Chapter 3

Ava didn't stay for dinner. She slipped out while everyone was still fussing over Liam' s mother, the drama in the kitchen providing the perfect cover. Back at the house, she made herself a simple sandwich and ate it standing in her kitchen, enjoying the solitude. The house was hers again, quiet and peaceful. She didn't need the noise and forced pleasantries of Liam's family. She had her own world, and soon, it would be her only world.

Later, she heard Liam's car pull into the driveway. He wasn't alone. Through the thin walls, she could hear his low voice and Sophia' s higher, more insistent tones. Ava stayed in her room, but the sound carried. "Liam, you have to tell her," Sophia was saying. "This can't go on. Seven years is long enough. You promised me."

"I know," Liam's voice was tired, strained. "It's almost over, Soph. Just a little longer. The timing isn't right."

"When will it be right? When she finally decides to leave on her own terms? You need to be the one to end it. You owe me that."

Ava closed her eyes. She had heard variations of this conversation before, caught in snippets over the years. It no longer hurt. It was just noise, the soundtrack to the end of a chapter.

She walked over to the bookshelf in her room, where a few of her architectural awards were displayed. She took them down, one by one, and carefully wrapped them in paper, placing them in a box labeled "STORAGE." She was erasing herself from this house, piece by piece.

A knock on her door made her jump. It was Liam. "Ava? Can I talk to you for a second?"

She opened the door. He looked exhausted, his tie loosened, his hair a mess. "What is it, Liam?"

He saw the box on her bed, the empty space on the bookshelf. A flicker of panic crossed his face. "What are you doing? Are you packing?"

"Just some spring cleaning," Ava said, her voice neutral. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction of knowing her plans. Not yet.

He seemed to relax a little, but his eyes were still wary. He stepped closer, into her room, a space he rarely entered. He was close enough now that she could see the flecks of gray in his dark hair, the deep lines of fatigue around his eyes.

He was a handsome man, she noted with a strange detachment. For a moment, she felt a ghost of an attraction, a purely physical response to his proximity. It was an unwelcome, confusing sensation, and she took a step back, putting more space between them.

Just then, Sophia appeared in the hallway behind Liam, her face pale with fury. "Liam? What's taking so long?" She saw Ava, and her expression hardened into a venomous glare. She stormed into the room, shoving a piece of paper into Ava' s hands. "Here," she hissed. "Maybe this will make things clear for you."

Ava looked down. It was a diagnostic report from a fertility clinic. It had Sophia's name on it. The diagnosis was circled in red ink: "Diminished Ovarian Reserve." Below it, a doctor's note read, "Pregnancy will be difficult and is highly unlikely after the next six months."

"I'm running out of time," Sophia's voice was shaking with a desperate rage. "He's mine. He was always supposed to be mine. You are the one who doesn't belong here." She lunged at Ava, grabbing for the box of awards on the bed, her nails digging into the cardboard. "You and your stupid trophies! You have everything! Your career, your freedom! I have nothing but him!"