Chapter 9 - THE TRUTH ABOUT AVA
Nobody spoke.
The silence was unbearable.
Lucien stared at the document on the screen.
The name.
The signature.
The truth.
“No.”
His voice was barely audible.
“No.”
Ava looked up at him.
“Daddy?”
That single word almost destroyed him.
Lucien turned away.
Not because he didn’t love her.
Because he loved her too much.
Victor watched from the screen.
“You spent four years protecting a child who was never yours.”
Lucien looked up.
“Shut up.”
Victor smiled.
“Still emotional.”
A pause.
“Still predictable.”
Lucien stepped toward the screen.
“If you touch her—”
“You’ll do what?”
Victor interrupted.
“Exactly what I wanted.”
Adrian grabbed Lucien’s shoulder.
“Don’t let him control you.”
Lucien pushed him away.
“He took my daughter.”
Adrian’s expression hardened.
“And he wants you to forget one thing.”
“What?”
“You are still her father.”
The words stopped him.
Victor’s smile faded slightly.
Because that was the one thing he couldn’t manipulate.
Ava wasn’t connected to Lucien by blood.
She was connected by everything else.
Every night he stayed awake when she was sick.
Every morning he made breakfast.
Every time she called him Daddy.
That was real.
Lucien looked at the screen.
“You’re right.”
Victor frowned.
“What?”
Lucien’s voice became calm.
“You thought blood was the only thing that mattered.”
A pause.
“You made the same mistake my father made.”
Charles looked at him.
Lucien continued.
“You think people are just pieces on a board.”
The room became silent.
“But you forgot something.”
He looked at Ava.
“Love changes the rules.”
For the first time, Victor looked angry.
Only for a second.
But Lucien saw it.
A weakness.
Then Victor ended the transmission.
The laboratory alarms started screaming.
Red lights flashed.
Adrian looked around.
“We need to move.”
Charles walked toward Lucien.
“Listen to me.”
Lucien didn’t look at him.
“What?”
“There is something else.”
Lucien sighed.
“Of course there is.”
Charles swallowed.
“Ava’s biological father…”
He hesitated.
“Is someone you know.”
Lucien turned.
“Who?”
Charles looked at Adrian.
Then at Lucien’s mother.
Neither wanted to say it.
Finally, Adrian spoke.
“Victor Kane.”
The room went completely still.
Lucien stared.
“No.”
“Yes.”
Adrian’s voice was quiet.
“Victor wasn’t trying to steal Ava.”
A pause.
“He was trying to reclaim his daughter.”
Lucien looked toward Ava.
Everything he believed collapsed.
Victor wasn’t just an enemy.
He wasn’t just a monster.
He was connected to Ava.
To him.
To his family.
Then the lights went out again.
A gunshot echoed through the darkness.
Everyone froze.
When emergency lights came back on—
Charles was lying on the floor.
Blood spreading across his shirt.
And beside him stood Victor Kane.
Holding the gun.
“I’m sorry, Lucien.”
Victor looked at Ava.
“But this ends tonight.”
He raised the weapon.
“Come with your real father.”
Lucien stepped forward.
“No.”
Victor smiled.
May you like
“Then watch what happens when you choose wrong.”
He pulled the trigger.
