AVA'S POV
The warehouse smelled like rust and old secrets.
I'd arrived fifteen minutes early, heart hammering against my ribs. Grace wanted to come, but the message was clear: come alone or people die. I couldn't risk my best friend's life.
So here I stood in the darkness, clutching my phone like a weapon, waiting for whoever had been watching me sleep.
Then the door opened.
Dominic Kane walked in.
For a moment, we just stared at each other. The man who'd called me a liar. The father of my baby. The person I'd trusted for one night and hated ever since.
"What are you doing here?" The words burst out before I could stop them.
"Same thing you are. Someone sent me a message. They know everything." His voice was different than in his office. Uncertain. Almost scared.
"I know who they are," I said quietly. "And you're not going to believe it."
The warehouse door slammed shut behind Dominic.
Metal locks clicked into place. One. Two. Three. Four.
We were trapped.
"What the hell—" Dominic spun around, pulling at the door. It didn't budge.
Lights flickered on overhead. Harsh fluorescent bulbs that made everything look sick and wrong.
And then a voice echoed through the warehouse: "Finally. I've been waiting for you both."
A figure stepped out from behind a stack of old crates.
My father.
Robert Chen walked toward us with a smile I'd never seen before. Cold. Calculated. Nothing like the tired businessman who'd raised me.
"Dad?" My voice came out small. Childlike. "What's going on?"
"Hello, sweetheart. Mr. Kane." Dad nodded at Dominic like they were meeting for coffee, not locked in a warehouse. "Thank you both for coming."
"Robert?" Dominic's shock matched mine. "What is this?"
"This," Dad spread his arms wide, "is justice. Or revenge. Depends on how you look at it."
My brain couldn't process what I was seeing. "Dad, I don't understand. The messages—the threats—that was you?"
"Me and some very motivated partners." Dad pulled out a cigarette. When did he start smoking? "You see, Mr. Kane here destroyed three companies before mine. Ruined lives. Broke families. My friend Thomas—you remember Uncle Thomas, Ava?—lost everything when Kane Industries took over his business. His wife left him. His son—" Dad's voice cracked. "His son killed himself."
The words hung in the air like poison.
Dominic's face went white. "Thomas Brennan. I remember. But that acquisition was clean. Legal. His company was failing—"
"Because you sabotaged it!" Dad's calm mask shattered. "You planted a virus in their security system. Made them look incompetent. Drove their clients away. Then swooped in like a vulture and bought them for nothing."
"That's not true. I would never—"
"Wouldn't you?" Dad smiled that terrible smile again. "You're your father's son. Richard Kane destroyed my first business twenty years ago the same way. Took everything I built and crushed it. I swore I'd make his family pay."
My head spun. "So you—you planned all of this? The drugging? The gala? You set me up?"
"Not you, sweetheart. You were just in the right place at the right time." Dad looked at me with something like pity. "When Celeste told me you'd be at the gala, I saw an opportunity. The drug was meant for one of Kane's executives—something to embarrass him publicly. But then you drank it instead."
The betrayal cut deeper than any knife.
"You let Celeste drug me? Your own daughter?"
"Celeste isn't my daughter," Dad said simply. "I adopted her as part of my plan. Her real father? Thomas Brennan. The man Kane destroyed. She's been working with me for five years, getting close to Kane Industries. Waiting for the perfect moment to strike."
The world tilted sideways.
Celeste wasn't my stepsister. She was a spy. A weapon aimed at Dominic Kane.
And I was just collateral damage.
"When you ended up in Kane's bed instead of some random executive, it was even better," Dad continued. "A pregnant daughter claiming Kane was the father? The scandal would destroy him. But then he denied it, and I realized—we could make this so much worse."
"Worse how?" Dominic's voice was deadly quiet.
"By making you both suffer. By making you destroy each other." Dad's eyes glittered with madness. "Ava spends years raising a child alone, hating you. You spend years thinking she tried to trap you. Then, when the child is old enough to understand—five, maybe six years old—I reveal the truth. Show you both the security footage. Make you realize you wasted years hating each other. That you destroyed your own family because of my lies."
Tears burned my eyes. "That's sick. Dad, that's—you're talking about your grandchild!"
"That child has Kane blood. It deserves to suffer like Thomas's son suffered." Dad stubbed out his cigarette. "But then you got smart, Ava. Started digging. Found evidence. You've always been too clever for your own good."
"So you sent those threatening messages," I whispered. "To get us both here. Why?"
"Because plans change." Dad pulled out a gun.
My blood turned to ice.
"Original plan was long-term torture. Years of pain. But now you both know too much. So we're moving to plan B: make it look like a murder-suicide. Obsessed woman tracks down the man who rejected her. Confronts him. Things go wrong. They both die. Tragic."
Dominic stepped in front of me. Actually protecting me.
"Robert, think about what you're doing. Killing us won't bring Thomas back—"
"No. But it'll make me feel better." Dad raised the gun. "Any last words?"
My mind raced. Grace knew where I was. But she wouldn't call the police—I'd told her not to. Nobody was coming to save us.
Think, Ava. Think!
"Wait!" I blurted out. "The evidence. I uploaded everything to the cloud. If I die, it automatically sends to the police. Security footage. Your emails. Everything."
Dad's finger paused on the trigger. "You're bluffing."
"Try me. Kill us, and you'll be arrested within hours. Is revenge worth spending the rest of your life in prison?"
For a long moment, nobody breathed.
Then Dad laughed. "Nice try, sweetheart. But I taught you to code, remember? I know all your passwords. All your systems. I've already erased everything."
He pulled the trigger.
But the gun didn't fire.
Dad looked at the weapon in confusion. Tried again. Nothing.
"What the—"
"Looking for these?" Another voice echoed through the warehouse.
A figure emerged from the shadows, holding bullets in their palm.
Marcus. Dominic's best friend.
"Marcus?" Dominic's voice cracked with relief. "How did you—"
"Find you? GPS tracker in your car. I've been following you since you got that first encrypted message." Marcus looked at Dad with disgust. "You really thought you could pull this off? You're sloppy, Robert. Left digital footprints everywhere."
"This isn't over—" Dad lunged for Marcus.
But the warehouse door burst open. Police flooded in, guns drawn.
"Robert Chen, you're under arrest."
As officers handcuffed my father, he looked at me with pure hatred. "You called them. You ungrateful—"
"I didn't," I said quietly. "But I should have years ago. You're sick, Dad. You need help."
They dragged him away, still screaming about revenge and justice and Thomas Brennan.
The warehouse fell silent except for my ragged breathing.
Dominic turned to me. For the first time since that night, he really looked at me. Saw me.
"I'm sorry," he said. "For all of it. I should have believed you."
"You should have." My hand went to my stomach. "But we both got played. Question is—what happens now?"
Before he could answer, another officer approached. "Miss Chen? We need you to come to the station. Answer some questions."
"Of course."
As they led me toward the door, I looked back at Dominic.
He was staring at my hand on my stomach. At the baby he'd denied existed.
"Ava, wait—"
But I kept walking.
He'd get his answers eventually.
First, I needed to figure out if I could ever forgive him.
What I didn't know was that Dad's arrest was just the beginning.
Because Celeste was still out there.
And she had plans of her own.