“Find a way,” Uncle Charles said coldly. “Blackmail her. Threaten her. Create a situation where she has no choice.”
“How can they blackmail her? She hasn’t done anything wrong.”
“Everyone has secrets,” Uncle Charles muttered. “Or they invent them. They leave evidence, then offer to make it disappear in exchange for their signature.”
It made me sick. They were discussing framing me for crimes I hadn’t committed.
“It’s incredibly risky,” Jax said, but he didn’t look horrified—he was just calculating the probabilities.
“More risky than losing everything?” retorted Aunt Carol.
They continued to devise plans, each more desperate than the last, before finally deciding they needed more time to think. They left around three in the morning.
I turned off the camera, my hands trembling. It wasn’t just simple infidelity or fraud. It was a conspiracy that had been going on since I was sixteen, since the day my parents died. Every kind word, every family meal, every party was nothing but a calculated manipulation.
And I believed it.
The legal offensive
At seven o’clock in the morning, I called Mr. Harrison. “I have recordings,” I told him, my voice trembling with fury and adrenaline. “A full confession. They confessed everything, from the death of my parents. They talked about blackmailing me and fabricating false evidence.”
“Are you safe?” he asked immediately.
“Yes, I’m at the hotel. They think I’m in Tokyo.”
“Send me the recordings immediately and come to my office this afternoon. We’re putting an end to this today.”
When I arrived at Mr. Harrison’s office at 2 p.m., he had already reviewed everything. His face was serious but determined. “Ava, it’s worse than we imagined. But it’s also exactly what we needed. The private investigator has also finished his report.”
He showed me documents: rental income diverted to Jax’s personal accounts for over five years, bank statements showing consistent gambling losses, credit card bills for luxury purchases.
“Jax is a compulsive gambler,” said Mr. Harrison. “He has lost hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past three years.”
That explained where my rental income had gone: into casino accounts and online betting sites.
“And do you remember those trips to Maui?” Mr. Harrison reviewed the flight records and hotel reservations. “They never set foot on Maui. Every year, they flew to Las Vegas and stayed in luxury resorts. It was all paid for with your rental income.”
I examined the evidence: photos from social media, receipts, passenger lists. While I was working overtime during the holidays, they were spending my money gambling and partying.
“What do we do now?” I asked, my voice calm despite the rage that consumed me.
He leaned back with a cold smile. “Now we’ll destroy them legally. Divorce proceedings for adultery and fraud. Jax won’t get anything under the prenuptial agreement. Eviction of Charles and Carol from your house. Civil charges for embezzlement. Criminal charges for stealing your jewelry. If we push hard enough, we might even get charges for fraud.”
“Do all of that,” I said without hesitation. “Everything you can legally do to hold them accountable.”
“Excellent. I will prepare the documents for submission tomorrow morning.”
The confrontation
I spent three more days in the hotel, monitoring my apartment with the cameras. Jax and Madison had practically moved in together, their belongings scattered throughout the rooms I had decorated, their relationship unfolding in the apartment I had paid for.
On the third night, watching them lounge on my sofa sipping wine that cost more than most people’s weekly grocery budget, I decided the time had come for the final showdown. I had all the evidence I needed. Now I wanted to see Jax’s face when his world crumbled.
I waited until they were completely relaxed, laughing at something I couldn’t hear, before driving to the apartment. My hands were firm on the steering wheel, my heart calm. I felt no anxiety, only a cold satisfaction at the thought of what was about to happen.
I opened the door without warning.
Jax and Madison were on the sofa, she sitting on his lap, wearing one of my silk robes, kissing with the nonchalance of two people who thought they were perfectly safe. The opening of the door made them both jump. Jax went pale and, seized by panic, pushed Madison off his lap.
“Ava!” he stammered. “You came home early. Tokyo, you said…”
I stood rooted to the spot in the doorway, silent, simply watching them hurry to cover themselves and regain their composure.
“Ava, please, it’s not what you think,” Jax began in a desperate voice.
“I want a divorce.” My voice was calm, composed, final.
He blinked rapidly, as if I were speaking a foreign language. “What? Divorce? Ava, let’s talk about this calmly…”
“You’re cheating on me with your pregnant ex-girlfriend, right here,” I said sharply. “There’s nothing to discuss. I want a divorce and you both need to leave my apartment immediately.”
Madison stood up, clutching my robe to her chest. “Ava, I’m so sorry, I absolutely didn’t mean to…”
“I don’t care what you meant,” I interrupted without looking at her. “Get out of my house. Now.”
Jax took a step toward me, and his expression changed: panic gave way to calculation, despair morphed into arrogance. “You won’t be able to prove your infidelity in court. And even if you did, I’ll get half of everything in the divorce. This apartment, the townhouse, half your wallet. You’ll be paying me alimony for years. Good luck with your divorce, Ava.”
