AVA
She woke slowly and reluctantly, fighting becoming fully conscious with everything in her.
It was as if she were already aware of the mess that awaited her once she dared to return to reality, but that actually wasn't the case.
She was just sleepy.
Ava's eyes fluttered open, bringing her to the point of no return and giving her no choice but to face her problems head-on.
For several seconds, Ava simply stared at the TV and the glaringly white wall behind it, her mind still hazy with sleep.
Then she stirred, immediately realizing she was lying on the couch.
With a confused expression, she glanced down at herself.
Damn.
Along with actually sleeping on the couch, she'd done so while still wearing the dress she'd put on for her parents' anniversary party the night before.
That realization about the party was followed immediately by another—one far more terrifying and astounding.
Maxim.
He was back.
And just like that, all the events from the previous night came rushing back into Ava's mind.
Everything that had happened came back all at once—from Blake and her going to the anniversary party, to him accidentally dropping the engagement ring he'd bought for her, to her father bringing her home, and then Maxim's reappearance in her life.
"Oh, fuck," she exclaimed loudly.
Ava scrambled to pull herself upright on the couch, only to go still once she did.
She swallowed hard and began wondering if the events of the previous night had actually happened or if the whole thing had been some bizarre nightmare.
The idea of Maxim Holloway coming back into her life after all these years seemed extremely ludicrous to her.
So did his claim that the only reason he'd disappeared was because he'd lost his memory in a car accident.
It had to be a dream, right?
Ava looked around her apartment, hoping to find proof of this, only to be sorely disappointed.
If anything, what she saw pointed to the contrary—that it had all happened.
For one thing, her phone was on the entry table where Maxim himself had left it the previous night. And for another, she'd closed all the windows in the apartment, something she normally never remembered to do.
It was only the fear of Maxim that had prompted her to do so.
But the most telling sight of all was the sofa, which was currently barricading the door.
She vividly remembered pushing it there after Maxim left. She'd been afraid he would come back and hadn't wanted him to have easy access to the apartment.
She knew that the sofa alone probably wouldn't stop him, but she'd done it anyway.
It was better than nothing.
Ava swallowed as she realized just how big of a problem she was facing.
Maxim had threatened to make her his girlfriend, even if it meant hurting Blake and even if she herself was against his plan.
What the fuck am I going to do? she thought.
How was she going to go up against this determined devil?
Still contemplating this, Ava was startled by the sudden ringing of her phone.
The sound cut through the now eerily quiet apartment.
Ava sharply turned to look at the loudly ringing phone, her heart beating rapidly in her chest.
After a moment, Ava's brain finally processed that her own phone wasn't a threat to her.
She relaxed slightly and started wondering who could be calling her.
She hesitantly rose from the couch and walked over to the vibrating device before suddenly stopping in her tracks.
Wait a minute, she told herself.
The caller couldn't be... Maxim, could it?
She immediately thought about his words from the previous night, when he'd said he'd be calling her regularly to check up on her.
Okay, wait a minute. Don't be so pessimistic, Ava, she promptly chided herself.
There were dozens of other people who could be trying to talk to her. There were, after all, over eight billion people on the planet besides Maxim.
One of them could be calling her.
But it was probably Blake, Ava's mind assured her.
He probably wanted to wish her a good morning as usual and maybe talk about what had happened at the party.
Or it could even be either of her parents checking up on her.
Like she'd said earlier, the possibilities were endless.
And the possibility that it could be Maxim was too remote to even contemplate.
Not to mention... scary.
Ava firmly refused to entertain the possibility again.
She reached the phone and hesitantly looked at the caller ID.
Unknown Number.
Ava let out a soft gasp as she read this, alarms immediately going off in her head.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
She knew that if the caller was unknown, then it couldn't be Blake or either of her parents, whose contacts were definitely saved on her phone.
Which only left one person.
Or did it?
She could be wrong, Ava thought hopefully.
For all she knew, it could be Nate or Britney calling about work—if she ignored the fact that their phone numbers were also saved on her phone.
And that it was the weekend and the café was very much closed.
But there was only one way to find out the truth, her brain reminded her, apparently tired of doing overtime.
With trembling hands, Ava picked up the phone and, after a few clumsy attempts, finally managed to swipe left to answer.
"H-hello?" she breathed into the phone. "W-who's this?"
"Try to guess, sweetheart," the caller promptly replied.
