SPECIE OF LOVE

THE EMPRESS KNOCKS

*Chapter 15: When The Empress Knocks*

_Ava's POV_

I hit the bell hard. Twice.

Marie didn’t respond.

“Marie!” I shouted, slamming my palm against the wood again. My chest was heaving. My wig dangled from my fingers like a dead thing. Bag, lipgloss, one shoe, all clutched in my trembling hands. My blouse was inside out. My skirt rode halfway up my thigh.

The door flew open. Marie stood there, smiling. Warm. Safe. Then her eyes landed on my face and her smile died.

The door slammed shut.

“No,” I choked. “Marie, please.”

A beat. The lock clicked. She opened it again, and this time she pulled me inside like she was rescuing me from a fire.

I stood in the middle of the living room panting. The air conditioner was on full blast, but sweat poured down my back.

“Marie,” I gasped. “Marie.”

She grabbed my shoulders, hard. “Hey. Look at me.” Her hands framed my face, forced my chin up. “Look here, mama. You’ve fought plenty demons and you won. Remember?”

I wasn’t listening. I couldn’t. My lungs were broken. My whole body shook.

“AVA!” She shouted, and it cracked through my panic. “You will win. God told you. Remember?”

I nodded. My eyes locked with hers. Tears blurred her face.

She dragged me to the couch. Pushed me down beside her. “Now breathe. Explain. What happened, mama? What happened?”

Her voice was gentle now. A mother’s voice. My safe place.

“I… I… I…” The words stuck. My teeth chattered. My body betrayed me, trembling so violently the couch shook.

“Hey, mama, calm down.” She rubbed my back in slow circles. “Speak to me. Calmly.”

I swallowed. Forced air into my lungs. “I… I was in his arms. I was happy. We… we were happy.” I nodded like I was convincing myself. “Then… then Junior kicked.”

Marie froze.

“He heard it.” My voice broke. “Damien heard it, Marie. He heard it.”

I shot up from the couch. Started pacing. The carpet burned my bare feet. Marie didn’t move. She just stared from the couch, hand flying to her mouth.

I saw it in her eyes. Fear. Shock. The same terror clawing up my throat.

I kept going, forcing each word out like it was glass. “Marie, he heard. And he told me. But I denied it. I said…” I laughed, a horrible, broken sound. “I said it was my stomach. But he was still asking. Playfully. Until…”

I stopped pacing. Turned to her.

“There was a knock. Marie, it’s SHE.”

“Who?” she whispered.

I heard the words echo from Damien’s hotel room. _Hey, son._

“I peeped through the door. It’s MRS. COLE. THE EMPRESS.” I thundered the title. My knees almost buckled saying it.

Marie stood up so fast the throw pillow hit the floor. “Ah!” Her hands clamped onto my arms. I felt her trembling now. She was trying to calm herself as much as me.

“So… what happened next?” she asked, voice barely there.

“I flew from the bed.” The memory played like a horror film. “I packed my belongings. I scrambled through the back door. The receptionist tried to stop me but the manager…” I squeezed my eyes shut. “The manager laughed. Mockingly. He said, ‘Hey, let her go. She’s probably one of his plenty side chicks and is running away from the Empress.’”

The words pierced me fresh. I pressed my hand to my chest, right over my heart. “It did, Marie. It pierced me.”

“But I ran. And I’m here.”

Something broke in me then. “Oh God,” I whispered, and my knees hit the floor before I knew it. “Thank you for the back door. Thank you for saving your daughter. Thank you for…”

I couldn’t finish. The sobs came, violent and ugly.

“I’m tired!” I shouted to the ceiling. To God. To anyone listening. “I’m tired!”

Marie was on the floor with me instantly. Her arms came around me. She patted my back, rocked me like I was five years old.

“You are strong,” she whispered into my hair.

“You are brave.”

“You are resilient.”

“You are like a fox. Cunning. Smart. A survivor.”

“You have endured Damien’s character for five years.”

“You’ve fought many demons, Ava.”

She pulled back, gripped my shoulders. “God told you. You will win.”

“Ava, look at me.”

