DOMINIC'S POV
The encrypted email appeared at 4:47 AM.
I hadn't slept. Couldn't sleep. Three weeks since the gala and something felt wrong. Like waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Now here it was.
SUBJECT: You Made a Mistake
MESSAGE: "The girl from the gala. She's pregnant. Yours. She'll come to you soon. When she does, deny everything. I've provided proof you weren't there. Use it. Trust me. This is bigger than you know."
Attached were flight records showing me in Tokyo that night. Hotel confirmations. Credit card statements. All fake—I was definitely at the gala. But the forgeries were perfect.
Someone was helping me cover up a one-night stand I barely remembered.
Why?
My phone buzzed. Marcus calling.
"Tell me you didn't," my best friend said without greeting.
"Didn't what?"
"Sleep with Ava Chen at the acquisition gala."
My blood ran cold. "How do you—"
"Because she just requested a meeting with you. Personal matter. Dominic, please tell me you were smart enough to use protection."
I had been. I thought. That night was fuzzy—I'd had three drinks, which was unusual for me. And the woman had been drugged with something. But I'd definitely used protection.
Hadn't I?
"When's the meeting?" I asked.
"Ten AM. Two hours. Want me to cancel?"
"No. I'll handle it."
I hung up and stared at the encrypted email. Someone knew what happened that night. Someone was manipulating evidence. The question was: were they helping me or setting me up?
Ava Chen walked into my office at exactly ten AM.
I'd spent two hours preparing myself. This was a shakedown. Women had tried this before—faking pregnancies, claiming I was the father, demanding money. My lawyers always made them go away.
But when I saw her, something in my chest twisted.
She looked terrified. Dark circles under ice-blue eyes. Hands shaking as she clutched her purse. This wasn't the confident gold-digger I expected.
This was a scared girl who looked like she hadn't slept in weeks.
"Miss Chen," I kept my voice cold. "What can I do for you?"
Before she could answer, my office door opened. Celeste walked in, all smiles.
"Ava? What are you doing here?"
The sisters stared at each other. The temperature in the room dropped ten degrees.
"I need to speak with Mr. Kane," Ava said quietly. "Privately."
"Anything concerning Kane Industries can be discussed in front of Celeste," I said, following the script from that mysterious email. "She's our liaison for the Chen acquisition."
Ava's face went pale. But she straightened her spine and looked me in the eye.
"I'm pregnant. The baby is yours."
The words hit like bullets.
For one moment, I saw that night clearly—her silver hair spread across my pillow, her whispered "thank you" when I held her, the way she'd curled into me like she was finally safe.
Then Celeste laughed.
"Ava, that's impossible. Mr. Kane wasn't even at the gala."
She pulled out her phone, showing the fake records. I watched Ava's face crumble as she saw the "proof."
"But—" Ava's voice broke. "I know it was you. I remember—"
"You remember wrong," I said, and the lie tasted like poison. But that email warned me to deny everything. Said it was bigger than I knew. "I was in Tokyo that night. I have proof."
Why was I lying? Why was I doing this?
Because someone with enough power to fake perfect records wanted me to. And in my world, you didn't cross people like that without knowing who they were first.
But watching Ava's hope die hurt more than I expected.
"I'm not confused," she whispered. "You carried me. You helped me. We—"
"I've never touched you in my life." Another lie. Another piece of my soul dying. "Celeste, call security."
"Wait!" Ava pulled out a crumpled note. My handwriting. "I'm sorry."
Damn. I'd forgotten about that.
"That could be anyone's handwriting," Celeste said smoothly, taking it from Ava's shaking hands.
I watched this woman—this girl, really—get destroyed in front of me. Watched her believe she was crazy. Watched her world end.
And I did nothing to stop it.
"Get out," I said. "And don't come back."
She left. The door closed. Silence filled my office.
Celeste turned to me with a smile. "Thank you for trusting me. My sister has been—unstable—since the acquisition. I'm sorry she bothered you."
"Your sister," I said slowly, "seemed pretty certain about what happened."
"She's always been dramatic. Creates stories for attention." Celeste moved closer. "You made the right choice, denying her. Women like that are dangerous."
Something about the way she said it made my skin crawl.
"How did you get those fake records so fast?" I asked.
Celeste blinked. "Fake? They're not fake. You really were in Tokyo—"
"No, I wasn't. I was at the gala. You know it. I know it. So who's helping you lie?"
Her perfect smile cracked. Just for a second. But I saw it.
"I don't know what you mean," she said carefully.
"Get out of my office."
"Dominic—"
"Now."
She left. Finally.
I pulled up the encrypted email again. Typed a reply: "Who are you? What do you want?"
The response came immediately: "To protect you from a trap. Ava Chen isn't what she seems. Her family sent her to seduce you. The pregnancy is fake. Trust me."
But I'd seen Ava's face. Heard her voice break. She wasn't faking that pain.
Was she?
My phone buzzed. Unknown number. Text message: "Check your security cameras. The hallway outside your office. Twenty minutes ago."
I pulled up the footage. There—Ava leaving my office, tears streaming down her face. And there—Celeste in the hallway, on her phone, smiling.
Audio was disabled on hallway cameras. But I could read lips well enough.
Celeste was saying: "Phase two complete. He denied everything. She's broken."
My blood turned to ice.
Another text: "Now check your penthouse elevator. The night of the gala."
I pulled up that footage. And there I was, carrying Ava Chen to my room. Timestamp: 9:47 PM. The night I was supposedly in Tokyo.
Someone had shown me fake records. Made me lie. Made me destroy a pregnant woman.
But why?
A final text: "You're being played. So is she. The real question is—by who? You have two hours. Meet at the address below. Come alone. Bring the evidence. Or people die."
Below it, a photo of Ava Chen, walking down a street, unaware she was being followed.
Then a photo of Marcus's kids playing in their backyard.
The message was clear: cooperate or people I loved would be hurt.
I grabbed my keys and headed for the door.
My assistant looked up. "Sir? Your eleven o'clock—"
"Cancel everything."
I had two hours to figure out who was destroying my life and why. Two hours to find Ava Chen and warn her we were both pawns in someone else's game.
Two hours to fix the worst mistake I'd ever made.
The address was an abandoned warehouse on the waterfront. Of course it was.
And when I got there, Ava was already waiting.
She saw me and her face went white. "What are you doing here?"
"Same thing you are. Someone sent me a message. They know everything."
"I know who they are," Ava said quietly. "And you're not going to believe it."
Before she could say more, the warehouse door slammed shut behind us.
Locks clicked into place.
And a voice echoed through the darkness: "Finally. I've been waiting for you both."
A figure stepped out of the shadows.
My heart stopped.
Because the person who'd been destroying us, manipulating us, setting us against each other—
Was someone I'd trusted for fifteen years.
Someone who had every reason to want me dead.