Chapter Ten: Cracks in the King
806 Words
Ethan Blake had ruled boardrooms, crushed competitors, and dismantled empires without flinching.
But lately… something was slipping.
He sat alone in his glass-walled office, the city stretched beneath him like a field he once controlled. The sun was setting, painting the skyline in violent reds and for a moment, he swore the reflection staring back at him wasn’t his.
It was hers. Ava.
He blinked hard. The vision vanished.
But the unease remained coiled, tightening.
THE NIGHTMARES
For the third night in a row, Ethan jolted awake in his penthouse, heart pounding, sheets tangled around him.
The dream was always the same:
A church.
White roses.
A letter on the altar.
A woman in a ruined wedding dress staring at him with hollow, betrayed eyes.
Ava.
But in this dream she didn’t cry.
She smiled.
Cold. Unforgiving.
And whispered, “Justice.”
Every time he reached for her, she turned into ash.
Ethan pressed a hand against his eyes and cursed. “Why now… Why the hell now?”
He had buried her.
He had buried that entire chapter of his life.
Hadn’t he?
By noon, everyone could see that the unshakable Ethan Blake was… unsettled.
During a board meeting, Daniel Stone his oldest friend and CFO noticed Ethan staring at a report like it was written in a foreign language.
“Ethan?” Daniel asked cautiously. “You’re… quiet today.”
Ethan looked up sharply, eyes colder than usual.
“I’m fine.”
But he wasn’t.
He was spiraling.
His coffee went untouched.
His pen tapped endlessly against the glass table.
And when one of the junior analysts accidentally dropped a file, Ethan flinched actually flinched like someone had fired a gun.
Daniel exchanged a look with the others. No one dared speak.
Ethan Blake didn’t flinch.
His new executive assistant, Claire Maddox, had only been with him two months, but she already understood one thing:
Ethan was dangerous.
But now?
He was unpredictable.
When she entered his office with a stack of finalized contracts, she found Ethan standing with his back to her, staring at the city with a rigid tension she had never seen.
“Sir?” Claire said softly.
He didn’t move.
“Mr. Blake?”
His voice finally came low, strained.
“Did you ever… forget someone you shouldn’t have?” he asked without turning.
Claire froze. “Sir?”
Ethan finally faced her, eyes sharp but… lost.
“Never mind. Put the files down.”
But Claire wasn’t blind.
She had seen the name stamped across one of the documents on his desk.
Ava Sinclair.
And she knew, instantly, that this ghost was not leaving anytime soon.
That afternoon, Ethan retreated to his office, shutting the blinds for the first time in years. He opened the bottom drawer one he had not touched in a very long time and pulled out a velvet box.
Inside lay a ring.
A ring that had never reached her finger.
He gripped it hard, knuckles whitening, a storm rising behind his eyes.
“I warned them,” Ethan whispered. “I warned them to leave her alone.”
His jaw clenched as he remembered the moment he walked away from Ava not because he didn’t want her, but because he had been forced to choose between her life and her freedom.
But she was alive.
Somehow… back.
And she wanted something.
Was it revenge?
Or was it him?
He didn’t know which answer terrified him more.
When a security alert buzzed on his phone, Ethan’s pulse spiked.
Unidentified activity in the underground parking lot his personal section.
He rushed down with two guards.
The air was cold.
Silent.
Heavy.
Then he saw it.
A white rose on the hood of his car.
A rose he recognized.
A rose he had once placed in Ava’s hair the night he first fell in love with her.
Now it was a message.
His guards scanned the lot, but Ethan already knew…
She’d been here.
Close enough to touch his world.
Close enough to shake it.
He picked up the rose slowly.
His fingers trembled.
For Ethan Blake who didn’t fear anyone this was the beginning of something he wasn’t prepared for.
Something he couldn’t control.
That night, as he stared at the rose on his desk, Daniel entered without knocking.
“Ethan, talk to me. You’re slipping.”
Ethan didn’t look up.
“She’s back.”
Daniel went still. “Ava?”
Ethan nodded once, voice barely more than breath.
“And I think she’s coming for everything.”
Daniel swallowed. “Then what are you going to do?”
Ethan closed his eyes.
“I don’t know.”
For the first time in his life, the king of the empire…
felt fear.
Not of losing the company.
Not of losing power.
But of losing her again.
- Writer
