All Chapters of One Night, One Baby, One Billionaire Mess: Chapter 81 - Chapter 90

91 Chapters

The Girl We Buried in Silence

Ava froze, her own hand hovering inches above the photo Rachel had placed on the granite bench in the graveyard, as though stuck in a state of temporal suspension. Rachel's voice was whispery and barely audible, yet there was a tinge of sympathy. "She has your eyes, Ava," Rachel spoke softly once more.Ava's eyes didn't waver, her gaze set on the photograph. "What. what are you implying?" she stuttered, her words laced with a mixture of confusion and terror.Luciana Crosse approached her, an envelope clutched in her fist. "You already know," she said, her tone even.Ava's gaze dropped to the photograph, her own pounding like a trapped wild animal in her chest. The photo was of a tiny girl, not more than seven, dressed in a navy coat with pearl buttons, standing in front of the hedge maze at Landon's Montauk compound. The child's face was solemn, but the eyes were unmistakably Ava's. DAMIANI stepped in beside Ava, putting a reassuring hand at the small of her back. She didn't shift,

Last Updated : 2025-06-16

What Love Doesn't Survive

"Don't tell him."Ava's voice sliced through the silence like a knife.Ava was in the isolated garden at the rear of the Crosse estate, fists clenched around the velvet portrait of Eliana. She didn't turn. She didn't need to."I wasn't going to," she sneered icily.Rachel edged closer, heels crunching gently on stone."I know how much you desire the truth," she told Ava. "But some truths… ruin the people you love."Ava finally turned.Her eyes did not blink."Then let him be ruined."Ten Hours EarlierThe plane touched down in Geneva under a sky without clouds. The air was thin. Clean. Chilly enough to sear Ava's cheeks as she descended the stairs alone.No security.No one from the estate.Only a car idling with a folded nameplate:Ms. Reynolds.She didn't speak to the driver. Didn't ask where they were going.She just sat in the back of the car, clutching the birth bracelet and the photograph as if they might hold the answers to the thousand questions screaming inside of her.The Cr

Last Updated : 2025-06-16

What the Silence Couldn't Hide

AVALying to the man you love is a bit like holding your breath underwater—silent, tight, and impossibly alone.Damian stood in the bedroom doorway, his shirt half-buttoned, his hair a halo in the morning light. He looked at me with nothing but hope in his eyes."Did she smile when she saw you?"I froze.The truth rang like church bells in my chest, but I gave him the answer that I knew he needed."She did."He smiled. And it broke my heart a little more.He walked across the room, holding my face gently."I keep dreaming about her. In my dreams. The version of her I imagined when I first found out… Before all of this."I nodded, scared that if I spoke, my voice would tremble.I want her home, Ava. With us. Where she belongs."He kissed my forehead. Gentle. Trusting."I'm making calls today," he continued. "Lawyers, press consultants, even my old political fixer. I want a full media strategy in place by next week.""For what?" I asked softly.His eyes gleamed."For the world to meet

Last Updated : 2025-06-17

What Love Is Worth

"You don't lie to me, Ava."Damian's voice wasn't angry. That was the worst part.He was in the middle of our bedroom, sleeves rolled up to his elbows, tie loose, hair disheveled like he'd run his hands through it too many times. He was tired—but worse, he was hurt.And I wasn't even certain anymore whether I was lying to defend him … or myself."I'm not lying," I breathed.But my voice cracked.And we both knew it.***Twelve Hours EarlierThe day began like a dream too fragile to handle.Liam had gone with Vale to the academy. The house was quiet. The kind of quiet that comes after a storm or before the next one.Damian brewed coffee, his back to me in the kitchen. He was wearing a navy shirt I loved—smooth and crisp and powerful. The sleeves hugged his arms, and I caught myself staring only a second too long.He turned. "You're staring."I smiled. "Just memorizing.""Memorizing what?""In case things fall apart again."He paused.Then set down the cup and came over, wrapping his ar

Last Updated : 2025-06-17

The Cost of Keeping Her

"How much of us are we going to give up in order to keep her?"Damian's words just sat there in the silence of the bedroom, suspended like a bullet.Ava didn't answer.She couldn't.Because she already knew, on a deep level.The Crosse family wasn't just requesting marriage.They were requesting blood.****Earlier That MorningThe text still remained on Damian's phone screen as Ava walked into the room, towel-drying her hair.She froze in mid-step upon seeing his face."What happened?"He did not answer immediately.He extended the phone.She read it once. Twice. You think a ring will stop us? You'll have nothing before the seventh day ends. Watch her bleed. —LHer knees buckled ever so slightly.Damian caught her."It's Landon," he said. "Or Luciana. Or both. They're not bluffing anymore.""They're threatening Eliana," Ava breathed."They're cornering us."AVAI'd always believed that when the time came, we'd save Eliana with the truth.That love would overcome.But I was wrong.Th

