EVA'S POV
I hang up on Adrian before he can say another word.
My hands shake so badly I drop the phone. It clatters on the marble floor. Dominic and Nadia stare at me.
"He knows," I whisper. "Someone sent him Bella's photo too."
"What?" Nadia's face goes pale. "Who would—"
"I don't know!" I press my hands to my temples. My head pounds. "Someone's playing games with us. Someone wants Adrian to know about Bella."
But why? What's the point?
My phone rings again. Adrian. I reject the call.
It rings again immediately.
"Answer it," Dominic says quietly. "He won't stop until you do."
"I have nothing to say to him."
"He just found out he has a daughter. He's not going to let this go, Eva."
Dominic's right. I know Adrian. When he wants something, he becomes obsessed. Relentless. If he thinks Bella is his...
The phone rings for the third time.
I answer. "Stop calling me."
"Is she mine?" Adrian's voice is raw, desperate. "The little girl in the photo. Please, Eva. Just tell me the truth."
My throat tightens. For four years, I've imagined this moment. Sometimes I pictured telling him about Bella just to hurt him. To make him understand what he lost. Other times I swore he'd never know. Never deserve to know.
"I don't owe you anything," I say coldly.
"I know. I know I don't deserve answers. But Eva, please—"
"Her name is Isabella." The words come out before I can stop them. "She's four years old. And you lost the right to ask about her when you had me arrested."
Silence. Then a broken sound—half sob, half gasp.
"I have a daughter," Adrian whispers.
"No. I have a daughter. You have nothing."
I hang up and immediately turn off my phone.
Nadia watches me carefully. "You okay?"
"No." I sink onto the couch. "Nothing about this is okay."
Dominic sits beside me. "What are you going to do?"
Good question. What am I going to do? Adrian knows about Bella now. He'll want to meet her. Want custody. Want rights.
Over my dead body.
"I'm going to finish what I started," I say firmly. "Tomorrow, I'm taking down three more of his companies. I'm going to destroy Thorne Global piece by piece."
"And when he comes for Bella?" Nadia asks.
"Let him try. I have lawyers. Money. Evidence of everything he did to me. No judge will give him custody."
But even as I say it, doubt creeps in. Adrian is a Thorne. One of the most powerful families in America. What if money talks louder than justice?
"I need to see her," I say suddenly.
I go to Bella's room. She's still sleeping peacefully, unaware that her world might be about to change. I sit on the edge of her bed and watch her breathe.
She has Adrian's eyes. His chin. His stubborn little frown when she's concentrating.
But she's mine. I carried her. Gave birth to her alone in a Paris hospital. Raised her by myself. She's mine.
"I won't let him take you," I whisper. "I promise, baby."
The next morning, I wake up to chaos.
My phone—turned back on—has 47 missed calls from Adrian. 23 text messages. 15 voicemails.
I delete them all without reading or listening.
Then I open my laptop and prepare the final blow. My team has been working all night. The takeover documents are ready.
Three Thorne Global subsidiaries. Worth billions combined. And by the end of today, they'll all be mine.
I smile as I attach the documents to an email. But I need something more. Something personal.
I pull out expensive stationery—the kind Adrian used to buy me. The kind I used to write love letters on.
Now I write something very different:
You wanted to talk? Let's talk business. My office. Tomorrow. 2 PM. Come alone.
I sign it with my old signature. The one he'll recognize. Evangeline Cross.
Let him see that name. Let him remember what he destroyed.
I seal everything in an envelope and call a courier. "Deliver this to Adrian Thorne. Thorne Global headquarters. Make sure it goes directly to him. Nobody else."
"Yes, Ms. Monroe."
After the courier leaves, I focus on Bella. She wakes up happy, bouncing into the kitchen in her pajamas.
"Maman! Can we have pancakes?"
"Of course, baby." I kiss her head. "Chocolate chip?"
"Yes! With extra chips!"
