Married To The Devil Who Bought My Revenge

006: The Warning

~Ava's POV~

"Walk away before it's too late."

I read it three times, just to make sure it wasn't a dream.

I wasn't.

Someone knew. Someone knew this marriage was fake. Something knew about the contract, about Dominic, about everything I had signed in less than forty-eight. My chest tightened. The stylist was still talking behind me, holding up a pair of earrings, asking me something about gold versus silver. I heard none of it.

Instead, I screenshotted the message.

Then I deleted it.

Then I immediately regretted deleting it.

"Miss?" The stylist touched my shoulder lightly. "The gold ones? Or the silver?"

"Gold," I said, handing the phone back to myself like it hadn't just turned my whole morning upside down.

I spent more time than I expected on autopilot. I nodded when they held things up. I said yes to outfits I barely glanced at. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I was running through every name I could think of. Dominic's staff? One of his people had seen the contract. Maybe someone talked. Or maybe it came from my family's side. My father had eyes everywhere. He'd spent years building a network of people who fed him information.

Or maybe it was someone I hadn't even considered yet.

By the time the stylists packed up and left, I still had no answer. Just a deleted message.

I didn't tell Dominic. Not yet.

*****

He came back just after seven, no greeting, just the sound of his shoes on the marble floor as he moved through the penthouse like he owned the air in it. Which, technically, he did.

I watched him from the kitchen doorway. He loosened his tie, set his phone on the counter, and reached for the coffee I'd already made.

"You're quiet," he said, without looking at me.

"I'm always quiet."

"Not this kind of quiet." He finally looked up. "What happened? Is everything okay?"

For one second, I almost told him. The words were right there.

Then I thought about the file he'd shown me that morning. The ten years of patience behind it. The way he'd watched me sign that contract without blinking.

"Nothing," I said. "Just…just tired."

He watched me for a moment longer. "Sit down. We need to talk about Phase One."

I sat across from him immediately at the kitchen island. He had a folder open already, and next to it was a printed list of names I didn't even recognize.

"The Adams Intelligence Network," he said, sliding the list toward me. "Seven years in the making. Former analysts, corporate insiders, one retired federal investigator. His name is Colt Reeves. He's been on my payroll since the beginning and he's the best at what he does."

I scanned the names. "What exactly do they do?"

"They listen. They follow money. They document things that people think nobody's paying attention to." He leaned forward slightly. "Information is the only weapon that doesn't run out of ammunition. Every person in your father's circle is a door. We're going to open all of them."

Something about the way he said it made my pulse pick up. Not fear. Something else.

"And what exactly do we do once we open them?"

"We walk through." His voice was calm. "One by one."

I turned the paper over in my hands. "What happens when someone finds out what we're doing?"

He looked at me, and there was something almost like amusement in his eyes. Just a flicker. "They already know. They just don't know it's you yet."

The words hit differently than I expected. I thought about the text message again. The unknown number. The warning. Walk away before it's too late.

What exactly does it mean? I have no idea. Maybe someone already knew it was me.

I almost said it out loud. I was this close. But then Dominic's phone buzzed on the counter and he picked it up, reading something with that unreadable expression that gave nothing away.

"Reeves flagged something," he said, not looking up. "He'll have a full report by morning."

"About my father?"

"About the merger." He set the phone down. "I'll know more by tomorrow."

I nodded like this was all perfectly normal, like my heart wasn't doing something complicated in my chest.

We sat there for a minute without speaking. The city hummed outside the windows, Manhattan doing its thing thirty floors below like our little war meant nothing to it.

"Can I ask you something?" I said.

"Sure. You can ask."

"Why does it matter to you how I carry this? The revenge, I mean. Why not just... use the information yourself and cut me out of all this completely?"

He was quiet. Not like he was stalling. More like he was choosing the exact words he wanted.

"Because watching someone become what they were always supposed to be," he said slowly, "is worth more to me than just winning."

I didn't know what to do with that.

Instead I said goodnight and went to bed.

*****

I lay there for a long time, staring at the ceiling again. But it wasn't grief this time. It wasn't the replaying loop of Lily collapsing at the altar or my father's voice cutting me off in front of three hundred people.

It was something sharper. Cleaner.

Anticipation.

Someone out there already felt threatened enough to send a warning. That meant they were scared. And scared people made mistakes.

I took the phone on the nightstand. Not the one with the deleted message. I pulled up the black card Dominic had given me and found a same-day delivery service. Private courier. Cash on delivery. No account required.

I ordered a new phone. Untraceable. Prepaid. Delivered by morning.

Then I put the original phone face-down and closed my eyes.

Whoever you are, I thought, you should've stayed quiet. Because now I know you exist.