I smiled, a genuine smile that seemed to unsettle him. “We’ll see.”
I turned and left, ignoring his calls and Madison’s sobs. In the elevator, my smile widened. He really thought I had no proof, no plan, no understanding of inheritance law or separate property. He had underestimated me once again.
In my car, I made one last phone call — to Aunt Carol. She answered cheerfully, unaware that her world was about to collapse.
“Ava, my darling! How was Tokyo?”
I let my voice tremble, infusing it with carefully measured emotion. “Aunt Carol, I came home earlier than expected and found Jax with another woman.”
Dramatic pause. “What? That’s impossible!”
“In our apartment,” I continued, my voice breaking. “They were together, and she’s pregnant, Aunt Carol. It’s obvious she’s pregnant.”
“Oh my God,” she murmured, and I detected a real shock in her voice. She knew about the affair, but she didn’t know I had found out.
“I don’t know what to do,” I said, my voice breaking with tears. “How could he do this to me?”
“Where are you right now, darling?”
“In my car, in the underground parking lot. I can’t go back there.”
“Come to the brownstone house,” she said immediately. “Go home. We’ll find a solution together.”
“I need to call a lawyer first. I’m going to file for divorce.”
“Ava, darling, don’t you think that’s a bit drastic?” Her tone changed slightly, becoming less compassionate and more calculating. “Perhaps you two could sort this out…”
“Fix it?” I interrupted, letting anger rise in my voice. “He’s going to have a child with someone else! There’s nothing to fix!”
“You’re right,” she said after a moment. “You’re absolutely right. This boy must face the consequences. Let me speak to him. I’ll call you back.”
I hung up and immediately opened my camera app, eager to see the explosion.
A few minutes later, Jax’s phone rang. Even through the cameras, I could hear his mother’s screams. He held the phone away from his ear, but her rage was still perfectly audible.
“How could you be so stupid?!” she screamed. “How could you get caught?!”
“Mom, calm down, let me explain…”
“Explain what? Years of preparation, and you ruined everything because you couldn’t control yourself with that girl!”
“I’ll fix it,” Jax said in a weak voice.
“Fix it? She’s asking for a divorce! She has concrete proof now, you idiot!”
“She caught you with your pregnant mistress! What clearer proof could there be?!”
Uncle Charles’ voice rang out, cold and harsh. “You had only one mission, Jackson: to marry her, gain her trust, obtain her power of attorney. You didn’t even manage that.”
“I tried! She wouldn’t sign!”
“So you’ve decided to make your affair public?” asked Uncle Charles. “How does that improve our situation?”
“She will still have to give me half of the assets in the divorce,” Jax argued unconvincingly.
Aunt Carol’s laughter was bitter and cutting. “You’re even dumber than I thought. His inheritance isn’t divided in a divorce. It’s his separate property. You’ll get nothing, and now you have a pregnant girlfriend to support. You’ve ruined everything!”
I saw Jax collapse onto the sofa, phone still to his ear, his whole body radiating defeat. “Can you come over? We need a new plan.”
“No,” Aunt Carol replied firmly. “You caused this disaster. It’s up to you to fix it. I’m tired of cleaning up your messes.”
She hung up. Jax remained motionless for several minutes before turning to Madison. “You have to go.”
“What? Jax, where am I supposed to go?”
“That’s no longer my problem,” he said coldly. “Leave. Don’t come back.”
I saw Madison gather her things and leave in tears. I saw Jax pace the apartment, writing me messages he immediately deleted, desperately searching for the words to save him. Every message he sent me—pleas, apologies, promises of change—I deleted without replying.
The first phase was complete.
The legal hammer falls
The following morning, Mr. Harrison had everything ready. At precisely eight o’clock, the bailiffs served the documents simultaneously at the brownstone building and at my apartment.
My phone rang a few moments later. Aunt Carol, her voice filled with panic. “Ava! What is it? An eviction notice? Are you kicking us out?!”
“Yes.”
“But why? What have we done? We’ve only treated you kindly!”
“You’ve only lied,” I said calmly. “I know everything, Aunt Carol. The fake trips to Maui, the stolen rental income, the plan you’ve been putting in place since my parents died. I know everything.”
The silence was so long that I thought she had hung up. Then: “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I almost laughed. “You have thirty days to leave my building. I suggest you use this time to find a good lawyer, because I am suing you for embezzlement and theft. Criminal proceedings will likely follow.”
I hung up while she was screaming.
Two minutes later, Jax called. “Ava, what’s this? Divorce papers? Are you really suing me?”
“Yes. Divorce for adultery. Civil proceedings for misappropriation of rental income. Criminal proceedings for theft of my jewelry. Did you really think there wouldn’t be any consequences?”
“You have no proof of anything!”
