ONE LAST CHANCE

THE ENEMY INSIDE I

The morning sunlight did nothing to warm the chill crawling down Ava's spine.

She stood in her kitchen, staring at the photograph again. The red ink glared at her like a wound. History repeats itself. Don't let love blind you twice.

Her hands trembled. Not from fear-but fury. Someone had been in her home. Someone who knew her past, her father, and the exact buttons to push.

She paced. There were only a handful of people who had access to her building. Fewer still who knew the story behind that photo.

And only one who'd been acting... off.

Olivia.

Her assistant, loyal to a fault-until recently. Late to meetings. Dodging questions. And she'd been the only one with access to Ava's calendar last week, when her meeting with Julian was suddenly moved from public to private.

Ava snatched her phone and called Julian.

He answered on the second ring. "Ava."

"I need your security team to pull footage from my building. Last night."

"I'm already on it," he said grimly. "I saw the envelope."

A pause.

"You were here?" she asked.

"I had a tail on you. After what we found in the servers, I didn't want to take any chances."

Her stomach twisted. "You had someone watching me?"

"I had someone protecting you," he snapped. "And good thing I did. The footage shows a woman in a hooded coat. Five foot six. Entered using a copied fob key."

Ava swallowed. "Olivia's five-six."

Julian was quiet for a beat. "I'll have my team pull her background."

"No," Ava said. "I'll handle it."

---

Later That Day - Sinclair PR Office

Olivia looked up from her desk with that perfect, polished smile. "Hey, you're early"

"We need to talk." Ava didn't sit. "Privately."

The young woman blinked, then nodded, leading her into the small conference room.

The moment the door shut, Ava dropped the photo on the table.

Olivia stared at it. "Where did you get this?"

"You tell me."

"I-I don't know what you mean."

"Don't lie to me," Ava said, voice like steel. "How long have you been working for him?"

Olivia's composure cracked. "I don't know who 'he' is."

"You're not just an assistant. You had access to my apartment, my passwords, my life. Why?"

Olivia's eyes filled with tears. "I didn't want to hurt you. I swear. I didn't even know what I was getting into."

Ava narrowed her eyes. "Start talking."

Olivia crumpled. "It started with a message. A man named Vale contacted me six months ago. Said he knew about my student loans, my mom's medical bills. Said I could help him monitor some files. Nothing big. I didn't even know it had to do with you at first."

"And when you did?"

Olivia looked down. "I couldn't stop. He had leverage. Photos. Emails. He threatened to ruin me."

Ava felt sick. "So what did he want?"

"To know what you were doing. Who you were meeting. Anything about CrossTech." Her voice dropped. "He said if you and Julian kept digging, people would die."

Ava's hands curled into fists. "Get out."

"What?"

"You're done here. You'll hand over everything-every message, every file, every name-and then you disappear. Or I will personally make sure you're prosecuted."

Olivia backed away, crying. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

"You did," Ava said coldly. "Now fix it."

---

That Night - Julian's Penthouse

Ava tossed the flash drive on Julian's coffee table.

"She gave me everything," she said. "It's all there-encrypted chats, financial transfers, even burner numbers tied to shell companies we've seen before."

Julian picked it up, face unreadable. "You okay?"

"No," she said. "But I'm focused."

He stood, moving to the window. The city lights glittered like distant fires.

"She betrayed you," he said quietly. "And you're still thinking like a strategist."

"It's the only way I know how to survive."

Julian turned. "I wish you didn't have to."

For a moment, their eyes locked. The weight of everything-loss, betrayal, love, regret-hung between them.

Then Ava looked away. "Vale's circling. Closer than ever. Olivia said he has a mole inside CrossTech. Someone feeding him live updates."

Julian stiffened. "Who?"

"She doesn't know. But she said something weird. He called them 'the ghost in the wires.' Said they were everywhere and nowhere."

Julian's jaw clenched. "Then we've got a bigger problem. This isn't just revenge. He's trying to burn both our houses down."

Ava nodded. "And now we know where the fire started."

---

Flashback - Four Years Ago

Julian slammed the door of his hotel suite, rage pounding in his chest. The indictment had dropped. Ava had vanished. And his name was being dragged through the mud.

Then came the call.

A voice. Low. Distorted.

"You got too close to the truth, Mr. Cross. Consider this your warning."

Julian gritted his teeth. "Who is this?"

"Someone cleaning up your messes. And hers. Stay quiet, stay alive."

The line went dead.

He hadn't told anyone. Not even Ava.

Until now.

---

Back in the Present

Julian told her everything.

Ava sat in stunned silence.

"So you were threatened too."

"Threatened? I was dismantled," he said. "My board almost voted me out. My investors vanished. It took everything I had to keep the company afloat. And I thought it was you all along"

Ava reached out, hesitating.

Then, gently, she touched his hand.

"I thought the same about you."

They looked at each other.

Different people now. Wiser. Hardened. Scarred.

