All Chapters of ONE NIGHT TO BURN : Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

The moment I saw the figure outside the building door, one thought hit me: He found us. I stepped in front of Ava without thought, my voice low. “Stay behind me.” But when I threw the door open, the figure was already gone. Only the sound of footsteps remained. Ava’s voice shook. “Was that him? ” “I don’t know,” I said. “But he wants you to be afraid. He wants us both shaken.” Her breath came out choppy. “He already did that.” “No,” I said quietly. “Not enough to stop you. And that scares him.” She didn’t answer. She didn’t need to. I could feel her fearsharp and realbut topped with something stronger. Anger. Defiance. Resolve. And that would be the very thing Charles tried to break. A BREAKING POINT By the time we reached my temporary safe house, the world had moved again. News sources were dissecting Ava’s picture. Social media was exploding with ideas. People were calling her brave. Reckless. Dishonest. A survivor. A liar. And Charles? Charles was

The moment his finger tightened on the trigger, I felt my whole world tilt. I had one thought. Not her. Please, not her. Ava whispered my name with a shaking voice, and that small sound almost brought me to my knees. “Don’t move,” Charles warned. “You take one step, and this ends fast.” I could hear my own heartbeat. Loud. Violent. Out of control. I wanted to rush him. I wanted to tear the gun from his hand. But Ava stood too close. Too exposed. Too breakable. He knew exactly what he was doing. “Put the gun down,” I said. My voice was calm, but inside me everything was burning. “This won’t fix anything.” Charles laughed softly. A cold laugh. A laugh that made my stomach twist. “Fix?” he repeated. “Oh, Nathaniel… this isn’t about fixing. This is about truth. The truth she thinks she can run from.” Ava flinched. I felt it like a knife. She whispered, “Nathaniel… he’s lying. You know he’s lying.” I swallowed hard. Because I didn’t know anything anym

The picture was the first sign he was close. The quiet that followed was the second. Everything after that felt like a timer. The moment I saw the picture taken inside the hospitalI felt something inside me break. “He’s here,” I whispered. “He’s watching us.” My voice shook. My hands shook. My breath slipped out in uneven gasps as I stared at the screen over and over again, hoping it was fake, hoping it was a trick, but knowing exactly what it meant. He was back. And he was hunting. I stood beside Nathaniel’s hospital bed, my pulse pounding. He was still asleep, still healing, still barely holding himself together. I didn’t want to wake him. I didn’t want him to see the fear on my face. But I also couldn’t handle this alone. He stirred, as if sensing my fear. “Ava? ” His voice was weak, cracked with exhaustion. “What’s wrong? ” I paused, then turned the phone toward him. He stared at the picture. Slowly. Calmly. Too slowly. His jaw tightened. His eyes hard

I didn’t wait. I ran.I moved before thought could stop me. My heart slammed hard in my chest. Isabella’s voice still echoed in my head. Broken. Afraid. Fading.“He’s going to kill her,” I said as I pushed forward.“You don’t know that,” Nathaniel answered, but his voice was tight. Too tight. “He wants us to panic.”“I am already panicking,” I snapped. “He said he’s there. I heard him. I heard her.”“I heard it too,” he said. “That means it’s not real or it’s worse than real.”I didn’t even understand what that meant. All I knew was that Isabella was in danger because of me. Because of us. Because Charles never really let go.My head spun fast. Every step felt like falling into something unknown.“You should stay behind me,” Nathaniel said.“And let you walk into a trap alone? No.”He looked at me. The old fire in his eyes burned darker now. Stronger. Angry and watchful and careless at the same time.“I will not lose you again,” he said.“I’m not something you can lose,” I answered. “

They kept asking the same question, and each time, it hurt more. “Do you understand why you’re here?” “Yes,” I said for the third time. “I understand.” “Then tell us again. In your own words.” My hands were cold. Not from fear. From memory. From the memory of everything that had just happened. “You want me to say that I planned it. That I wanted payback. That I went there to kill him.” I took a slow breath. “But that is not the truth.” “Then tell the truth,” the voice answered. “The truth is… he didn’t leave me a choice.” Silence followed. I swallowed hard. “He cornered me. He had Isabella. He told me lies. He pushed me until I could not breathe. I did not pull that trigger with power. I pulled it with survival.” A moment passed. “And Nathaniel?” “He tried to stop it from happening,” I whispered. “Even when he wanted it to end too.” They let me repeat the story. Again. And again. And again. I spoke of fear. I spoke of manipulation. I spoke of what it is like to be cha