His Bride, Her Revenge

Chapter 144: Beneath the Mask

Rain traced the Manhattan skyline like a secret, each droplet a whisper of what had been and what would never be again. In the penthouse Ava now shared with Liam Mateo, the quiet was oppressive. The city buzzed below them, alive and uncaring, but up here nothing stirred but ghosts.

She stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, the hem of her silk robe brushing her thighs, a steaming mug of untouched tea in her hand. The city lights flickered in her eyes like memories.

Behind her, Liam watched.

He had learned by now that there were silences Ava carried that he couldn’t fill, no matter how many rooms he offered, no matter how many deals he signed. She was the storm he invited in, and he had drowned in her long before she ever whispered his name again.

But tonight, something was different.

"You’re not sleeping," he said finally.

Ava’s reflection didn’t flinch.

"Neither are you," she replied softly.

He moved toward her, slow, careful, as if afraid she might shatter like the glass she stared through. "You’ve been quiet since the gala. Since Sophia."

Ava didn’t respond. But the name curled in the room like smoke.

Sophia Drake.

The woman who wore diamonds like battle scars, who kissed power and spat out men who thought they could tame her. She’d always been a threat, a rival, a woman who knew how to touch the parts of Liam that still bled.

But Ava was no longer the girl who had once cried over that.

"She said something to you," Liam pressed. "At the gallery."

"She always does," Ava replied.

She turned from the window, setting her mug on the glass table. Her robe fell open slightly, revealing the scar near her collarbone the one no surgeon could erase. Liam’s gaze dropped there briefly, before snapping back to her eyes.

She stepped closer.

"She told me the truth," Ava said. "About you. About her. About the man I married."

Liam’s jaw tensed. "Ava "

"Don’t," she whispered. "Not unless you want to lie again."

He drew a breath, slow and painful. "I never meant to hurt you."

"You didn’t have to mean it," she said. "You just had to do it."

There was no anger in her voice. Only exhaustion.

She walked past him, her perfume haunting him in waves of jasmine and fire. He turned, watching as she crossed to the grand piano in the corner. Her fingers hovered above the keys, though she didn’t play.

"Sophia said you married me out of guilt," she said. "Not love. The board needed a softened image. That your brand needed redemption. That was convenient. Broken. Easy to mold."

Liam’s mouth opened, then closed. There were too many truths that sounded like betrayal.

Ava looked over her shoulder. "Is that what I am to you, Liam? Convenient?"

"No," he said, the word low and guttural. "You are everything I never deserved."

Her laughter was bitter, sharp. "Funny. Because for a moment, I thought I was finally starting to deserve you."

She walked away again, this time toward the hallway. Liam followed.

"Ava, please. You don’t know everything."

She stopped. She turned to him. "Then tell me."

He hesitated.

And in that pause, Ava knew.

"You can’t," she said. "Because if you do, everything falls apart. Doesn’t it?"

She turned to him, eyes fierce. "Tell me about the Singapore deal. About the offshore accounts. About why Sophia really showed up after three years of silence."

Liam blinked.

"How do you know about that?"

She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes.

"You think I’ve just been playing house while you and your board make decisions behind closed doors? No, Liam. I’ve been rebuilding. Reclaiming. I was gone, but I am not blind."

Liam stepped forward, but Ava’s voice cracked like a whip.

"Don’t. You will lie. And I won’t forgive you twice."

They stood there past and present colliding in silence.

Then Liam said the only truth he had left.

"I loved you. From the moment you slammed that courtroom door in my face. I loved you even when you hated me. Even when I thought you’d never look at me again."

Ava swallowed.

"But love isn’t enough, is it?"

He didn’t answer.

"You asked me to stay," she said. "So I did. I played the wife. The image. The story. But now I need you to decide are we going to keep pretending, or are we finally going to burn this lie down to the bones?"

Liam’s voice was quiet. "And if we do?"

Ava’s eyes glittered. "Then maybe just maybe we can find the truth in the ashes."

Just then, a soft knock echoed from the penthouse elevator.

Liam glanced at Ava, surprised. "Are you expecting someone?"

She shook her head.

He walked to the console and hit the intercom.

A familiar voice crackled through: "Tell her it’s Archer. I have something she needs to see."

Ava froze.

Archer Roman.

The man who knew her secrets, her scars, the one who had once promised revenge in the same breath he offered redemption.

Liam looked at her. "What does he want?"

But Ava was already moving, heart racing, robe billowing like smoke behind her.

"To finish what we started," she whispered.

The elevator doors slid open.

And the past walked in.

The penthouse was cloaked in an oppressive silence after Ava’s revelation. Manhattan’s glittering skyline stood in stark contrast to the storm brewing inside her heart. She stood by the floor-to-ceiling windows, her silhouette rigid, arms crossed tightly, jaw clenched.

Liam stood a few feet behind her, hands in his pockets, watching her reflection in the glass. "Say something," he said finally, voice low.

Ava didn’t turn. "I did. You just weren’t listening."

"You said she’s back."

"Yes. And you know exactly who I mean."

