Chapter 0007
+25 BONUS
Sophia didn’t speak, her presence a silent weight passing to leave beside me out the doors. But I didn’t need her words to know what she was thinking–the flicker of recognition in her eyes said it all.
The elevator hummed to life, its soft whir filling the silence. I kept my gaze fixed ahead, my grip tightening around the phone as I ended the call. My eyes locked on the back of her head just as the doors slid shut.
Sophia’s POV
My heart stopped the moment the elevator doors opened.
There she was..
Lauren.
No, it couldn’t be. My mind was screaming in denial. Lauren was dead. She had been dead for five years.
And yet, there she stood–alive, breathing, and with seemingly no recollection of me. She stepped inside the elevator, phone pressed to her ear, her soft laugh cutting through the air like a ghostly echo from the past.
“Baby,” she said, her voice light and warm, “I’ll see you soon, okay?”
The word baby sank into my brain, sharp and piercing. My stomach twisted. Had she already found a new lover?
It was her. It had to be.
I stepped past her quickly, casting a few furtive glances over my shoulder. Her emotionless gaze lingered on me, even as the doors closed with a soft thunk, sealing her away
I let out a shaky breath, leaning against the wall for support. My fingers moved instinctively to tuck my scarlet locks behind my ears, grounding myself.
I barely noticed Dr. Bramble until his voice jolted me back to reality.
“Sophia? You alright? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
A ghost. That’s exactly what it felt like. I spun toward him, gripping his arm with more force than I intended.
“Who was that woman just now?” My voice came out sharper than I intended, trembling with panicked rage.
Dr. Bramble blinked, clearly startled by my intensity. “Her? Oh, that’s Dr. Ava. She’s an expert we brought in to consult on Owen’s case.”
The name Ava sounded wrong. Foreign.
Dr. Bramble hesitated, then leaned in slightly, dropping his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “She’s already stirred things up, though. Did you hear? Owen called her ‘Mommy.”
The world tilted beneath my feet.
“Mommy?” I echoed, my voice low, disbelief dripping from the word.
The doctor nodded, his expression somewhere between amused and wary.
Panic surged through me, sharp and unrelenting. My chest tightened as the implications hit me like a wrecking ball. Lauren–or Ava, as she called herself–was alive.
And if Alexander found out…
+25 BONUS
Chapter 0007
My breath quickened, panic clawing its way through my chest.
For years, Alexander hadn’t been able to let go of Lauren. Her shadow had haunted him, lingered between us no matter how hard I worked to push it aside.
If he discovered she was alive now, here, everything I’d but could crumble in an instant.
A fiery surge of fury replaced the icy fear. No. I wouldn’t let her take everything from me. Not after everything I had sacrificed.
I stormed down the hallway, my heels clicking sharply against the floor. The staff glanced at ine nervously as I threw open Owen’s door, not caring about their startled expressions.
“Owen,” I snapped, my voice cutting through the air like a whip. “Why did you call that woman ‘Mommy‘?”
The boy didn’t even flinch. He looked up from his laptop, dark eyes as sharp and unreadable as ever, expression one of cold indifference.
“You’re too noisy,” he said flatly, before returning his attention to the screen.
his
His words were sharp and humiliating. My fists clenched at my sides, nails biting into my palms as I forced myself not to lash out.
Owen simply ignored me, his small hands moving deftly over the keyboard, as if I didn’t even exist.
The brat.
I spun on my heel, slamming the door shut behind me, my mind racing.
If Lauren was really alive and trying to connect to Owen, it wouldn’t be long before the truth unraveled. I might just lose everything. My chance to marry Alexander.
Things couldn’t get much worse.
No. I couldn’t let that happen.
I turned to Dr. Bramble, who had been lingering nearby, his expression uncertain.
“Find out everything about her,” I said, my voice low and urgent. “Ava. Where she lives, who she’s connected to everything. And make sure Alexander doesn’t meet her. Do you understand?”
Dr. Bramble nodded quickly, his discomfort evident, but I didn’t care.
As he hurried off, a dark determination settled in
my
chest
Lauren or Ava–may have come back from the dead, but I wasn’t about to let her ruin everything I’d built. She wouldn’t get the chance.
