Chapter 29

Chapter 29

Ava.

I am still recovering from my attack. I am mentally and physically battered and I just want all this to be over. Three times someone has tried to kill me. Three times I managed to survive. I just don’t know when my luck will run out because at this point whoever wants me dead seems hell–bent on making sure I don’t see Noah again.

I shiver when I remember how close to meeting my maker I had been. He had been right there in my house. He’d planned to rape me there before killing me. Tears fill my eyes and it takes everything in me not to let them fall.

I’ve cried enough this past few days. I was tired of it, but I just didn’t understand why. Why would anyone want me dead? I haven’t wronged anyone, well except for Emma. Even with her, she was now with Rowan so that should have absolved me of my sins. I didn’t deserve what was happening to me.

My greatest fear was that they succeed. It would mean that I don’t get to see my boy growing up.

That I would miss all the milestones in his life and it saddened me. The thought of that potential future broke my heart into a million different pieces.

“Are you okay miss?” someone asks me.

I look up to find an elderly woman staring at me with concern. Her kind eyes assessing my face. It was still a bit bruised but at least the swelling had gone down. Now I just had the healing l*p, black eye and purple cheek.

“I’m okay, thank you” I try to smile, but I just don’t feel like it.

I’ve been in a kind of funk since my attack happened. I’m just going through the motions. Nothing feels real, it all just feels like a bad dream. I was still waiting for myself to wake up. Deep down I know that this is real, but a part of me thinks if just pretend then it will all go away.

“You don’t look okay…Do you want me to call someone for you?” she asks.

If only everyone was like this woman, then the world would be a better place. I’m a stranger to her, yet she approached me in the middle of an isle in a store because she noticed that I was losing it.

“There is no need. I’m okay, just a bit overwhelmed” I assure her.

She looks at me skeptically. I force myself to smile. I was grateful for her concern, but I just wanted to be left alone.

She gets closer and squeezes my hand. “Things will get better. Always have faith”

With that she gives me one final look before leaving. I heave a sigh of relief before going back to looking at the rows of soup containers.

“Wow, you look like hell” the annoying mocking voice cause me to turn sharply.

Damn it, I wasn’t in any mood to deal with her.

I try to ignore her, but like always it seems like she wants to pick a fight.

“Did someone finally put your in place when you tried stealing her man too?” Christine, Rowan’s secretary sneers.

I clench my hands in fists. She was baiting me and I knew it. Everyone in the city knew what happened to me. Someone had managed to leak the story and the media had been running wild with it. They had also managed to find out about the previous attempts on my life. So far Rowan was trying to find out who had leaked the story after he had buried the other two.

Christine has never liked me. She would always take any chance she got to put me down and tear me a part. Of course Rowan never believed me when I told him she was a bitch to me. He always took her side, claiming that I’m the one that probably provoked her first.

“I’m not sure what you’re trying to achieve when I know you know full well exactly what happened to me” I tell her calmly.

“I’m not trying to achieve anything just stating facts. I wouldn’t be surprised if whoever wanted you dead was a woman you tried stealing her man, after all, that’s what you are good at. Stealing other women’s men because you’re a slut”

I run my eyes down her b*dy then back up. She looked elegant and impeccable like always while I looked like I had gone a few rounds with a MMA fighter.

“All these years and you still tell me the same things, don’t you ever come up with something new? It’s tiring hearing the same shit over and over again” I mock.

She looks at me shocked, Probably because I talked back. It’s something I’ve never done. Always afraid of fighting back and getting on Rowan’s bad side. This time though, I had nothing to lose.

She recovers quickly and gives me an evil smile. “How does it feel to lose Rowan? Does it hurt knowing that he’s with your sister right now?”

Of course it hurts, sometimes, but I’m slowly starting to let go of him. I’m slowly starting to kill the love I have for him. It also helps that Ethan distracts me from thoughts of my ex–husband.

“Christine, you did everything to get me out of the way thinking Rowan will notice you. Even when we were married, you tried your best to seduce him but he never reciprocated. Sure, he didn’t love me but I was his wife while you were nothing but a mere secretary one he had no interest in. So, I pose the same question back, how does it feel to know you will never be his woman? That he will never see you as anything other than his secretary. How does it feel to know that he doesn’t consider you woman enough? That he preferred to F*** me even though he hated me rather than take you as his mistress? And how does it feel to know that you won’t stand a chance now that Emma was back?” I smirk, feeling happy that I finally spoke up.

“You ugly bitch!” she snarls before lunging at me.

I manage to side step her in time and she trips on her extremely high and expensive heels.

Getting up quickly she comes at me. I don’t think when I take the carton of milk in my cart and throw it at her.

I watch as it drenches her dress. Both of us staring in shock. With what I can only describe as a war cry, she comes at me. Seething and screaming like a banshee. I take whatever I can get my hands on and throw it at her.

We attract a small crowd and one or two of them had their phones out. It was a damn mess. Just as she was about to slap me, someone grabs her by the waist. Another on grabs me and pulls me in the opposite direction.

“Let me go!” I scream.

They don’t listen. Not until I’m pushed outside the store. The other guy soon arrives with

Christine, who was kicking and screaming.

“You two are banned from this store. If I so much as see you near it, I will call the cops on you” a man who I assume is the manager seethes before he walks back inside the store.

“This is all you damn fault” Christine screams.

“My fault? I’m not the one who attacked first. I was just defending myself from a deranged woman who wanted to harm me”

“I swear you’ll pay for this Ava. Mark my words” with that she turns and stomps away.

I sigh and head towards my beat up car. I get up and drive home with mixed feelings. Happy that I had finally put Christine in her place and angry that I had let her taunts get to me.

It’s not a secret that she’d always wanted Rowan. Rowan never noticed her and her desire though, so she took out his rejection out on me. I push those thoughts away and focus on driving.

For the first time since this day started, I feel happiness when I pull into my driveway and see Ethan seated on the steps to my house. I park my car and get out.

“Where were you?” he asks standing up. “I was worried when I called you and you didn’t pick up”

“Sorry! I forgot it at home when I went to the store to buy some groceries” I answer him as I open the door.

I usher him inside and lead him to the kitchen.

“Really? So where are the groceries?”

I look at him sheepishly. “I got into a fight with someone and I got kicked out of the store. In fact they banned me from ever stepping a foot there”

“What?!” he snarls.

“I know it was foolish of me but Christine has been bitch to me for as long as I can remember. I was just tired of putting up with her” I answer in a low voice.

I waited for him to berate me for my actions. It’s something that Rowan would do. He would tell me to stop acting like a child and to grow up. To stop seeking attention by getting into fights with his secretary.

To my surprise, Ethan pulls me into his arms. His hand resting on my hip. He tips my chin up so that I’m staring at his hypnotizing blue eyes.

“I’m glad you are okay, that she didn’t hurt you” he begins. “You should never feel bad for defending yourself, Ava. Whether it’s mentally or physically. I’m proud of you, proud that you finally put her in her place”

I’m mesmerized by him. His eyes, his strong jawline, his l*ps. It’s like he cast a spell on me. I watch in a trance as his head lowers. My heart beating wildly in my chest. His l*ps connect with mine, his tongue tangles with mine, sealing our mouths together.