"Ava, since when did you learn these little-girl ultimatum tricks?"
"Just because I feel sorry for Fiona and want to help her out?"
"I'm not making ultimatums."
I smiled, perfectly composed, but my voice was steel.
"I think giving her the title of Mrs. Calloway would do a much better job of helping her rebuild the Prescott family business."
"I'm stepping aside for her. What more could you possibly want?"
I turned and walked into the bathroom.
Dominic didn't follow. He didn't chase me in to explain, didn't bother with a few sweet words to smooth things over or tell me I'd misunderstood.
That wasn't how he operated. He'd let me stew, wait for me to cave, because he was absolutely certain I was just throwing a tantrum.
The door clicked shut behind me. His footsteps retreated down the stairs.
The next day, I went home to the Henson estate.
When my father heard the word "divorce," he pressed me immediately.
"You and Dominic have always been fine. Why divorce all of a sudden?"
"The two families' businesses are tangled up in each other. Do you have any idea how far-reaching a divorce would be?"
I walked over and refilled his teacup.
"Dad, Dominic's been having an affair. He's planning to hand the entire Calloway empire over to his mistress. Do you really think the Hensons should stay tied to that family?"
My father's head snapped up, shock carved into every line of his face.
"How is that possible?"
I couldn't blame him for not believing it. Dominic and I had been together since high school. When he proposed, he'd chartered hundreds of drones to paint a heart across the Ridgeport skyline.
But the truth was simple: I was only ever the first half of his story. The moment the Prescott family went bankrupt and Fiona Prescott came back from abroad, his heart and soul belonged to her.
I looked into my father's bewildered eyes, closed mine, and drew a long breath.
"Dad, what if I told you I've had the same dream three nights in a row? Would you believe me?"
"In the dream, I married Dominic Calloway across two lifetimes. In the first, he felt sorry for Fiona and funneled Calloway Group money and shares to help her rebuild the Prescott empire. I fought him tooth and nail, threatened divorce, but behind my back he was siphoning off clients and capital to prop her up. By the time I found out, the Calloway Group was a hollow shell drowning in debt. I died in prison."
"In the second life, I refused his demands and seized control of the company myself. I thought I could protect the Henson family that way. But he implanted Fiona's fertilized embryo into my womb without my knowledge. I worked myself half to death, ruined my health, and the moment I drew my last breath, he walked Fiona and their child right through the front door and took everything the Hensons had built."
By the time I finished, tears were streaming down my face.
Humiliation. Rage. Grief.
The man I'd given my whole heart to had been that heartless all along.
Perhaps even God found his cruelty unforgivable. That was why I'd been sent back this time with my memories intact, to claim the justice I was owed.
My father's face drained of color. His palm cracked against the table.
"That animal. He dared do that to my daughter. I'll destroy him."
He was already rising to go find Dominic, but I caught his arm and spoke slowly, deliberately.
"Dad, beating him or cursing him out would be letting him off easy. What we need to do is separate our assets as soon as possible and minimize the damage."
"If he wants to drag the Calloway Group straight to hell, why should we stand in his way?"
My father went still. Then he nodded.
I laid out my plan in detail. Two families bound by marriage meant entangled finances, joint ventures, shared technical teams. Even a divorce required careful maneuvering. Every asset, every project, every key person had to be accounted for in advance. Nothing could collapse before we were ready.
By the time we'd finalized the strategy, it was already evening when I returned to the Calloway residence.
All three of them were seated at the dining table, picture-perfect. The moment my mother-in-law saw me, the smile on her face curdled into something cold.
"Ava, throwing your little fit these past few days was one thing. But now you're actually talking about divorce?"
"Do you have any idea what that would do to both families' stock prices if word got out?"
