Chapter 19 – "The Mother I Thought I Knew"
Ava flies home under the radar.
No security. No Dominic. No warning.
She lands in New York with Noah's help, using a fake name and forged travel documents. Her hands shake as she rides through the streets she once knew—now ghosts of her former life.
She doesn't go to her old apartment. Doesn't call anyone.
She goes straight to her mother.
The building is familiar. The same care home she paid for with her own soul. The same white walls and soft music. But when she opens the door to her mother's room—
Her mother is standing. Healthy. Laughing. On the phone.
Ava freezes.
Her mother turns, surprise flickering across her face—then something else. Guilt. Caution.
> "Ava," she says slowly, hanging up. "You look… tired."
Ava walks in like she's in a dream.
> "You're not sick."
Silence.
> "You haven't been sick. Not in a long time."
Her mother swallows, voice cracking.
> "It wasn't like that."
> "Then explain it," Ava snaps. "Because I sold my life to a man who ruined me. I signed a marriage contract. I disappeared."
Her mother sits. Suddenly smaller.
> "Dominic said you were in danger. He promised to take care of you if I cooperated."
Ava steps closer.
> "So what—this was a setup?"
Her mother doesn't answer. She just says:
> "Serena came to me first."
That name hits like a blade.
> "Serena?"
> "She said Dominic was going to get you killed. She offered protection. She said marrying him would give you power. That it was the only way."
> "You let me walk into that marriage?"
Tears fall, but they don't move Ava anymore.
> "I thought I was protecting you," her mother whispers.
> "No," Ava says. "You were protecting yourself."
And then something clicks.
The sudden recovery. The fake illness. The signed documents.
> "You faked the diagnosis, didn't you?"
Her mother's silence is the answer.
Ava turns to leave.
> "Where are you going?" her mother pleads.
Ava's voice is ice.
> "Back to the one person I swore I'd never forgive—because now I finally know who the real monster is."
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