Ava paled upon hearing that voice.
She didn't need to ask who was on the other end of the line.
She already knew from his voice.
Maxim Holloway.
The realization instantly made Ava's stomach drop.
Whatever hope remained in Ava's heart that everything that had happened with Maxim hadn't actually occurred instantly disintegrated.
She closed her eyes, reality sinking unpleasantly into her mind.
Against her will, Ava remembered the terror she'd felt when she'd first seen Maxim, and then the desire that had coursed through her body during the kiss they'd shared later that night.
That stupid kiss.
"Why are you calling me, Maxim?" she asked, pulling herself away from those thoughts.
"Well, good morning to you too, Ava," he said playfully. "And I think I told you I'd be calling to check on you. Well, that, and I just wanted to start my day by hearing your voice."
A smile was evident in his tone.
At that moment, Ava blinked, surprised that the man could talk to her so cheerfully, especially considering the terrible circumstances he knew he was putting her in.
Maxim continued speaking, apparently unaware that his sweetheart was seething.
"So, how did you sleep?" he asked, cutting in before she could speak.
Ava frowned, not appreciating his continued efforts to act as though nothing was wrong before she'd even properly begun conversing with him.
She wasn't going to let him continue doing this, Ava thought.
"Well, let's see, Maxim," Ava began, pretending to think out loud. "A guy broke into my home last night, basically said he was going to make me his girlfriend whether I liked it or not, and threatened to hurt my current boyfriend if I didn't break up with the aforementioned boyfriend and get back together with him instead. Taking that into consideration, how do you think I slept?"
Ava patiently waited for his response.
There was no reply from Maxim for a moment, probably because he was contemplating her response—and his own.
"Ava, I'm trying to be civil," he finally said. "But you have to meet me halfway here."
Ava let out a humourless laugh.
"Now I know you're joking."
"Ava—"
"Maxim, you can forget about cooperating with you in this because it's not happening. The same goes for this delusion you have that you can convince me to become yours."
"But that's what you don't understand, Ava," Maxim replied, his voice filled with pity. "I don't need your permission for you to be mine, or anyone else's permission. You are definitely mine and will always be, even if you haven't realized it yet."
Ava was momentarily stunned by his words, which sounded completely wrong to her.
"See? This is another reason why I won't be with you. You're crazy, and you don't care about my feelings at all."
"Maybe you're right about the crazy part. I've also thought the same about myself ever since I saw you yesterday."
That made Ava roll her eyes.
"And for the record, I do care about your feelings, Ava. Particularly the ones I know you have for me."
If he were in front of her at that moment, Ava was almost certain she would have smacked him for being so difficult and infuriating.
And she very much wanted to dispute his claim that she had feelings for him, but she knew that would be fruitless.
The kiss from the previous night had already disproved that argument.
Damn it.
So instead, Ava gritted out, "Tell me, what happened in the last five years to make you such a psychopath? Because that's what you are, you know."
Maxim sighed.
"A lot of things happened to me, Ava. I can't possibly list them all. And you can call me whatever you want—a lunatic, a psychopath, or any other term you can think of. It won't change anything, you know."
He paused for a moment before continuing.
"Also, if being whatever you're accusing me of being is who I have to become to get you back, then so fucking be it."
Ava was quiet for a moment, desperately trying to get herself to hate him for saying something so insane.
But her stupid heart couldn't do it.
It reveled in hearing Maxim's lunacy.
She was in so much trouble, Ava thought.
Ava comforted herself with the knowledge that, unlike her traitorous heart and feelings, which had led her astray so many times before, her mind was still very much trustworthy.
It was keeping her focused on what was important.
Well, most of the time.
"I'm never getting back together with you, Maxim," Ava said harshly. "No matter what happens or what you do."
"Let me tell you something you don't yet know about me, Ava—I always get what I want. Always," Maxim said seriously. "I'm sorry, but you are not going to be an exception to this."
Ava shook her head.
His confidence that he would win her over despite her saying otherwise was just plain annoying.
She would show him, she thought.
"Your arrogance will be your downfall, you know," Ava said. "Just drop this whole nonsense before that happens."
Maxim sighed wearily.
"You need to start hearing me, Ava. I won't stop until you're in my bed where you belong," Maxim said, making Ava inhale deeply.
Nope.
She was definitely not going to think about being in Maxim Holloway's bed.
