Orion's POV

I had never felt such restless pain, the kind that gnawed at my insides and twisted my stomach into knots.

For weeks, I'd been forced to stay away from Ava, watching from the shadows as her relationship with Mason grew tighter, inching me out of her life. The silence between us was deafening, more suffocating than anything I'd ever endured.

This was my punishment for not being there for her.

I couldn’t touch her, couldn’t feel the warmth of her presence next to me. Not because I didn’t want to, but because she asked me to stay away—and I had no choice but to comply.

The mansion now felt like a prison. I tried my best to avoid Chloe like the plague, her insistent presence only fueling the storm of emotions within me. Even with my mother's constant attempts to bring Chloe and I together, I knew I had to get rid of her. It wasn’t easy, but after much effort, I managed to convince her to leave.

The last thing I needed was her around, complicating things further.

But nothing had been more vile than the night Chloe drugged me in a failed attempt to seduce me. She thought that just because I had been physically absent, she could manipulate me into forgetting Ava.

But the thought of betraying Ava again, especially now when she was already so far away, made me sick. The guilt of every mistake I’d made toward her had haunted me like a shadow, and that guilt was the strength that made me push Chloe away, locking myself up.

Still, Chloe’s biting remarks had cut deeper over the weeks. "I saved you," she would say. "I took a bullet for you." Her words haunted me, especially in my darkest moments. I didn’t need her. I needed Ava. I needed her to tell me that everything would be okay again. But she was nowhere near me. I couldn’t even reach out to her, even though everything within me screamed for her.

Then came the day Chloe blackmailed me into meeting her at a restaurant. I knew exactly what she was doing, but I couldn’t resist when she played the “I took a bullet for you” card.

As soon as my gaze fell upon Ava, my heart twisted. She didn’t look the way I expected. She wasn’t torn, sleepless, or on the edge of collapse like I was. She looked... fine, in the company of Mason again. The sight hit me harder than a punch to the gut.

My mind reeled as I watched them interact. A wave of guilt flooded me—guilt for not being there when she needed me, guilt for not being the man she needed in her life. And then, as if to twist the knife, she reminded me of what I had done every chance she got. What I'd failed to do.

And when she mentioned the divorce papers, my world had shrunk further but I didn't let it show.

My entire world seemed to collapse at that moment. She was asking me to leave her life forever. That would never happen. Not while I was still breathing. No matter what she said, no matter how many times she tried to push me away, Ava was mine.

And I would reclaim her, no matter the cost. I won't let Mason win. I won't let anyone take her from me.

But Mason... Mason was something else. I couldn’t place it. I just didn’t trust him. There was something off about him, something that didn’t sit right.

Every time Mason was around, it felt like he was playing the role of the knight in shining armor. But was it real? Or was Mason playing a part in something far more sinister?

The urge to reclaim what is mine got stronger when I heard that the security of the company's data is under attack. That was when everything clicked into place.

Maybe Mason was behind it all. What if he’d staged the breach just to make Ava rely on him even more? What if he was creating the problems only to be the hero who swooped in to fix them? It would make sense.

The security at the Miller's empire was tighter than ever, and no outsider could have gotten in. Someone who knew the ins and outs of the system. Someone who had the means and knowledge. And the more I thought about it, the more it fit.

When Ava called my name, it brought me back to reality, her voice filled with disbelief. “How can you explain what Mason just said?” she demanded. “Did you do this? Really?”

I clenched my jaw, fighting the urge to lash out. Why couldn’t she trust me? After everything I’d done—everything I was doing to fix this—why couldn’t she just believe in me for once?

But instead of shouting, instead of defending myself like a wild animal backed into a corner, I chuckled. It was a low, cold sound that made the hairs on the back of my own neck stand up.

"And what do I gain from harming my company?" My voice was icy, every word calculated and dripping with disdain.

Mason, never one to stay silent for long, jumped in with his accusation. "It could be you're sick with the hero complex," he said, his voice sharp. "Ava doesn’t want you anymore. She’s filing for a divorce. Maybe you did this to play the hero, to make her think you came in to save the day. It's an inside job, isn’t it? It all makes sense now."

Ava’s brows furrowed as she turned to look at Mason, nodding slightly as she processed his words. My heart clenched at the sight. She was buying into Mason’s theory? She was buying into the lie?

How original.

Mason continued, eyes gleaming with self-righteousness. "This is obviously insider work. No outsider could have breached the security. It has to be someone who knows exactly where to hit, who has the means to execute it perfectly."

Ava, too, turned her gaze to me, suspicion creeping into her features. Her voice came out tense, impatient, her eyes narrowing slightly. "Why would you do something like this? No. Did you really—really do this?" She asked, as though giving me one last chance to come out clean.

I swallowed hard, taking a slow, deliberate breath. I don’t need to go through all this to make her see me. I mean, I could do far worse to her body to make her notice me, but this? This isn’t it. This only makes my suspicions about Mason grow more.

“Oh really? Is that what you think of me?” I asked, my voice low and dangerous.

Mason clenched his fists at my words but didn't back down. His eyes never left mine. "You want to know what I think?" Mason said again, a slow, calculated smirk curling at the corners of his mouth. "I think you are indeed playing us all. He’s orchestrating this entire thing to make you rely on him, Ava. He’s the hero in his own sick little story. And I’m not going to let him win."

Ava’s eyes flashed with confusion, and my jaw tightened with barely contained anger. The tension was unbearable. We were standing on the edge, and everything was about to come crashing down.

I looked directly into Ava’s eyes, seeing the pain there, the doubt. I wanted to reach out to her, to make her understand, but the time for that would come later. For now, I had to dance along to Mason's beat.

"All right," I said, raising my hands in mock surrender. "You got me."

It wasn’t a confession. It was a challenge. A statement. And I’d be damned if I was going to let anyone take Ava away from me—not Mason, not anyone.