Chapter 15 – "The Dossier"
Ava waits until late evening—when Dominic is out again—to act.
She moves through the apartment with purpose now, Serena's words buzzing in her skull like an alarm. She needs answers, not from Dominic's mouth, but from whatever he's been hiding.
She returns to his study, this time prying deeper.
Behind a sliding panel in the bookshelf, she finds a locked cabinet. It takes a kitchen knife and a lot of patience, but she manages to force it open. Inside is a slim black case.
She opens it—
And freezes.
Inside is a detailed dossier. On her.
Childhood photos. School records. A transcript of a therapy session she barely remembers. Financial breakdowns. Emails. Surveillance pictures—one of her on the hospital steps with her mother in a wheelchair.
The document is timestamped months before she ever met Dominic.
He didn't just find her. He studied her. Chose her. Built a strategy.
Like a hunter preparing a trap.
Her hands shake as she flips through page after page. Then something catches her eye: a section titled "Contingencies."
One note reads:
> "If emotional attachment forms, redirect. Maintain distance. Use guilt over mother's condition as leverage."
She feels physically sick.
And then, the office door creaks open.
Dominic stands there, eyes like steel.
> "Put that down."
Ava doesn't move.
> "You planned every second of this," she says, voice brittle. "Even how to handle me if I got too close."
He doesn't deny it.
> "This is bigger than you and me, Ava. You were a liability that needed managing."
She throws the file at him.
> "I was a person who needed help. And you turned me into a calculation."
His expression darkens.
> "And you signed the deal, remember? You made your choice."
> "No," she breathes. "I made a sacrifice. You made a game out of it."
She storms out of the office and slams the bedroom door.
But she knows now—
She's not just Dominic's wife.
She's his weapon.
And she just turned against him.