I paid cash for the full-floor luxury condo at Cedar Court and posted on Instagram to celebrate.
Sebastian Lambert—a blind date I'd met exactly once—blew up my phone with fifty voice messages.
"You stupid bitch! Who gave you permission to buy property before the wedding? Trying to keep me out?"
"A woman buying property wrecks the feng shui. When you can't give me a son, how are you going to make that up to me?"
"Put my name on the purchase contract right now and bring me the keys!"
Every word dripping with the certainty that he was owed this,
and it made my skin crawl so hard I nearly gagged.
"I spent my own money on this place. What the hell does it have to do with you?"
Half an hour after I sent that reply,
Sebastian showed up at my door with his mother, Christine Finch, and the two of them hammered on it like they meant to break it down.
He screamed from the hallway:
"Your money is my money! You belong to me!"
"I'm telling you to transfer this place into my name as our marital home. If you don't, I'll blast it all over the internet that you're a scarlet woman!"
"You've got ten minutes to get out here and beg on your knees. Otherwise, you can come crawling later and I still won't marry you!"
I laughed, cold and sharp,
and forwarded the security camera footage to my father, a detective captain.
"Dad, there's a terrorist attacking your daughter."
……
Dad was on assignment out of the province, but he recognized the man instantly: the blind date my aunt had sobbed and screamed at me to meet a few weeks ago.
A vein pulsed at his temple. He called the local precinct immediately,
told me not to open the door, and started racing back.
The mother-son pair outside must have heard, because not only were they unfazed, they got louder.
"Who are you calling a terrorist? Is this how a cop's daughter treats her future in-laws?"
"Don't think we can't see it. The money you used for this place is dirty, isn't it? Your daddy embezzled it!"
Christine was getting more and more worked up. She whipped out her phone and started recording.
"People online hate corrupt officials more than anything! If you know what's good for you, open this door and come with us to the title office."
"Otherwise I'm reporting him to Internal Affairs, and your father can rot in prison!"
The blood rushed straight to my head.
Dad had served his whole career without a single mark against him, and I'd paid for this condo with money I earned building my own business, every cent of it real. Let them investigate—I wasn't afraid.
But that didn't matter if they were out here slinging mud in public. Once it hit the internet, even the cleanest name could be dragged through filth.
It would still affect my father's career.
I called building management and the security team right away.
Only when I heard the guards' footsteps in the corridor did I set my jaw and pull the door open.
A jacket reeking of stale cigarette smoke came down over my head before I even saw his face.
"Ava Bennett, have you no shame! Dressed like that to answer the door—you're throwing yourself at every man who walks by!"
Sebastian grabbed the collar of the jacket and tried to wrench me against him.
"Slut to the bone, aren't you? You see anything with a pulse and you just have to rub up on it!"
"No wonder you had to buy a place behind my back. Needed somewhere private to keep your side pieces, right?"
I was shaking with rage. I ripped the jacket off and hurled it to the ground.
"What are you even talking about? I met you one time. When did I ever become your girlfriend?"
The two security guards froze where they stood, too startled to step in.
Sebastian's eyes went wide—then, a second later, he slapped a hand over his heart like he'd taken a knife to the chest.
"Ava, what did you just say? You're dumping me?"
His eyes even went a little red at the rims. "Fine, maybe I came on too strong. But isn't that because I care too damn much?"
Before I could react, he'd already seized my wrist.
"Ava, I'm a grown man who lowered himself to come find you. What the hell else do you want from me? Or is it just that I'm not rich enough for a girl like you?"
