Chapter 9 – "Was I Ever Your Wife, or Just Your Weapon?"
Ava's paranoia reaches a breaking point.
After receiving the disturbing photo of Dominic with blood-stained hands, she decides to follow him. He told her he was working late. But her gut tells her otherwise.
Disguised in a coat and scarf, she tails his car to the industrial outskirts of the city. There, she sees him enter a warehouse with two armed men. She slips inside silently, hiding behind rusted crates. What she hears chills her to the bone—Dominic discussing a "target" and a payoff.
One of the men asks, "What about the wife? She getting curious?"
Dominic's voice is like ice.
> "She's manageable."
Ava feels the floor fall from beneath her.
She flees the warehouse unseen and races home. When Dominic returns hours later, she confronts him immediately. She throws the blood-stained photo at him.
> "Who are you really, Dominic? Was I ever your wife—or just your weapon?"
His face is unreadable. But his silence answers more than any lie could.
> "You were useful," he says eventually. "And in this world, usefulness matters more than love."
She stares at him, heart in pieces, eyes wet—but she doesn't cry.
She just walks away.
For now.