I looked. Tears streamed down my face, but her words were medicine. Healing. Balm.

_God. God._

He had been my solid rock. Even when I was going astray. Even when I was in Damien’s arms this afternoon, forgetting every warning. He still made a back door.

Marie shook me, hard. It jolted me back to reality.

She smiled. That small, knowing smile she wore when she was about to shift the atmosphere.

“Mama,” she said.

She only called me that when she wanted to convince me. When she wanted me to listen like her baby. And I always did.

She continued, her voice steady, prophetic. “There are three unique things about God.”

One finger went up. “He never changes.”

Second finger. “He never lies.”

Third finger. “He never fails.”

She took my face in her hands again. “He’s going to help you through this, Ava. Do you hear me?”

I cried harder. I threw my arms around her neck and held on. Marie was still healing. The doctor’s words, the pain, the injections. But here she was, healing my wounded heart with her broken hands.

After ten minutes, something shifted. The tears stopped. A strange strength poured into me, like I’d just been charged from heaven’s outlet.

I wiped my face with the back of my hand. Disengaged from the hug. Stood up. Walked straight to the closet.

Marie stood, confused. She followed me.

I grabbed my duffel bag and started throwing clothes inside. Fast. Mechanical.

“Where are you going, Ava?” Her voice was sharp with concern.

“I’m going to my place to pack my remaining things,” I said without looking at her.

“He knows I’m here.”

She stared at me like I’d grown two heads. “Who knows here? Who is _he_? Why are you going to your house to pack your stuff? Where are you going to? Should I follow you?”

The questions came rapid fire. Scared.

I stopped packing. Turned. Smiled. Took her hands in mine.

“Momma,” I called her, and pecked her cheek.

I only called her Momma when gratitude choked me. When words weren’t enough.

“Momma, you’ve tried. Heaven knows without you I’ll probably be nowhere to be found. God has helped me. You’ve also helped me. Please, let me help myself.”

She ripped her hands from mine. Her eyes blazed.

“By running?!” she thundered.

The room shook with her voice.

“You want to run, right? You want Mrs. Cole and Damien’s fiancée to say she’s won again? You want to leave with his baby, right!”

The world stopped.

I stumbled back. “I… I didn’t tell you about the baby. Or did I?” My voice was small. Terrified. “How… how did you find out about the pregnancy?”

Marie’s face softened, then hardened with pain. “Well, I went to visit the doctor because the pains were becoming severe. He tested me and asked if I had used the drug again. I asked which drug. Then he asked, ‘Didn’t Ava explain everything to you?’”

She laughed bitterly. “I said you were passing through a lot and it might have skipped your mind. So he explained everything, Ava. Everything.”

Tears filled her eyes. “I cried. I told him I had used the drug again. He shouted. Said he told you to thrash it.”

She stepped closer. “So I know about the pregnancy. Because there’s no way that deadly mistake wasn’t scripted. By God.”

My knees hit the floor again. “I’m sorry,” I sobbed. “Momma, I’m sorry.”

She lifted me up. Cleaned my eyes with her thumb, just like she did when I was a child. “It’s okay. But you really can’t let them win by running.”

_Ring. Ring._

My phone screamed from my bag on the floor.

The anonymous caller. Again.

Damien had called ten times. I didn’t pick. I knew his mother might be with him. She might be the one asking him to call me, and he would just follow. Because he is just a Mama’s boy. Always has been.

And now _this_ anonymous caller. THE EMPRESS.

She called thrice. I didn’t pick.

Then the doorbell rang. Three times. Hard. Demanding.

We both froze. Looked at each other. No words.

We moved to the door together. Peeped through the peephole.

And boom.

Mrs. Cole. Standing there in a cream Chanel suit, pearls at her throat, looking like judgment day.

Behind her, another car drove into the compound. Black. Sleek. I would know that car anywhere.

Damien’s.

Marie and I stared at each other.

Thoughts raced through my mind like gunfire.

_Did he bring her here to finalize this mess?_

_Did they just meet by coincidence?_

_How did she know this place?_

We kept staring. Silent. Our breaths the only sound.

The Empress had found the back door.

*To be continued…*

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