Chapter 6 - The Night Damian Disappeared
I thought Damian was dead.
For six terrible minutes, I believed I had watched the man I loved disappear into a storm of gunfire.
Then his hand appeared from behind a loading crate.
He was alive.
Bleeding.
He stood slowly.
“I’m fine.”
“You are not fine.”
“I’ve had worse.”
“You have blood all over your shirt!”
He looked down.
“It’s not mine.”
I almost collapsed from relief.
“Where is Martin?”
“Gone.”
We found a phone left behind.
One message.
Come to the old Cole estate alone.
Damian stared at it.
“I’m going.”
“No.”
His head snapped toward me.
“No.”
“This is about your family.”
“And me.”
“You are not coming.”
“Then I’ll follow you.”
“You could be killed.”
“So could you.”
Silence.
I stepped closer.
“I’m not staying behind while everyone else decides what happens to me.”
His face softened.
“You are stubborn.”
“You noticed.”
“Yes.”
At dawn, we arrived at the old Cole estate.
The mansion had been empty for years.
Inside, everything was covered in dust.
Then Damian saw the portrait.
His father.
Richard Cole.
And beside him, Martin Hale.
But there was another person in the painting.
A younger woman.
My mother.
Damian stared.
“Why was she here?”
A voice answered from the doorway.
“Because she was never simply your mother’s employee.”
Mom stood there.
I almost screamed.
“Mom?”
She was pale but upright.
“How did you get here?”
She walked toward us.
“I told you I wanted to protect you.”
Damian stared at her.
“You knew everything.”
Mom looked at him.
“Not everything.”
She handed him an envelope.
“This belonged to your father.”
Damian opened it.
A letter.
Dear Damian,
If you are reading this, then Martin has returned.
Do not trust the version of me your family remembers.
I built the shell companies, but I built them to expose the men using them.
I knew Martin was stealing.
I knew Evan had become involved.
And I knew someone else was behind everything.
The person you must fear is not your brother.
It is the person your brother fears.
Damian looked up.
“Who?”
Mom whispered:
“Your uncle.”
Richard Cole’s younger brother.
Victor Cole.
He had disappeared from the company fifteen years earlier.
But he had never disappeared from the money.
He had been living overseas, controlling offshore accounts.
We found the final ledger hidden behind the portrait.
Victor had been siphoning billions through Northstar.
Martin was his enforcer.
Evan had discovered the truth and tried to stop him.
Priya’s brother had also stumbled onto the network.
Everything connected.
But there was one final piece.
Why had my father died?
Mom answered.
“Because he refused to hand over the ledger.”
Damian’s jaw tightened.
“And my father?”
“He tried to expose Victor.”
“Then why did he look guilty?”
“Because Victor forged his signature.”
Damian looked down at the letter.
I touched his hand.
For the first time, he let me.
Then a gunshot cracked through the mansion.
Mom screamed.
The bullet hit the wall behind us.
We ran.
A second shot.
Third.
Damian pulled me into a hidden corridor.
“Stay here.”
“No.”
“Ava.”
“I’m coming.”
We moved through the tunnel.
At the end stood Victor Cole.
He was older than Damian.
Elegant.
Calm.
Smiling.
“You always were stubborn, nephew.”
Damian stepped in front of me.
“You killed my father.”
Victor laughed softly.
“Your father was weak.”
“You killed Ava’s father.”
“That was unfortunate.”
I wanted to scream.
Victor’s gaze moved to me.
“You look like your mother.”
Damian’s arm tightened around mine.
Victor continued.
“The problem with sentimental people is that they believe truth matters.”
Damian said nothing.
Victor raised a gun.
Then a voice echoed from behind him.
“Drop it.”
Evan.
He stood with police officers.
Victor turned.
Shock crossed his face.
Evan smiled bitterly.
“You should have checked whether I was still afraid of you.”
The police arrested Victor.
Martin was found two hours later at a private airfield.
The case made national news.
The Northstar network collapsed within weeks.
Cole Logistics survived.
Damian testified.
Evan testified.
Priya cooperated fully and was cleared of the larger conspiracy after evidence showed she had acted under coercion.
And me?
I thought everything was over.
But one evening, Damian came to my apartment.
He stood outside holding a small box.
“What’s that?”
“Something I should have given you months ago.”
Inside was a pair of new office shoes.
I stared.
“You bought me shoes?”
“You wore the same pair for ninety-four days.”
I laughed through tears.
“You really were watching me.”
“Yes.”
“Boring.”
His eyebrow rose.
I smiled.
“Very.”
He stepped closer.
“Careful.”
I laughed.
May you like
Then he kissed me.
And for once, I wasn’t afraid of being seen.
