Page 32 of Choose Me

"Thank you, sir." I nodded and turned, racing out of the room, pulling my cell phone out, and dialing Ava's number.

Brock was on my heels, following me to the elevators. Ava’s phone kept ringing and ringing.

I hung up and tried again.

Voicemail.

I called again.

Voicemail.

"Hey baby, it's me. I need you to call me as soon as you get this. It's an emergency. Listen, don't leave the apartment, and do not open the door for anyone. Call me Ava." My voice was filled with urgency and fear. I dialed Everett's number next. Hopefully, he was still at home or around Ava.

Straight to voicemail.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck." I yelled angrily, slamming my fist into the elevator wall Brock and I had just entered.

"Keep trying, Ava. I'll call Everett." Brock instructed.

The elevator doors dinged open, and I went on a full sprint out the front doors and into the car waiting to take us to the tarmac.

Neither Everett nor Ava were answering, and panic was starting to set in. A million thoughts were running through my head, and I didn't know what Margaret was planning with Commons, but they had a connection through Ava, and that made the threat sent to her more real.

The car ride to the airstrip was silent, punctuated only by the sound of the ringing line going to voicemail again and again. I clenched my phone so tightly that my knuckles turned white. Once we boarded the plane, Brock tried to calm me down, but my mind was racing through worst-case scenarios, each more terrifying than the last. It was a little over a three-hour flight to Manhattan, so by the time I got to Ava, it would be close to four in the afternoon.

Brock glanced over at me every now and then, but I could tell he didn't know what to say. He was just as worried as I was. I almost dropped my phone when it rang.

Everett.

"Hey, man--."

"Everett, where's Ava?" I interrupted him.

"She's at home, why?"

"Is anyone with her?"

"Not that I know of. She said she was going to take a nap before the banquet tonight. Why is it so loud? Are you on a plane?"

"Brock and I are flying to Manhattan. Benjamin Callahan's sister was caught on a camera near the penthouse. I need you to head home and check on Ava. She isn't answering her phone."

"Shit." Everett's voice trembled with a newfound sense of terror. "James, I'm near Jersey City right now. We found Commons. His body washed up on the Hudson River. Someone slit his throat and hacked off both of his hands."

His words hung heavily in the air, sinking into my bones like shards of ice. My body tensed, and a shiver went down my spine as I struggled to comprehend what I had just heard. "You need to get to Ava now! She may be in danger."

"Already in the car. James, tell me that his sister isn't the one after her." Everett begged.

"I don't know. I don't know what Margaret's plan is, but I need you to focus and get to Ava." My voice cracked with desperation as I shouted at him, fear radiating off of me like heat from a furnace.

19

NINETEEN

AVA

It was close to three when I woke up from my nap. I stepped out of the shower, my skin tingling from the hot water. I stared in the mirror, taking a moment to appreciate the body that stared back at me. My body had transformed, adapting to my growing child, and my belly was double the size it was a few weeks ago.

I had changed.

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