Page 11 of Claiming Pretty

Mr. Byrne, Liath’s adopted father.

Mr. Heeley. Sarah’s father.

And now Dr. Hickey. Keela’s father.

Luring me out would be the perfect move.

My thumb hesitated over the screen, my pulse quickening.It could be doctored. Her voice, her words—I hit replay, needing to hear it again.

“Ebony? It’s me. Ava.”

I listened closely, analyzing every inflection, every breath.

I’d know Ava’s voice anywhere. It haunted me in my sleep. It washer, raw and unpolished, the same tone she always used when she was trying to sound calm but wasn’t.

Still, the knot of panic refused to loosen.

Ebony’s voice, warm and familiar, broke through the static.“Oh, my darling girl. It’s been so long. I thought you were in Croatia for the rest of the holidays?”

Croatia? That didn’t make sense.

My brows furrowed as I leaned closer, straining to catch every word.

“Oh, yeah. Right.”Ava’s voice, quick and awkward, carried that telltale hesitation I knew too well.“I thought I’d surprise everyone, caught an early flight home. Only, uh, my flight to Dublin got redirected… I’m stuck near Shannon Airport.”

My mind raced, caught between the flood of relief that she was alive and the gnawing doubt that something far more dangerous was going on.

Shannon? Why Shannon? That was on the literal other side of Ireland. And why the hesitation?

Ava was a terrible liar, but why would she lie to Ebony about where she’d been? Why wouldn’t she tell Ebony the truth? Why not say she’d been kidnapped?

If anyone would believe her, it was Ebony. She was a surgeon; she’d had enough broken people on her table to know how dark this world could get.

Unless… Ava didn’t want to scare her.

That sounded like Ava. Always trying to protect people, even when it was she who needed protecting. Always so damn stubborn, carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders, like she had something to prove.

But the thought didn’t ease the knot in my stomach. If she was alive—and it really was her—then she was still in danger. Whatever lie she was spinning, it meant she didn’t feel safe enough to tell the truth.

That was enough to make my blood run cold.

How the hell did she escape from the Society? The thought ricocheted through my mind, sharp and unrelenting.

Nobody escaped them. Not without help. Not without blood.

Was it even possible?

Ava wasn’t weak, far from it, but the Society didn’t let its prey go willingly. She couldn’t have overpowered them, not on her own. So how? Who helped her?Whyhad they let her live?

The Society didn’t leave loose ends.

If she’d escaped, they’d be hunting her. And if she hadn’t escaped… I clenched my teeth as a cold knot of suspicion formed in my gut.

What if this wasn’t an escape at all? What if theylether go? That thought twisted like a blade in my side.

The Society didn’t take chances. If she was free, it was because they wanted her to be. They’d use her, turn her into a trap, a pawn in a game I wasn’t even seeing yet.

I rubbed my temples, trying to think, to focus. If Ava had escaped, it wasn’t a miracle—it was a move. A deliberate,calculated move. And I needed to figure out who had made it… before they used her to destroy us both.

---