บททั้งหมดของ Another Chance To Live : บทที่ 31 - บทที่ 40

Later that evening, Avery sat at her dressing table applying some make up when Taylor's call came in. She had call to inform her that she would be picking her up shortly.Moments later, a knock came on her door and Taylor stood there just like she had promised. "Girlllll" Taylor chirped "you look stunning. Wait did I get the right address, don't tell me Anthony leaves here" Taylor face twisted in a grimace of confusion."No." Avery said "I just bought this place, the agency was on bonus sales so I took the opportunity. I'll be going back home in a few days" Avery lied.Her insides twisted at the thought of going back to that hell of a marriage."Is everything really okay?" Taylor asked, her voice a pitch lower laced with concern "you've been looking glum since yesterday""I'm fine just work stress" Avery lied "one my biggest investor withdrew from the company yesterday"Avery heaved a sigh. She couldn't bother Taylor with her marriage issues. Even though they had been friends or more

There was nothing comfortable about what was happening there in the room. “Who… is that?” Avery asked, sitting up this time. Every bit of alcohol that was in her system seemed to have been drained out. The only proof that she had been drinking was the sick feeling that she had in her stomach. She swallowed hard, trying to keep herself from throwing up. That was the last thing that she needed at that point in time. A part of her cursed herself for drinking that much. She needed to be more alert. She didn't survive everything just to die in a room with two men that she barely knew. She looked up at Dan, who had his eyes on the strange man that was at the door as well. “Is he with you?” She asked in a shaky voice. Her spine was straight, ready to defend herself if anything happened. That didn't stop the room was spinning. The stale smell of the room only made it worse to keep herself in check. She attempted to stand up, and Dan pushed her back to the bed, with his hands on her shou

Anthony watched from his office across the hall, but Avery didn’t know he was there, and maybe that was better. Because she was tense, her shoulders were tight, with her fingers drumming against the desk, and her eyes scanning the same screen for the third time in five minutes.He felt it immediately, that familiar knot of protectiveness and something else he hadn’t fully admitted to himself. Desire, frustration and guilt for the times he’d underestimated her, dismissed her, even hurt her. And now… now someone else was trying to break her.Anthony’s jaw clenched. He wanted to step in, to shut the door behind him and take control. But he couldn’t, not without betraying the unspoken rules they had always lived by. She needed to solve this on her own, to prove to herself that she was untouchable.He swallowed hard, tension twisting down into his chest. She had been through worse than this, she was Avery Sinclair, but that didn’t stop the unease from creeping in. Someone was testing he

Freya stood in front of the mirror, adjusting her blouse with practiced ease. Nothing about her movements was rushed. Everything was deliberate. Calm on the surface and calculated underneath.She liked knowing she looked composed. Because It gave her power.“They’re watching you,” Lydia said from the couch, her tone sounds lazy but her eyes were alert. “Especially Avery.”Freya smiled faintly. “She always watches. That’s why she’s dangerous.”“And why she needs to be distracted,” Lydia replied. “Avery thinks too clearly when she’s calm.”Freya turned from the mirror. “Then we don’t let her stay calm.”Lydia leaned forward, elbows on her knees. “Anthony is the crack. He’s the weakness she pretends she doesn’t have.”Freya’s smile sharpened. She had noticed it too, the way Anthony watched Avery when he thought no one saw. The tension he carried around her. The restraint that looked too much like desire.“I won’t chase him,” Freya said lightly. “That would be obvious.”“Of course,” Lydia

The alert came just before noon.Avery was in a mid-conversation with Collins when her phone buzzed again, once, sharp and insistent. She glanced at the screen, and her expression changed instantly.“What is it?” Collins asked.“Project Atlas,” Avery said. “Something’s wrong.”They moved quickly, crossing the floor toward the main operations room. Screens lined the walls, normally steady with controlled data flows. Now one of them was flashing red.A junior analyst stood frozen, his eyes was wide. “The deployment timeline shifted overnight. Core files were altered. If this goes live like this…”“It won’t,” Avery said calmly.She stepped forward, scanning the data herself. The sabotage was clean. Too clean. Key parameters had been adjusted just enough to destabilize the project after launch, not before. Enough to make leadership look careless, and enough to damage trust.Her fingers tightened at her side.“They wanted this to explode publicly,” Collins muttered.Avery nodded. “Quiet