"Can we please change the topic and talk about more interesting things?" Maxim asked her. "Tell me, what does your day look like today?"
Ava said nothing for a moment, not ready for the bizarre change of topic.
She reluctantly accepted it, sensing that even if they stayed on the subject, any further efforts to dissuade him would be lost on Maxim.
"I'm not telling you a single thing about myself, Maxim. Not even my plans," she finally responded wearily.
"You know I could easily find out all of this from my other sources. I just prefer to hear it from you."
Ava swallowed, trying to tell herself that he was bluffing.
There was no way for him to do that, even with all his power.
Right?
"You can go to your sources, then, because you're not getting anything out of me," she told him stubbornly.
"If that's what you prefer," Maxim said evenly.
At his words, Ava's expression became outraged, and she stared at the phone in disbelief.
"Prefer, you say? The only thing I would prefer is if I never heard from you ever again."
Maxim sighed again.
"I can see that you still haven't come to terms with the way things are, Ava. And that's fine. Completely normal, even. And I understand. Because of this, I won't call you again until the day after tomorrow, when you'll have had time to think things through. I'll come see you, and we can go on our... date."
Ava almost celebrated the fact that he was leaving her alone until Maxim mentioned the word date.
What did he mean by date?
They definitely weren't going on a date.
Before she could protest, he continued speaking.
"Until then, I have to run something by you before you end the call."
Ava opened her mouth, still thinking about his previous words.
But she resisted the urge to confront him about them because doing so would only make his idea more real.
"Save it. I'm not interested," Ava replied automatically, even though she hadn't fully processed what he'd said.
"Well, you should be interested, sweetheart. It will help you. The thing is, I want to send someone over to your place later today to—"
"Again, Maxim, I'm not interested in your help or anyone else's who may be associated with you. Is that clear to you?"
"But, Ava—"
Before he could say anything else, Ava ended the call and practically slammed the phone onto the table.
She grimaced.
With the force she'd used, she was certain she had shortened the device's lifespan in some way.
"Infuriating man," Ava growled to herself.
This was all his fault.
Talking to him had been pointless, like talking to a wall that couldn't process a single word she said.
But whatever idea that lunatic still had about them, it would be over her dead body before she ever got back together with him, Ava told herself.
Or Blake's dead body, a dark voice in her mind reminded her.
Ava took a deep breath at the thought.
She wasn't yet sure if she herself was in any danger from Maxim, but she knew this was definitely the case for Blake.
And she couldn't let anything happen to him.
Yes, Ava didn't want to marry him, but Blake was still important to her.
And she needed to do something to stop Maxim from harming him while also not repeating the mistake of becoming Maxim's girlfriend.
But what could she do?
Calling the police wasn't going to help.
The idea of going to her parents also went through Ava's mind, but she quickly dismissed it.
They would be extremely stressed if they heard that Maxim had entered her life again and wanted her back.
They weren't exactly fans of the man who, as far as they knew, had abandoned their daughter when she needed him most—and had evolved into a dangerous criminal.
They were also about to leave that day for their weekend post-anniversary vacation in New York, Ava remembered.
They would probably cancel this much-anticipated trip to help her figure everything out.
Ava couldn't let them do that.
Not after her presence had also caused so much drama at their party the previous night and almost ruined it.
Ava pursed her lips, still thinking.
There was no one else she knew who could stand up to Maxim Holloway, she realized.
Not even Blake, who didn't even know Maxim.
Not that Ava would ask him for help even if he did.
Ava reluctantly thought about running away, maybe to another country where Maxim couldn't find her.
It sounded like a plan until she realized she didn't have the money to do that.
Damn it, she thought.
No matter how hard Ava racked her brain, she couldn't come up with a single viable plan.
She wasn't a good enough schemer, she realized.
Eventually, Ava came to the conclusion that she needed help from someone who was better at scheming than she was.
Since Ava kept her circle relatively small, she didn't have many people to choose from.
And there was almost no one she was comfortable involving and potentially putting in danger.
In the end, Ava decided there was only one person who might be willing to help her—someone who wouldn't mind being put in such a situation.
Ava picked up her phone again and began dialing the person's number.
The call was answered after the first ring.
A familiar voice spoke from the other end of the line.
"Hey, girl. What's up?"
"Brit, can I please come over to your place? Please. I really need your help."