I make breakfast while she chatters about her dreams. She dreamed about a princess who lived in a castle made of ice cream. She's so innocent. So perfect.
She doesn't know her father is desperately trying to reach us. Doesn't know someone took her photo. Doesn't know anything except that Mama loves her and keeps her safe.
"Maman?" Bella looks up at me with those grey eyes. "Did you have fun at your party last night?"
"Yes, baby. Mama had a very interesting night."
"Did you dance?"
"A little."
"With the nice British man? Uncle Dominic?"
I smile. "Yes, with Uncle Dominic."
"He's nice. But he's not a prince." Bella takes a bite of pancake. "Princes have sad eyes. Like in my storybooks."
My heart stops. "What do you mean, sweetie?"
"In my books, the prince is always sad until he finds the princess. He has sad eyes because he's lonely." She tilts her head. "Like that man yesterday."
"What man?"
"The man outside my school. He was watching us. He had really sad eyes."
Ice floods my veins. "When was this, Bella?"
"Yesterday. When you picked me up." She says it so casually. "He was across the street. Just standing there. Watching."
Adrian. He was watching us yesterday. Watching our daughter.
"What did he look like?" I keep my voice calm.
"Tall. Dark hair. Fancy suit." Bella shrugs. "He looked like he wanted to talk to us but was too scared."
That's definitely Adrian.
"If you see him again, you tell Mama immediately. Okay?"
"Okay." Bella doesn't seem worried. "Can I watch cartoons now?"
"Yes, baby."
While Bella settles in front of the TV, I text Nadia: Adrian was outside Bella's school yesterday. Watching us. We need more security.
Her response is immediate: On it. Also—check your email. You're going to want to see this.
I open my email. There's a message from an unknown sender. Subject line: You Should See This Before Tomorrow.
I open it.
It's a video file. Taken from security footage. Dated five years ago—the night of our engagement party. The night I was arrested.
I almost delete it. I don't want to see that night again. Don't want to relive the worst moment of my life.
But something makes me click play.
The video shows Adrian and his mother, Victoria, in a private room. Before the party started. Before everything fell apart.
Victoria hands Adrian a folder. "This is the evidence. Evangeline has been stealing from us."
"That's impossible," Adrian says. "Eva wouldn't—"
"Look at it!" Victoria's voice is sharp. "Bank transfers. Her signature. Emails to our competitors. She's using you, Adrian. Using our family."
I watch younger Adrian open the folder. Watch his face change. Watch doubt creep in.
"I need to talk to her," he says.
"No. If you talk to her, she'll lie. She'll manipulate you. You're too close to see clearly." Victoria puts her hand on his shoulder. "We need to act now. Before she steals more. Before she destroys everything your father built."
Adrian looks torn. Broken. "I love her, Mother."
"I know, darling. That's why this hurts. But sometimes love makes us blind."
The video continues. Shows Marcus entering. Shows them planning the arrest. Planning to destroy me.
But then Marcus says something that makes my blood freeze:
"What about the pregnancy?"
My hands go numb.
"What pregnancy?" Adrian asks.
Victoria and Marcus exchange looks. Then Victoria says: "We have sources who say Evangeline might be pregnant. We need to act before she uses that to trap you permanently."
They knew.
They knew I was pregnant, and they arrested me anyway.
Adrian's face goes white in the video. "If she's pregnant with my child—"
"Then we'll deal with it," Victoria says coldly. "After we handle the theft. One problem at a time."
The video ends.
I can't breathe. Can't think. They knew about my pregnancy. They arrested me knowing I was carrying Adrian's baby.
A new message appears below the video:
Tomorrow at 2 PM, make sure Adrian sees this. He deserves to know what his family really did. And Eva... there's more. So much more. Come to the meeting alone, and I'll tell you everything.
It's not signed. No name. No hint of who sent it.
But someone knows the truth. Someone has evidence. S
omeone wants to help me destroy the Thornes completely.
Or it's a trap.
Either way, tomorrow I find out which.