Chapter Six: His Eyes Looked Like Mine
Damien stared at the portfolio in front of him, but his mind hadn't absorbed a single word.
Ava Sinclair.
She was here.
Back in his building. Back in his boardroom. Breathing the same air, walking the same halls—and carrying secrets in her eyes.
She looked different. Not in the obvious ways—her elegance, her composure, those lips he still dreamed of kissing when sleep slipped past his control. No. She was different beneath the surface.
She was harder now. Sharper.
Like life had carved something out of her. Something soft.
Something he remembered holding once in the middle of the night while her head rested on his chest.
She hadn't worn a ring. He noticed that first.
No husband. No trace of another man in her scent, in her eyes, in her walk.
But there had been something in her voice when she said she had to leave.
Damien wasn't a man who believed in coincidences. He believed in patterns. Power. Strategy.
And Ava's reappearance didn't feel random.
It felt like fate—brutal and inconvenient.
He didn't know why he cared. After all, she left him without a word, vanished like a whisper before sunrise.
And yet… his gut told him she wasn't alone in Chicago. She'd left with more than memories.
Across town, Ava was rushing.
Liam's fever had broken overnight, but the cough was back, and he refused to eat. She'd wanted to cancel the afternoon meeting at Wolfe Tower, but Jessica had insisted he'd be fine under her watch.
Still, Ava's hands trembled as she packed his favorite stuffed bear into his overnight bag. Just in case.
"Mommy?" Liam's small voice called out, croaky and tired.
Ava rushed back into the room. "I'm here, baby."
He sat up, curls a mess, cheeks flushed. "Is that man going to come again?"
She froze. "What man?"
"The one in my dream. He had the same eyes I have."
Her breath hitched.
"You said dreams weren't real," he added.
"They're not, sweetheart," she said, voice barely steady. "Just stories our minds tell us when we're sleeping."
"But what if it's a true story?" he asked.
Ava knelt beside him, brushing hair from his forehead. "Then Mommy will protect you. Always."
But her voice was a whisper now.
Because deep inside…
She knew it wouldn't be long before Damien Wolfe saw his own eyes staring back at him—through their son.