Sophia Drake.

The name alone twisted something dark in the pit of his stomach. The woman who had nearly destroyed everything. The woman who had lied, manipulated, and controlled. The woman he had once thought he loved. noveldrama

"She’s making moves," Ava continued. "Subtle, careful ones. But they’re building toward something."

"How do you know?" he asked, walking closer.

She finally turned to face him. Her eyes burned with the fury of withheld truths. "Because I saw her. She’s working under a different name now, through shell companies. Her fingers are all over recent Board decisions. And the whispers about a hostile bid? That’s her. She’s using proxies, but she’s back. This time, she wants more than revenge. She wants to erase me entirely."

Liam raked a hand through his hair, tension rippling down his spine. "Why didn’t you tell me sooner?"

"Because I didn’t trust you," she said, the words falling like a slap. "You’ve been distant, distracted. Still stuck in the past. Stuck with her."

"I’m not stuck with her "

Ava moved toward him slowly. "You kept her letters. All of them. I found the box in your study. You kept the last photo she took of you two in your wallet. You say she’s your past, but you’ve kept her shadow alive."

"That’s not fair," Liam snapped. "You know what she did to me. To us."

"Then why does it feel like you’re still carrying her ghost between us?" she said, voice cracking.

Liam exhaled and turned away, his reflection in the window looking older than his years. "Because I never had closure. Because I let her slip through every net I built. Because I was too proud to admit I didn’t see her coming."

Ava stepped forward and laid a hand on his back. "We don’t get to choose all our scars, Liam. But we do choose what we let define us."

He turned then, slowly, facing her fully. "You’ve changed," he whispered.

"I had to. I was broken once. When she took everything from me and you stood frozen. But I rebuilt myself from the pieces."

"I’m sorry."

"Don’t be sorry. Be with me," she said. "Really be with me. Not with half your heart trapped in the past."

Liam swallowed the knot in his throat. "How do we fight her?"

Ava’s lips tilted upward, a grim smile. "We expose her. We outmaneuver her. And we make her remember exactly who she’s dealing with."

At the Drake Estate in the Hamptons, Sophia was seated at a mahogany desk, her long red nails tapping against the polished surface. On the wall, a digital map pulsed with the movement of stock shares, names of companies Liam and Ava owned scrolling in red.

A young man entered. "The bait is working. Their legal team is scrambling."

"Good," she purred. "Make them bleed slowly. I want Ava to feel everything I felt ten years ago when she stole him from me."

"She’s getting close to figuring you out."

Sophia leaned back in her leather chair, eyes glowing with malice. "Let her. It will make her fall all the sweeter."

Three days later, Ava entered the lobby of one of her companies, only to be met with a storm of reporters.

"Ms. Leo! Is it true your CFO has been arrested?"

"Is LUX Holdings collapsing?"

Ava didn’t flinch. She moved past them with her security detail and rode the elevator in silence. When she reached the top floor, her assistant met her with a pale face.

"There’s been a cyberattack," she whispered. "They leaked internal documents. Fabricated, but damaging."

"Show me."

In the conference room, Liam was already waiting. He stood when she entered, tension coiled tight in his frame. On the screen, news articles screamed headlines in bold fonts: AVA LEO IMPLICATED IN FRAUD. CORPORATE COLLUSION OR CONSPIRACY?

"They’re coming fast," Liam said. "Whoever’s funding this has deep resources."

Ava’s face hardened. "Sophia. It’s always Sophia."

He nodded. "Then let’s take the fight to her doorstep."

That night, in a quiet, upscale bar tucked away in lower Manhattan, Ava and Liam met with someone from Sophia’s past. A woman named Carina Volkov, once a fellow schemer, is now cast out.

"She used me," Carina said, her Russian accent thick. "Then discarded me like trash. But I know her secrets. Enough to burn her empire."

Ava leaned in. "Then let’s strike the match."

Carina smiled, slowly and dangerously. "You’ll need more than truth. You’ll need to dig where no one dares."

"Where?" Liam asked.

Carina glanced around and lowered her voice. "Vienna. There’s a vault. She kept records there. Identities, transactions, insurance policies. The kind of leverage that ends dynasties."

Ava’s eyes met Liam’s. "Then we go to Vienna."

"But," Carina said, "if you go, you’ll become targets. She won’t hesitate to kill this time."

Ava stood. "Let her try."

As their jet sliced through the clouds bound for Austria, Ava stared out the window, her mind a battlefield of memories and strategy.

"This isn’t just about revenge anymore," she said quietly.

"I know," Liam replied. "It’s about survival."

"No." She turned to face him, her eyes fierce. "It’s about ending a legacy of shadows so we can finally live in the light."

He reached over and took her hand.

"Then let’s end it together."

Back in New York, Sophia watched their flight manifest on an encrypted terminal.

"So predictable," she whispered, sipping her wine.

She turned to the man beside her, face hidden by shadows. "Follow them. If they find the vault... burn it. And if they don’t?"

"Then we end them before they can try again."

Sophia’s smile was like frost. "This time, there will be no survivors."