Chapter 2 2.One step closer

Ava

"I'd like to resign," Ava said quietly, dropping a stack of files on the manager's desk.

The manager looked up at her, eyes wide with surprise. "Why? Is something wrong?"

"Not at all," Ava replied with a small, polite smile. "I'm relocating."

"Ohhh," the manager exhaled, clearly caught off guard. "It'll be so hard to replace you, you know. But... it's fine. I understand."

Ava kept her eyes on the desk, her fingers gently twisting together. She offered a faint smile but didn't say much more.

"I wish you all the best, Ava Fletcher," the manager said warmly as she stood to shake Ava's hand.

Without another word, Ava made her way back to her office. She quietly began packing her things into a cardboard box.

"You're really leaving?" Liyah, one of her coworkers, said with a chuckle. "You're the highest paid employee here, yet you're walking away?"

Ava gave her a cool glance. "Well, it's my decision, baby. And feel free to take over the role,you've been eyeing the position for a while anyway."

With that, she picked up her box and walked out of the office, not bothering to look back. That was her last day in Florida.

When she arrived at her empty apartment, she handed the keys to the rental agent, said a quiet goodbye, and stepped into the moving truck waiting outside. It was time to leave it all behind.

Her destination? New York City. A fresh start. A new chapter. And the beginning of something she had been planning for the past three years.

It was finally time to make him suffer to return every ounce of pain he caused her. Ava's lips curled into a faint smirk as she cast one final glance at the city she once called home.

Ava had not always been like this bold, cold, and filled with a quiet rage. She was raised by a kind, hardworking mother who spent most of her life working at the beachside bars in Miami. Ava never knew her father,her mother had told her he died in an accident at the engineering company he worked for,before Ava was born.

Life had been fair until everything fell apart during her junior year of college.

She remembered that day vividly.She was in her media team meeting when an unknown calling starting calling her repeatedly.She had to excuse herself to pick the call and on the other end was one of her mother's co workers,with panic in her voice. Her mother had been found in the bar's bathroom dead, lying in a pool of blood.

Ava rushed to the scene in a cab, her heart thudding in her chest. When she saw her mother's lifeless body, her world shattered. The woman who had raised her, loved her, and sacrificed everything for her was gone just like that. With no father, no siblings, no relatives,Ava was truly alone.

The funeral came and went in a blur.Afterward, she was left with nothing but memories and grief.

One afternoon,as she sorted through her mother's old clothes, planning to donate them, she came across the uniform her mom used to wear to work.She clutched it to her chest, breathing in the faint scent that still lingered. That's when she felt something stiff inside one of the pockets.

Curious, she reached in and pulled out a blood stained business card. It read "Sebastian Cross.

Her heart skipped.

"Sebastian Cross," she whispered, staring at the name with confusion and growing interest.

She turned to her computer and began searching. What she found changed everything.

Cross Empire.

New York.

Business tycoon.

Her hands trembled as she read more. The deeper she dug, the more certain she became. This man was somehow connected to her mother's death.

That night, Ava made a decision. Her life's mission shifted entirely.

She changed her college major from Psychology to Business Administration. She worked tirelessly, graduating with top honors. She took a high paying job and within six months, saved up enough money to take the next step.

Now, here she was, leaving Florida behind with only one goal in mind which is to revenge.

A new life awaited her in New York City.

A new identity.

A new Ava.