Chapter 20 – "The Return"
Zurich feels colder this time.
Ava doesn't wait for permission. She doesn't call ahead. She arrives at the penthouse like she owns it—because in a way, she finally does.
The guards at the entrance glance at each other but don't stop her. Something in her eyes tells them not to try.
She walks into the apartment in silence.
Dominic is already there—back to the door, staring out at the city through the glass wall. He turns when he hears her.
For a moment, neither of them says anything.
Then, with deliberate calm:
> "Where have you been?"
Ava meets his eyes without flinching.
> "To find the truth."
She tosses a file onto the table between them—her file. The one she found in his office. Then she adds another.
> "And this is the part you didn't write."
He picks it up, flips through it. His jaw tightens.
> "Noah."
> "And my mother. And Serena."
He closes the file slowly.
> "You're in over your head."
> "No," she says. "You are."
She steps closer.
> "You thought I'd stay your quiet little asset. But I know now—I was never rescued. I was bought. Controlled. Trained to be useful."
Her voice softens—but the edge stays.
> "And now you don't know what to do with me."
He stares at her, unreadable. Then he says the one thing she didn't expect:
> "You're right."
It stuns her.
> "What?"
> "I don't know what to do with you anymore."
He looks... not angry. Not calculating.
Just tired.
> "You've always been more than I planned for. That was my first mistake."
Ava swallows, her voice suddenly fragile.
> "And the second?"
He looks at her like she's a memory he wants to forget and a fire he can't put out.
> "Letting you go."
For a beat, silence.
But Ava steps back, composure locking into place.
> "Good. Because I'm not yours to keep anymore."
She turns and walks to the bedroom—not as a wife, not as a possession.
As a storm he can no longer control.
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Would you like to move to Chapter 21, wher
e Ava makes her first strategic move—and learns there are even darker layers to the world Dominic's tangled her in?