Chapter 3

Weeks turned into months in Geneva. The quiet rhythm of the city was a balm. We lived in a modest apartment with a view of the lake, my parents finding comfort in the local libraries and museums. I found a job as a translator, the work mechanical and blessedly distracting. For the first time since my rebirth, I felt a flicker of something close to peace.

Then, one rainy afternoon, I saw her.

Scarlett.

She was sitting alone at an outdoor café, huddled under a large umbrella. She looked thinner, her vibrant energy dimmed. She was staring into a cup of coffee as if it held the answers to the universe. I could have kept walking. I should have kept walking. It was a ghost from a life I had fled, a life that no longer belonged to me.

But I stopped. My reborn self was a survivor, yes, but the woman I used to be, the one who tried to fix things, hadn't been completely erased by the fire. Curiosity, and a strange, unwelcome flicker of pity, held me in place.

I walked over and sat down at her table.

She looked up, startled. Recognition dawned slowly in her eyes, followed by confusion and fear.

"Ava?" she breathed, her voice barely a whisper. "What are you doing here? I thought..."

"You thought I was gone," I finished for her. "I am. The woman you knew is, anyway."

I ordered a coffee, the silence stretching between us. I noticed a small box of chocolates on the table next to her purse. The same expensive brand Liam had been holding at the farmers market. A bitter taste filled my mouth.

"He's still trying to buy you," I said, my voice flat.

Scarlett flinched. She looked down at her hands. "It's not like that."

"Isn't it?" I asked. "You look miserable, Scarlett. This wasn't the happy ending you pictured, was it?"

Tears welled in her eyes. "I don't know what to do," she confessed, her voice cracking. "I'm pregnant. And he's... he's not the man I thought he was. He's controlling. He's possessive. Sometimes, he looks at me and I feel like he doesn't even see me. He's started talking about moving us to a secure compound, away from my family, away from everyone."

The cold stone of terror in my gut, which had been dormant for months, began to harden again. He was trying to build a new cage, and this time Scarlett was the one he wanted to put inside it.

"He's been looking for you, Ava," she said, her voice dropping lower. "He's obsessed. He hired private investigators. He's pulled military records. He's willing to risk everything. He keeps saying he made a mistake. That he needs to fix it."

"There's nothing to fix," I said, my words sharp. "He destroyed everything."

"He told me what he did," Scarlett whispered, her face pale. "About the threats. About... your parents. He said he was trying to force you to leave him for your own good, to sever the ties so cleanly that you'd have no choice but to start over, somewhere safe."

The logic was so twisted, so warped by his own damage, that I almost laughed. He had burned my world to the ground to save me from the smoke.

"He's dangerous, Scarlett," I said, my voice urgent. "Not just to me. To you. To your baby. The normal life he promised you doesn't exist. It's a fantasy he's trying to build on a foundation of violence and control."

My own heart was pounding. This was a risk. Getting involved, even this much, was a risk. The old Ava would have tried to reason with her, to appeal to her better nature. The new Ava knew that survival was a selfish act. But looking at her, seeing the genuine fear in her eyes, I couldn't just walk away and leave her to him. It wasn't about saving her. It was about stopping him.

"What do I do?" she asked, her gaze pleading.

I thought of the fire, of my parents' faces, of the cold finality in Liam's eyes. I thought of the escape plan Ethan had built for me.

"You have a choice," I said, leaning forward. "You can stay and let him consume you, or you can run. You have family. You have a community. Go to them. Tell them everything. Don't let him isolate you. That's how he wins."

I was giving her the blueprint to my own survival. I was arming her with the knowledge that had saved my life. It was a calculated move, a way to create a new problem for Liam, a new fire he would have to fight, keeping him occupied and far away from me.

But as I looked at her, at the single tear that traced a path down her cheek, I realized there was more to it. A part of me saw a woman trapped by the same man who had trapped me, and I couldn't stand by and watch the cycle repeat.

"He's not a man who loves you, Scarlett," I said, my voice softening slightly. "He's a man who wants to own you. There's a difference."

She nodded slowly, a look of dawning, horrified understanding on her face.

I stood up, leaving my untouched coffee on the table. "Good luck, Scarlett."

I walked away, melting back into the anonymous crowds of Geneva. I had planted a seed. Now I had to wait and see if it would grow, or if Liam's darkness would choke it before it had the chance. My brief moment of peace was over. The past wasn't done with me yet.