All Chapters of One night stand with my ex husband that Ruined me: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

The control room was suddenly plunged into darkness.For a second, Ava thought her heart had stopped.The hum of the monitors died, replaced by the sharp echo of footsteps and the metallic click of something heavy hitting the floor. Instinct took over before fear could fully form.“Run,” Caleb whispered.Ava didn’t ask questions. She grabbed his hand and followed him through the narrow corridor as red emergency lights flickered above them. Shadows stretched across the walls like living things, and every sound felt amplified their footsteps, their breathing, the distant slam of doors.Behind them, a gunshot rang out.Ava flinched, but she didn’t slow down.They turned sharply into another hallway and reached a steel door. Caleb typed a code with trembling fingers. The door opened just wide enough for them to slip inside.The moment it closed, silence fell.Too heavy. Too deliberate.Ava leaned against the wall, struggling to breathe. “What just happened?” she whispered.Caleb shook his

Ava stood at the threshold, her hand resting on the cold metal handle, her sister’s words echoing in her mind like a curse.If you walk out, you’ll never see your child again.Her fingers trembled.Slowly, she turned back.Her sister watched her silently, her expression unreadable, while Grant Hale observed everything with quiet satisfaction, as though he had already predicted her choice.“You’re afraid,” Grant said softly.Ava lifted her chin. “No,” she replied, though her voice betrayed her. “I’m thinking.”Grant’s smile widened slightly.“Good,” he said. “Because thinking is what separates survivors from victims.”Ava looked at her sister. “What did you mean?” she asked. “About my child.”Her sister hesitated.For the first time, uncertainty flickered across her face.Before she could answer, Grant stepped forward, his voice cutting through the tension.“You deserve honesty,” he said calmly. “Even if it destroys you.”Ava’s stomach twisted.He turned toward one of the screens and p

The rain had soaked her through, yet Ava barely noticed. Her mind was a storm far worse than the one outside. She stood between her sister and the mansion, the words on Caleb’s message burning in her chest: Don’t trust her. And yet, her sister’s grip on her arm felt so solid, so insistently real.“Why are you hiding all this from me?” Ava demanded, voice trembling. “Who are you really?”Her sister’s eyes softened, but there was steel beneath the calm. “I’m the one they thought too dangerous to raise openly,” she said. “The one who saw too much. Ava… you weren’t supposed to remember anything from the past. Not that night. Not your parents. Not anything.”Before Ava could respond, headlights cut across the rain-slicked street. A black SUV skidded to a stop, and her breath caught as Ethan stepped out, drenched, hair plastered to his forehead. His eyes, dark and sharp, locked on hers, and for a moment the world narrowed to nothing but him.“I’ve been looking for you,” he said, voice low a

The flames behind them climbed higher, devouring the mansion as if it had been waiting for this moment all along. Sirens wailed from every direction, but none of it felt real to Ava. The only thing she could hear was Caleb’s voice echoing in her mind.The child you’re carrying was never meant to exist.Ava stood frozen, her hand instinctively moving to her stomach. The world felt suddenly too fragile, as though one wrong breath could shatter everything around her.“What do you mean?” she asked quietly.Caleb looked away, as if the truth physically hurt him.“It means,” he said slowly, “that your pregnancy was not an accident. It was engineered.”The word sliced through her.Engineered.Ethan stiffened beside her. “Stop,” he said sharply. “You’re going too far.”Her sister’s eyes darkened. “No,” she replied. “He’s finally telling the truth.”Ava turned toward Ethan, her heart racing. “You knew about this?”Ethan hesitated, and that hesitation felt like betrayal.“I knew there were expe

For a long moment, Ava could not speak.Grant Hale’s words echoed in her mind like a sentence already passed.I will take your child anyway.The interior of the SUV felt suddenly smaller, the air thinner. Ava’s hand rested unconsciously on her stomach, as though she could shield the life inside her with sheer willpower.“You don’t own me,” she said at last, her voice trembling but firm. “And you don’t own my child.”Grant watched her with mild curiosity, as though her defiance amused him.“Ownership is an outdated word,” he said calmly. “Influence is more accurate.”Ava clenched her fists. “You manipulated my life. That doesn’t give you the right to decide my future.”Grant leaned forward slightly. “Your future,” he said softly, “was decided long before you were born.”The words sent a chill down her spine.Outside the tinted windows, she could see the blurred outlines of Caleb, Ethan, and her sister standing in the rain. They felt impossibly far away, as though separated from her by