All Chapters of under his control : Chapter 91 - Chapter 100

Liam POV The photograph shook in my hand. My grip was so tight the edges bent, the glossy paper threatening to tear under the force of my rage. It was Ava. My Ava. Standing by the window in the bedroom just a few hours ago, the pale light casting over her body, her face turned slightly as though she had sensed someone. Someone had been in this house. Someone had been close enough to capture her like this, with the camera steady, the angle deliberate. Not a rushed shot. Not stolen from outside. This had been taken inside these walls. My jaw locked. The sound of my teeth grinding filled my ears louder than Dawson’s voice, louder than the rush of blood flooding through me. “Who gave this to you?” I growled. Dawson swallowed hard. “It was left in the foyer, sir. No one saw who dropped it. No cameras caught it.” My gaze snapped to him. “Impossible.” He didn’t flinch, though his eyes betrayed his unease. “I checked twice. Every hallway, every entry point. The footage cuts out for

Ava POV The room was quiet when the door clicked shut behind him. The sound was small, but it felt like it sealed us inside a world where no one else existed just him, me, and everything we had been avoiding. Liam stood near the door for a moment, his chest rising and falling as if he were trying to catch a breath that wouldn’t come. The light from the fireplace touched the side of his face, turning his eyes darker, more unreadable. I didn’t move. I couldn’t. There was something different in the way he looked at me less fire, more ache. “Ava,” he said softly, like he was testing the sound of my name after too long. It was strange, hearing him speak like that quiet, almost tender. The last time we were in a room like this, words had cut deeper than any weapon. But now… There was only silence stretching between us, heavy and fragile. “I didn’t come here to fight,” I said, my voice barely steady. “I just want the truth.” He gave a small nod, almost as if he had expected it. “The

Liam POV The house was silent that night, but the silence inside these walls had never felt like peace. It felt like the air itself was holding its breath waiting for something to break. Ava was in the room across the hall. I could feel her presence through the walls, like a pulse calling mine. After everything that had happened after Victoria’s trial, after the betrayal and the blood I still didn’t know if I deserved to walk toward her. Yet something deeper than guilt pushed me. I’d lived too long in the shadows of my father’s sins, too long behind power and vengeance. I wanted to step out, even if the light burned. When I opened her door, she didn’t move. She was sitting by the window, her back to me, moonlight tracing the bare skin of her shoulders. Her hair fell loose, dark against the pale slip she wore. The night wrapped around her like something sacred and dangerous. “You can’t sleep either?” I asked quietly. Her voice was low, tired. “Sleep doesn’t come easily when the t

Liam POV The city didn’t sleep after the explosion. Neither did I. By the time the fire crews arrived, the old Carter West facility was nothing but a skeleton of twisted metal and smoke. The smell of burnt concrete clung to my skin, thick and sharp, no matter how many times I tried to wash it off. Ava sat wrapped in a blanket beside the emergency truck, her hair tangled, soot streaking her cheeks. She didn’t speak. She didn’t even look at me. And maybe that was worse than anything Victoria ever did. The paramedics had checked her over twice no burns, no fractures, no visible wounds. But the silence in her eyes told me there were injuries I couldn’t touch. Morgan stood a few feet away, talking to the police. His hands were cuffed, his expression empty. He hadn’t protested when they took him. Maybe he knew this was the only way left to atone. I walked over to her slowly, crouched in front of her, and reached for her hand. “Ava.” Her eyes lifted to mine red, distant. “She’s not d

The heat hit before the sound did. One second, the warehouse was quiet except for the hum of servers, and the next, a flash tore through the air like a living thing. I felt Ava’s hand slip from mine as the world turned white, the explosion lifting us off the ground and throwing us against metal crates. My ears rang, lungs screaming for air thick with smoke and dust. Somewhere behind me, something collapsed, the ceiling groaning like it was about to cave in.“Ava!” I shouted, though my voice was swallowed by the roar of flames. She was only a few feet away, her face smeared with soot, coughing, but alive. Relief surged through me, raw and fast. I crawled toward her, pulling her to her feet. The fire was spreading fast, eating up the walls like dry paper. We stumbled toward the exit, half-blind, half-deaf, guided only by the red glow and instinct.We burst out into the cold night just as the back half of the warehouse gave way, the explosion blooming behind us like a second sun. The gro