Chapter 11 - LUCIAN'S LIE

Ava ended the call.

Then she looked at Lucian.

“Who did my father work for?”

He hesitated. “Vale Meridian’s predecessor.”

“My father was an electrician.”

“At one of our data facilities.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I wasn’t sure it mattered.”

“That is not the truth.”

He stood.

Ava stepped back.

“No touching.”

He stopped immediately.

“My father died in a subway accident.”

“I know.”

“What does that have to do with Damian’s files?”

Lucian’s face hardened.

“Your father reported a security breach at the facility two weeks before he died.”

Ava stared.

“What kind of breach?”

“Someone copied internal server maps.”

“Who?”

“We never proved it.”

“Sterling North?”

“The company did not exist yet.”

“Then who?”

Lucian looked toward Naomi.

Naomi closed the door.

“Charles Langford.”

Charles had been a consultant to the facility twenty years earlier.

He was suspected of stealing technical information that later helped build the early Langford fortune.

Ava’s father, Michael Knox, had found unauthorized access logs.

He reported them.

Then he died.

Officially, the train derailment that killed him was unrelated.

“Why did Damian know this?”

Lucian answered quietly.

“Because Sterling North has been collecting old leverage files.”

“And you knew they had my father’s name?”

“Three weeks ago.”

Ava laughed without humor.

“Exactly when you started trying to contact me.”

“Yes.”

“So tonight at the gala, you already knew.”

“Yes.”

“And you still pretended this was about helping me.”

“I was helping you.”

“You were investigating me.”

“At first.”

Ava nodded. “Thank you for finally telling me the part where I was useful.”

“Ava—”

“No.”

She removed the engagement ring he had given her for appearances that morning.

She placed it on the table.

“Our deal is over.”

She picked up her coat.

Naomi said, “You still have our legal team.”

Ava nodded.

“Thank you.”

She walked out.

In the elevator, her phone buzzed.

Damian had sent a photograph.

Monica was tied to a chair.

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Beneath it:

BRING THE LAPTOP OR SHE DIES.