But beneath it all-the fire still burned.

And this time, they wouldn't be so easily broken.

Ava didn't pull her hand away.

For a long beat, their fingers simply rested against each other-an unspoken truce between two battle-worn survivors. The fire between them wasn't gone. It had just buried itself beneath years of pain and pride.

Ava's voice was softer now. "What happened to us?"

Julian exhaled slowly. "We let other people write our ending."

"And now?" she asked.

He looked at her, eyes shadowed but steady. "Now, we rewrite it. But first, we take down Vale."

The air crackled with tension. Not just from the danger-but from everything they hadn't said.

Julian's phone buzzed.

He checked the screen, eyes narrowing. "We have a problem."

"What kind?"

He turned the screen toward her. A news alert.

"EXCLUSIVE: Sinclair PR Caught in Crossfire-CEO Allegedly Linked to Corporate Espionage."

Ava's heart dropped. "What the hell-?"

Julian was already moving to his laptop. "They leaked Olivia's access logs. Emails, call records-twisted to make it look like you were running the interference."

Her throat tightened. "They're making me the fall guy."

"Fall woman," he corrected, grim. "And that's not even the worst part."

He tapped a few keys, pulling up a file from the flash drive.

"Olivia's messages had timestamps. One of them-just three weeks ago-mentions a scheduled leak to discredit you. But get this... the file was modified yesterday."

Aria frowned. "Meaning...?"

"Someone on the inside updated it after Olivia handed it over. Someone still feeding Vale."

Her pulse quickened. "The mole."

Julian nodded. "And they knew we had the flash drive."

She stepped back, mind racing. "So what now? What's the play?"

Julian's expression darkened. "We go public before they do."

Ava's jaw clenched. "You want to air everything?"

"No. Not everything. Just enough to flip the narrative. Get ahead of the storm."

She crossed her arms. "And sacrifice my name in the process?"

Julian stepped toward her, voice low. "I won't let them destroy you. Not again."

Ava shook her head. "This isn't about me anymore. It's about Vale. He's not just coming for us-he's playing a long game. What if this is part of something bigger?"

Julian raised a brow. "You think he's after more than just revenge?"

She looked up, the full force of her instincts returning. "He's not trying to ruin us. He's trying to expose us-to someone else. He's baiting us."

Julian looked away, piecing it together. "Then who's really pulling the strings?"

The room fell into heavy silence.

Ava suddenly felt it-like they were standing on the edge of something far bigger than a scandal or a breakup.

This wasn't just about love lost.

It was about war.

And they were already deep in enemy territory.

---

The Next Day - CrossTech Headquarters

The media frenzy was in full swing.

Paparazzi clustered outside, shouting questions at Ava as she stepped from the car in heels and armor: a steel-gray pantsuit, black sunglasses, and a storm behind her eyes.

Julian met her at the elevator, flanked by security.

"You ready for this?" he asked.

"I was born ready," she replied.

He handed her a tablet. "Press statement is clean. Legal approved it. But remember-if they press you about the photo or Olivia"

"I redirect. I control the room."

He smiled. "There's the Ava I remember."

The elevator doors opened onto a private conference floor. Inside, over a dozen reporters were already seated. Cameras aimed. Lights harsh and blinding.

Ava stepped up to the podium, heart steady.

"Good morning," she began, her voice calm but cutting. "Let's address the rumors."

She walked them through the truth-filtered, careful, powerful. She didn't name Olivia. She didn't mention Vale.

But she made one thing very clear:

No one manipulates the Sinclair brand.

And as she spoke, she noticed something strange. One of the reporters-a tall man in the back row-wasn't taking notes. He was watching her.

Just watching.

Ava's skin prickled.

After the briefing, she asked security to track him. But by then, he'd vanished. No badge. No name on the list. Just a ghost.

She turned to Julian. "We've got a new player."

He nodded. "Then it's time we stop playing defense."

Later That Night - CrossTech Private Lab

Julian swiped his keycard, leading Ava down a restricted hallway few had access to. The walls were sleek, cold steel. The hum of hidden tech echoed through the silence.

"This is where we store black-level prototypes and data architecture," Julian said quietly. "I had them reroute some of the security logs. I needed to check something off-grid."

Ava raised an eyebrow. "You don't trust your own team?"

He gave her a hard look. "After what we've uncovered, I'm not sure I trust anyone."

Inside the lab, Julian booted up a separate server system-unconnected to the mainframe. "When you saw that reporter at the conference... I recognized him."

Her eyes widened. "What? From where?"

Julian pulled up a grainy security image, cleaned up through facial recognition. "Derek Vale's old partner. He went dark after their hedge fund collapsed. Last anyone heard, he was 'consulting' in Eastern Europe."

Ava folded her arms. "Which is code for laundering dirty money."

Julian nodded. "Exactly. If he's back-and showing up here-this isn't just about Vale. We're dealing with something bigger."

