جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 50

Ava’s POVI stepped downstairs to eat and sat down at my usual seat.The small dining room was already prepared, the same careful arrangement of plates and cutlery I had grown used to. Corren sat at the head of the table, sleeves rolled once at the wrists, a glass of water near his hand. The moment I settled into the chair at his right, his eyes moved over me in that slow, assessing way that always made the air feel thinner. The soft nightwear I had chosen clung a little too closely under the low light. I kept my posture composed and reached for the water in front of me as if the afternoon with Sebastian and the call from Sybil had never happened.He looked at me as if he noticed something.“What is it?” he asked.“Nothing,” I replied.The single word felt thin even to me. His gaze lingered a second longer, searching the surface of my face for the crack I was trying to hide. Whatever he found there, he did not press it immediately. He only picked up his fork and began to eat with the

Corren’s POVThat evening, after I was done with my dinner and about to sleep, the phone rang again.I had already set the glass down and was reaching for the lamp when the screen lit up with a number I had grown to dislike on sight. The same blocked prefix. The same careful timing—late enough that ordinary business had ended, early enough that I was still fully awake. I answered because ignoring it had never made the calls stop.“Hello.”The voice on the other end was the same as before—measured, faintly amused, the tone of a man who believed he held leverage. “The date of the payment is still coming, and I hope you know that you have not yet paid.”I stood and walked to the window of my bedroom, the city lights distant beyond the estate walls. “I said I would pay. What else do you want?”There was a short pause, then the beginning of another demand. I did not wait for it. I ended the call and set the phone face down on the dresser with more force than necessary. The residual anger s

Ava’s POV“No, doctor, what did you say?”The words left my mouth too fast, sharp enough that they seemed to bounce off the pale walls of the small examination room. The paper on the low table between us sat there like something that could not be taken back. The plastic test strips still lay where the doctor had placed them. Maya had gone completely still in the chair beside me, her bag half-slipping from her shoulder as if her hands had forgotten how to hold it.The doctor looked at me with the same calm, professional expression she had worn since she first entered the room. Her hands were folded loosely on the desk. Nothing in her posture suggested she had just rearranged the entire shape of my life with a single sentence.“I said you are pregnant,” she repeated, clear and even. “Congratulations, madam.”She held out the test strips. I took them with both hands. The results were unmistakable. Two distinct lines. The printed note attached to the accompanying sheet put it at approxima

Ava’s POVInstead of turning toward the estate roads, the car branched off into the city.I noticed the change in route only when the familiar gates failed to appear and the denser traffic of the commercial district closed in around us. Corren said nothing at first. He simply watched the road through the windscreen while the driver followed instructions that had clearly been given earlier. When the car finally slowed in front of a glass-fronted restaurant with dark wood detailing and a quiet entrance canopy, he turned his head slightly.“Come down,” he said.I stepped out after him. The late-afternoon air carried the mixed scents of the street and the cooler air spilling from the restaurant doors. Corren’s hand settled briefly at the small of my back as he guided me inside—not rough, but unmistakably directing. The interior was low-lit and expensive, the kind of place where conversations stayed at carefully moderated volumes and the staff moved with practiced discretion. A host led us

Ava’s POVThe question irritated me.How would I marry someone who had been cheating with another man on the same matrimonial bed we would have shared as a couple? The thought arrived complete and sharp, fully formed behind my eyes while the four of us still sat in the low light of the restaurant. Vance across from me, shoulders tight, eyes fixed somewhere near the edge of the tablecloth. Anderson to Corren’s right, waiting with the practical patience of a man who had just placed a serious offer on the table. The fifty-percent share transfer still hung in the air between us like a contract waiting for a signature. My hands remained in my lap, fingers lightly linked. My face stayed carefully arranged into something neutral. None of the anger reached the surface where Corren could read it too easily.Around us the restaurant continued its polished evening rhythm—muted conversation from other tables, the soft pass of waitstaff, the occasional brief sound of glass against wood. None of it