Chapter 53: Claimed and Exposed

Chapter 53: Claimed and Exposed
AVA'S POV

Light seeped through my Chinatown apartment window, cold and uninvited. I woke up with a rasp, Caleb's spectral touch burning on my skin… aching, clutching, authentic. Desire curled tight and bitter in my belly, the instant careening into a gut-wrenching wave of shame.

Marcus…
Julian…

Their faces hovered in the gray light, paired with Caleb's relentless gaze.

What had I done? Caleb had been raw reality… gritty, down-to-earth… but the connection only strengthened the net. All the threads pulled at me. All the knots bound to strangle.

My eyes found my phone on the floor, still charging. The black screen seemed to sneer at me like a threat. Dread. Work equaled Sterling. Work equalled facing Julian.

But deep beneath that apparently hardwired fear, a dark spark glowed. His eyes… hard, measured, freezing me where I stood… sent heat flooding down through my gut.

Ice. Professional.

I pushed my hand back through my hair, trying to untangle more than its knots. "Get it together, Ava," I gasped.

And Caleb's promise still resonated, deep and unmoveable: I've got you.


Sterling Architecture was a pressure cooker. I surrounded myself with the Aris project schematics, neat measurements and clean lines building a wall between me and the chaos in my head.

Sarah flew into my office like a nervous hummingbird, toe to toe pacing.

"Ava?" she panted, drawing closer, looking toward Victoria's office. "I just wanted to tell you… I always envied the way you managed. Especially around her."

My guard went up the moment I heard it. "Thanks, Sarah," I laughed. "We all just try to stay focused."

But Sarah wasn’t here to make small talk.

"She's awful, you know," she continued to pant. "Victoria. We all hate her. She's toxic."

I stood still, silent, waiting.

Sarah came in closer, her own voice falling even lower. "You hear what she's saying. To everybody." Her eyes were wide now, their gravity burdened with warning. "That you received the Aris project… heck, your whole job… just because Marcus Sterling is your stepfather."

Cold coursed through me. Stepfather?

"And that Julian keeps you on out of family duty."

Duty. The words tasted bitter on my tongue. That's what I am to him? A duty?

Sarah swallowed, as if preparing herself. "And she's calling you fragile. Unstable. Saying you'll break under pressure, seeing your mom is ill. She's poisoning the well, Ava."

Fragile. Unstable.

The words cut like shards of glass, cutting through the thin layer of protection I'd built. Having endured everything I'd endured… all I'd ever lived through… she had the audacity? Rage burned inside me, fierce and hot, eager to pour.

"I appreciate your saying so," I said, voice flat. I rose, chair scraping on the floor. "Excuse me."

I had to get away. Before I lost myself.


The cold bathroom air didn't extinguish the flames that burned inside me. I grasped the porcelain sink, gaze fixed on the stranger in the mirror… wide, red, fury burning through every part of me.

Victoria's lethal poison and Sarah's warning. Shattered. The way she'd smiled as she'd spoken them.

Before I could think, I was moving. From the bathroom, through Flinch's dumbfounded face, straight to Julian's office. I did not knock. I just turned the doorknob and walked in.

He was sitting behind his desk, but I didn't pause. The words just spilled out before I even knew what I was doing.

"Still at it!" I chilled, and not with fright. "Victoria! Gossiping… spreading all that I'm still in this role because Marcus is my stepfather! That you keep me only through… " I couldn't help but push the words out. "family obligation! And that I'm weak. Unstable. After everything I went through… "

Julian stood loose, menacing, the mood of the room shifting with him. "Ava." His deep, commanding voice cut through my rage like a knife. "Breathe."

He moved behind the desk, covering distance in measured steps, his eyes remaining locked on mine until I could not help but look involuntarily. "Look at me."

I did. And something in his eyes… a black, unyielding conviction… pulled me in without contact.

"The situation," he told me, his voice calm but with steel beneath,
"has been dealt with. Severely."

He moved a step closer yet, his body a weight on me.

"When Victoria visited your desk that morning, she was summoned here immediately. Her interference… with you"
his eyes grew narrow by a fraction,
"was stopped. Irrevocably."

My indignation stalled. "Stopped? But she's still… "

Before I had a chance to spit the rest of it out, his hand was against my jaw, fingers cupping my face in clashing gentleness. His thumb followed the shape of my cheekbone, softness against the hard edge in his voice.

"She is nothing," he growled. "Dust. You are not fragile. You are mine. And no one shows disrespect to what is mine."

The words shouldn't have shattered me. But they did.

Something inside me shattered… years of fear, of terror, of hunger, all pouring into the flames between us.

His head dipped. My breath caught. And then his lips were on mine.

It was not soft. It was a convulsion… hard, hungry, not to be resisted. His arm wrapped around my waist, jerking me against him, erasing every inch of space. The kiss expanded, savage and brutal, his flavor flooding my senses.

I also kissed him as though I'd been waiting for a thousand years. My fists in his shirt, pinning him in place, the fire of need in my bloodstream giving no time to think.

SCREEEEEECH!

The fire alarm broke the instant, shrieking and unyielding. We broke apart, gasping, his face flip-flopping from scorched to congealed in the space of a fraction of a second.

He moved quickly, opening the door to the office.

The corridor pulsed red under the emergency lighting. Standing just behind, hand close to the alarm, was Victoria.

Her eyes locked on me first… sharp, poisonous… before darting to Julian. No misreading the danger in their centers: revolt, anger, and a threat to kill.

Pandemonium broke out as staff flooded the corridor, shouts fighting over the alarm. But I heard nothing.

We were three alone.

Julian… emitting cold-blooded calm.

Me… flushed, shaken, his flavor on my lips.

Victoria… the viper, daring us both to strike.

And in that red glory, I knew all would never be the same.