Ava stared at the screen, tension knotting in her chest. "This is starting to feel like a takedown operation. Coordinated. Precise. One leak at a time."

"Not just of us," Julian added. "Of everyone tied to Project Echo."

She stiffened. "You said that name before. What the hell is Project Echo?"

Julian hesitated. "It was a failed acquisition CrossTech backed five years ago. A smart surveillance platform. AI-based behavioral tracking. We pulled out before launch-after it was flagged for ethical breaches."

Ava's voice was cold. "Breach meaning... illegal?"

Julian didn't answer immediately. "Let's just say... certain governments were very interested. And not the friendly kind."

She stared at him. "You knew about this during our engagement?"

"I didn't know it would come back to haunt us."

The door slammed open.

Julian immediately grabbed Ava and shielded her behind him. But it was only Leo, Julian's head of security, breathless and wide-eyed.

"We've got a breach," Leo said. "Penthouse level. Someone bypassed the biometric system."

Julian's jaw tightened. "Ava, you need to stay here."

"Not a chance."

They ran.

The office was chaos.

Glass shattered. Files scattered. A large safe blown open-its contents gone. Julian's entire secure archive-wiped.

Ava stepped carefully through the wreckage. "This wasn't random. They knew exactly where to hit."

Julian stared at the destruction. His private code journals, investor records-gone. But something deeper gnawed at him.

"No," he muttered. "They didn't just steal data. They took proof."

Ava moved toward a fallen photo frame on the floor. It was cracked in half, the picture inside scorched but intact-Julian and his late father, taken just before the CrossTech IPO.

Her voice softened. "What did they take, Julian?"

He didn't answer.

Because he couldn't.

Because what they took... could destroy them all.

---

Somewhere in New York - Same Night

The mystery man-the one from the press conference-sat in a dimly lit room, a series of encrypted files projected on the wall.

Next to him stood someone cloaked in shadows.

A woman's voice. Smooth. Calculated.

"Julian won't go down easy," she said.

The man smiled. "He doesn't have to. He just has to break."

The woman nodded. "And Ava Sinclair?"

A pause.

"She'll destroy him... if we do this right."

CrossTech - Surveillance Vault, 3:00 AM

Ava leaned over a console, scrolling through footage while Julian paced behind her. The tension had thickened like fog-silent, heavy, suffocating. The more they uncovered, the less sense anything made.

"This feed's looped," she said, rewinding. "Whoever did this knew your system. They fed a fake timestamp into the mainframe and walked right through your front door."

Julian cursed under his breath. "That narrows it down to about five people."

Ava's eyes flicked to him. "Five people you trust with your life?"

He paused. "Trusted."

The silence between them crackled with unsaid things. Ava turned back to the monitors, jaw clenched.

She didn't want to say it. But she had to.

"Julian... what if it's someone inside your executive team?"

He sat heavily on the edge of the table. "I've already thought about it. One of them-maybe more-had access to the backup drives. And the system override codes."

Arva looked at him. "You don't seem surprised."

"I'm not." He glanced at her, bitter smile twitching at his lips. "You only get stabbed in the back by people standing close enough to whisper."

She watched him for a beat too long. There was that wounded edge in his voice again-worn and hardened. Not the Julian she used to know. But not a stranger either.

"I'll need a list of your top-level execs," she said, finally. "Every board member. Every advisor. Anyone who's been near those files in the past month."

He nodded. "You'll get it. But there's something else."

He pulled open a side drawer, withdrawing a small silver flash drive. "This wasn't taken. It was hidden. I always keep it separate."

Ava took it carefully. "What is it?"

"Call logs. Emails. The original Echo project files. Back when it was still being funded through shell corporations."

Her breath caught. "This could implicate half the tech elite on the East Coast."

He nodded grimly. "Exactly. That's why I think this break-in wasn't just corporate espionage. It's silencing. Whoever's behind this... they're trying to bury Echo for good."

She tucked the drive into her coat. "Then we make it our insurance policy."

---

Downtown - Ava's hotel room

By the time she got to the lodge, the sky was bleeding into dawn.

She dropped her keys, kicked off her heels, and sank into the couch, her heart still thudding from the adrenaline and the sheer weight of everything she now carried.

She was about to plug in the flash drive when her phone buzzed.

Unknown number. A message.

> You should have stayed away, Ava. Next time, we won't just take data.

Another buzz.

A photo.

Of her sister. Asleep in her college dorm.

Ava dropped the phone. Her fingers trembled.

No one outside her family even knew where Ivy lived.

Until now.

She grabbed her coat and dialed Julian. "We have a bigger problem."

---

Meanwhile - Midtown Manhattan

Inside a luxury high-rise, a sleek figure stood before a window, sipping espresso.

A different phone buzzed.

Another message received.

> Phase One complete. She's scared. He's paranoid. They'll tear each other apart.

The figure turned slightly, revealing red lipstick and a familiar gold watch.

Then she smiled.

"Perfect."