Last Updated : 2025-06-18

The Bloodless Betrayal

"She signed this before she disappeared."Vara's voice was a velvet knife. Her manicured fingers slid the paper across the shiny desk that stood between her and Ava, the disinheritance papers like the final nail in a coffin.Ava didn't move.Didn't blink.Just stared at Vara with the quiet fury of a woman who'd endured far worse than legal threats."This paper doesn't scare me."Vara smiled. "It should. Your name, Liam's, and Damian's—all cut from the Crosse fortune. From the board. From Eliana.""You think paper is stronger than blood?""I think silence is."THE TRUTH ABOUT THE CLAUSEDamian burst into the room minutes later, Julian right behind him."Don't sign anything," he commanded.Ava didn't stir."I wasn't going to."Damian marched to the desk, snatching the document and flipping it open to the last page.His eyes narrowed. "Where's the witness seal?"Vara stiffened. "What?""This isn't valid," Julian said, pulling out a magnifier. "Luciana's signature is here, yes—but no le

Last Updated : 2025-06-20

Ashes and Allegiances

"She burned the will?"Damian's voice was steel as he looked at the burnt-out husk of the east wing vault. Julian stood beside him, face pale with smoke and shock."No," Julian breathed. "She didn't burn it. She rebuilt it."Ava held the only surviving piece of paper—Luciana's cryptic note—in her gloved hand. The handwriting was unmistakably hers, but that wasn't what shattered her."L" "You thought this was about power. It never was. It was about who you'd become without it." —L"Ava's eyes slowly lifted."She wanted to make us choose."Eliana colored at the window in their suite, creating a rainbow family of people without faces.Liam wandered over, reading, but he couldn't resist catching glimpses of her. Ava stood just outside the door, listening in."She doesn't sleep," Liam at last exhaled as Ava entered. "She waits. Like someone might take her."Ava sat beside Eliana."Sweetheart… you're safe now."But Eliana didn't react.She simply held up the photo.It was Ava, Damian, Liam—

Last Updated : 2025-06-21

The Power She Never Wanted

"You're not like Luciana," Julian breathed. "You're better. And that's what terrifies them."Ava stood tall at the head of the long marble table, her spine straight, her tone resolute. Before her were the same board members who had voted to erase, to part with her daughter, to suffocate her under legacy and power.They sat in silence now.Damian stood just behind her, his presence unwavering. His hand occasionally brushed the small of her back—reassuring, grounding. She hadn’t needed a speech. She didn’t come with prepared statements or legal threats. She came with fire and truth.“I’m not here to rule like Luciana,” Ava said. “I’m here to clean up her mess.”Twenty-four hours earlier, Vance Merrow had been escorted out in handcuffs. No one had expected that. But his betrayal had created gaping voids in the defenses of the board. He'd been their steady one, their quiet accountant, their loyal steward. To find him Luciana's ultimate puppet—secretly operating to keep Ava incapacitated—s

Last Updated : 2025-06-22

The Daughter in the Glass Room

Rome did not feel very much like Italy that morning. It felt like judgment.Grey clouds hung over the city as Ava stepped out of her car and looked up at the marble mansion among the hills. This was not the villa of the Crosse family. Not even listed in any public documentation. This was Vara's. A gift—if you could call it that—by Luciana before she disappeared. A fortress of restrained, designed wealth. Not flashy. Not cold. Just intentional. Just lethal.Ava's heels clicked down the private corridor as a butler escorted her in silence to the west wing. Then, the door swung open—and she was there.Vara.Hair smoothed back, silk blouse untousled by breeze or emotion. She did not rise from the table where she was pouring tea like they were having brunch."I told you to come alone," she said. "You did. That's growth.""I came for Elena," Ava said flatly.Vara smiled. "You always think you're the only one who came for something."Ava followed Vara down a quiet corridor, every painting on

Last Updated : 2025-06-23

The Girl Who Didn't Flinch

They landed in New York just before sunrise.Eliana ran down the private runway toward her mother the moment Ava stepped out of the jet, but she stopped in her tracks when she saw the girl beside her.Elena clutched Ava's hand but didn't budge.They were identical, but Eliana's face was open, joyful—Elena's was stoic."She looks like me," Eliana whispered."She is you," Liam said beside her, quietly. "Sort of."Ava knelt, taking both girls' hands together. Her voice cracked."Eliana, this is your sister. Elena. She's your twin."Eliana stared. "But… you said…""I didn't know," Ava whispered. "Luciana—she took her. Hid her. I never had the chance to say goodbye."Eliana looked at Elena again, slowly reaching out to take her hand.Elena didn't flinch. Didn't smile.Just let her.It was enough—for the moment.Inside the estate, everything was still. Rachel had doubled the security for the evening, and Julian had swept access codes across all the systems. Ava couldn't sleep, however. Neit

Last Updated : 2025-06-25

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