twenty-six years of missing someone I hadn’t known existed. Aurora looked down at our joined hands. Then at me. “This is weird.” I laughed softly. “Very.” “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.” “Neither do I.” “Are sisters supposed to hug again?” “I think we already exceeded the requ

chapter 23

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE CHOOSE TO LIVE WHITNEY I made it upstairs before I started shaking. Not crying. Not yet. Shaking. My hand was still wrapped around Aurora’s when we reached the second-floor hallway, and I realized somewhere between the stairs and my bedroom that I was holding her so tightly my fingernails were probably digging into her skin. I released her immediately. “Sorry.” Aurora looked down at her hand. Then back at me. “You don’t have to apologize.” “I was hurting you.” “You weren’t.” “I was squeezing the hell out of you.” “I’ve had worse.” The words came casually. Too casually. Aleksandr had followed us upstairs. He stopped. Aurora seemed to realize what she had said at the exact same time. Her expression changed. Aleksandr’s did too. He didn’t say anything. But his eyes darkened. Aurora looked away. I knew enough about what she had survived to understand that sometimes the worst sentences came out sounding like jokes. I reached for her hand agai

chapter 24

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR THE BROTHER THEY ERASED WHITNEY HE IS THE REASON WHITNEY AND AURORA WERE BORN. I read the sentence again. Then again. It didn’t improve. “That is a very disturbing way to phrase that.” Aurora was still holding my hand. “I was thinking the same thing.” Aleksandr stood over us, staring at the laptop. “Close it.” I looked at him. “No.” “Whitney.” “You’re starting to sound like Avery.” His expression became offended. “I do not.” Aurora snorted. “You absolutely do.” He ignored her. “This person knows you are searching.” “Obviously.” “They know what you found almost immediately after you found it.” I looked back at the screen. That bothered me too. The first email had arrived within minutes of us discovering Elias Vale. Too quickly. “How?” Aurora asked. Aleksandr pulled out his phone. “Do not touch the computer.” I lifted my hands. “Fine.” He called someone. Russian spilled from his mouth. Fast. Hard. Angry. Aurora watched him. I wa

chapter 25

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE THE MAN WHO CAME BACK WHITNEY Daniel Cross was alive. Or he had been alive when he called us. That distinction had been eating through me for the last twelve hours. I stood in Avery’s study with both palms pressed against the edge of his desk, staring down at the ledger like it had personally offended me. Maybe it had. Don’t trust the ledger. Daniel’s warning had come through the phone only seconds before everything went wrong. A crash. A muffled voice. Then gunfire. Then nothing. We had tried the number again. Disconnected. Enzo had traced it as far as he could before whoever had routed the call killed the signal completely. Dwayne had people looking. Aleksandr had people looking. Even Nikolai, apparently, had been asked whether he knew anything about Daniel Cross. Nobody had found him. But Daniel had called for a reason. And the reason was sitting beneath my hands. The ledger. “Whitney.” Aurora’s voice came from behind me. I didn’t look u

chapter 26

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX THE FIRST CHILD WHITNEY Daniel Cross began screaming. Not yelling. Not calling for help. Screaming. The sound ripped through Hawthorne so violently that every hair on my arms stood up. Avery spun toward the exit. “Enzo!” Gunfire answered him. Three shots. Then silence. My stomach dropped. “Avery—” “Behind me.” He raised his weapon and moved toward the corridor. I followed. For once, I didn’t argue. Because the voice we had heard from somewhere deeper inside the building had said Clara’s name. Not mine. Not Daniel’s. Clara. And there were only so many people who should have known she mattered. Three knocks came again. Slow. Deliberate. Avery stopped. The hallway stretched ahead of us, swallowed by darkness beyond the weak emergency lights. “Who’s there?” Avery called. Nothing. Then— “Clara?” That voice. Weak. Male. Older. Avery glanced at me. I shook my head. I didn’t recognize it. “Come out,” Avery ordered. A broken laugh drif

Chapter 27

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVENEIGHT YEARS AGOWHITNEYHospitals had a particular kind of silence.Not real silence.Machines beeped.Shoes squeaked against polished floors.Phones rang behind nurses’ stations.Doors opened and closed.Families whispered.Somebody cried behind a curtain three rooms away.But beneath all of it was another kind of quiet.The kind created by waiting.Waiting for someone to wake up.Waiting for a doctor to come through a door.Waiting to find out whether the person you loved was going to live.I hated it.I sat in a plastic chair with Avery beside me and stared at the double doors leading toward surgery.Daniel had been inside for three hours.The bullet had entered below his shoulder, damaged a lung, and caused enough internal bleeding that the surgeon had used the phrase critical but potentially survivable.Potentially.I hated that word too.Avery’s knee touched mine.He hadn’t moved away.Neither had I.His hand rested between us, palm up.I had been holding it

Chapter 28

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT THE ORIGINAL LEDGER WHITNEY Avery had been gone for forty-seven minutes when Clara said, “We should open it.” I looked up from my phone. The last message Avery had sent me was still on the screen. Boarding. One word. Nothing romantic. Nothing dramatic. But I had stared at it for nearly five minutes. Because he had actually done it. He had left. Not me. Not us. The crisis. He had walked away from Hawthorne, from Elias Vale, from the original ledger, from every instinct telling him he needed to control what happened next. And he had gotten on the plane. Back to treatment. Back to Dr. Bennett. Back to day thirty-nine. I locked my phone. “Open what?” Clara reached beneath her coat. When her hand emerged, the silver key rested against her palm. Chase Aspen’s key. My stomach tightened. Dwayne straightened. “You have it here?” “I told Avery I did.” “I assumed you meant somewhere safe.” Clara looked at him. “I

Chapter 29

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE COMING HOME WHITNEY Day seventy-six. I knew because Avery sent me the number every morning. Nothing else. Sometimes it arrived at six. Sometimes seven. Once, after what he later admitted had been a particularly bad night, it didn’t arrive until almost ten. That one had scared me. 76. I stared at the message while standing barefoot in Avery’s kitchen. Then smiled. Nearly eleven weeks. It wasn’t forever. It wasn’t a guarantee. Dr. Bennett had made that painfully clear during one of the family sessions Avery had invited me to attend. Recovery didn’t have a finish line. Treatment did. Addiction didn’t. That distinction mattered. Today, Avery was coming home. I set my phone on the counter. “You’re doing it again.” I looked over my shoulder. Aurora sat at the kitchen island eating strawberries. “Doing what?” “Staring at the driveway.” “I wasn’t.” “You’ve checked the window six times.” “Three.” “Seven.” I narr

Chapter 30

CHAPTER THIRTYONE YEARAVERYThree hundred sixty-five.I stared at the number on my phone.Then stared at it again.It didn’t look impressive.Three digits.That was all.No fireworks.No fucking choir.No voice from the sky announcing that Avery Cole had somehow managed to go an entire year without putting cocaine into his body.Just—365 DAYSI sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed both hands over my face.One year.One year ago, I couldn’t imagine thirty days.At seven days, I wanted to leave treatment.At thirteen, I told Bennett he was a manipulative bastard and threatened to fire him.He reminded me he didn’t work for me.At twenty-two, I spent half the night walking because the craving wouldn’t stop.At thirty-eight, Whitney was kidnapped.At thirty-nine, I went back.At seventy-six, I came home.At ninety-seven, Whitney and I finally slept together again.At one hundred fourteen, I nearly relapsed.Nobody knew about that one except Whitney, Enzo and Bennett.I had been at a b

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