All Chapters of THE CHARADE: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

AVA’S POVThe paperwork on my desk was like a vertical blur. I’d been staring at the same column of numbers for twenty minutes, but my mind was a thousand miles away, trapped in my own thoughts with my father’s ultimatum echoing in my ears. ‘Cease to exist.’“You’re gonna burn a hole through that paper with your eyes, Newbie.”I jumped. Kyle was leaning against the doorframe of the office, two bottles of cold beer in his hand. He nodded toward the garden. “Come on. You look like you could use a break. And a drink.”I was too tired to refuse. I followed him out into the cool evening air. The mansion’s gardens were beautiful, all manicured bushes and sweet-smelling flowers, but tonight they felt like just another pretty cage. We sat on a stone bench under a twisting wisteria tree, and he handed me a bottle.For a few minutes, we just drank in silence, listening to the crickets. The cold beer felt good. Normal.“Okay,” Kyle said finally, bumping his shoulder lightly against mine. “Spill.

(Ava's POV)The silence after his question was the loudest sound I had ever heard. “Who the hell are you?”My mind went blank, then raced, a frantic animal looking for any way out of a trap. I could see it in his eyes—the image of "Sophia Morales," the efficient, sometimes defiant assistant, was gone. In its place was a stranger who moved like a fighter. I had seconds to give him a new picture to replace it.My shoulders slumped. I let my hands, still curled into fists, fall to my sides. I looked down at the floor, then back up at him, letting my eyes well up with tears that weren't entirely fake. I was shaking, and this time, it was real."My father," I whispered, my voice breaking on the word.Dante didn't move. His gaze was like a physical weight. Kyle was staring too, his face a mix of shock and confusion.I wrapped my arms around myself, making myself look small. Vulnerable. "My father... he wasn't a good man. He was deep in debt to people... people like Silva. Dangerous people."

Inside my head, a storm was screaming. The feel of the prisoner’s skin, the look in Dante’s eyes, the name Cavallaro hanging like cursed air all around me —it all crashed down on me at once. I was drowning in the consequences of my father’s games. He was out there leaving the best of his life and I was here dealing with his bullshit!I didn’t bother with a burner phone this time. I was past caution. Rage made me reckless. I dialed the secure line directly, my finger jabbing at the numbers. It rang once, twice.He answered, his voice smooth as ever, laced with that infuriating calm. “Mija. Do you have the access codes?”The casual demand as usual, snapped the last thread of my control. He didn’t even care how I was feeling at all, he didn’t, he just asked things that benefitted him as usual. “No, I don’t have your damn codes!” I exploded, my voice a raw, shaking thing. I paced the length of the room, my free hand clawing through my hair. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done? What yo

The door swung open and Kyle walked in, looking annoyingly cheerful. He took a loud bite from a bright green apple he was holding.“Well, well. Look who finally decided to join the land of the living,” he said, chewing noisily. “You slept. I mean, you actually slept, slept. You didn’t even stir when I checked in this morning. You were out cold.”I rubbed a hand over my face, the stubble rough against my palm. “Don’t start this morning, Kyle. Even I don’t still understand how I slept like that. It was… it was completely peaceful. No struggle. No nothing. I just closed my eyes and then it was morning. I still don’t get it.”It was the truth. The heaviness that usually sat on my chest was absent. My head wasn’t pounding. It was unsettling, this feeling of being… rested.Kyle shrugged, leaning against the doorframe. “Okay, well, according to Sophia, sometimes things change. She said, ‘Maybe he was just really tired.’ Maybe you did, you know, change. Or heal a little.” I swiveled my chair

The door clicked shut behind me, and I slumped against it, the solid wood the only thing holding me up. The hurt was a sharp, physical pain, right beneath my ribs. It was stupid, it was irrational, but it was there. He had pushed me away, warned me off, and it felt like a door slamming in my face just as I’d gotten a glimpse of the warmth inside.But the worst part was the other feeling, the one coiled tight beneath the hurt—a desperate, clawing need. It was so terrible, so powerful. I wanted him. I wanted to walk right back into his study and tell him everything. To feel his hands on my skin, not in anger, but in the way they used to be. He loved Ava. He loved me.The thought was a madness. Would he really hurt me if I told him the truth? Or would he…?I cut the thought off, pushing away from the door with a frustrated groan. This was how I would get myself killed. By a longing so deep it felt like homesickness.To quiet the noise in my head, I picked up a book from the nightstand, a