Chapter 3 - The Handkerchief and the Dragon
The rain outside the Plaza was relentless, pounding against the asphalt of Fifth Avenue like machine-gun fire. A convoy of three black, armored Maybachs sat idling at the curb, hazard lights flashing in the downpour.
Dominic guided Ava out through the grand entrance, shielding her with an umbrella held by an aide. Behind them, chaos erupted as paramedics rushed into the ballroom to treat Marcus's shattered wrist, and investors swarmed Ethan and Julian with furious demands for explanations.
Dominic opened the door to the middle Maybach himself, waiting patiently until Ava climbed into the sumptuous leather interior before sliding in beside her. The heavy door closed with a muffled *thud*, completely cutting off the noise, the flashing cameras, and the humiliation of the world outside.
Ava pulled Dominic’s heavy coat tighter around herself. Her teeth were chattering, not from the cold, but from pure, unadulterated shock.
"Who are you?" she demanded, her voice shaking as she stared at the man sitting opposite her in the dim ambient light of the limousine. "Why did you do that back there? And why did you call me your fiancée?!"
Dominic didn't answer immediately. He took a bottle of Macallan 25 from the built-in bar, poured two fingers into a tumbler, and handed it to her.
"Drink it. It will shock your nervous system out of adrenaline shock."
"I don't want scotch, Mr. Moretti! I want answers!" Ava cried, pushing the glass away. "You just ruined the wedding of the most influential family in the city, you broke Marcus Vance's arm, and you claimed I designed Ethan’s software! How do you know about David Bennett? How do you know my father?!"
Dominic set the glass down. His dark eyes, reflecting the neon lights of Manhattan through the rain-streaked window, held an unfathomable depth of sorrow and steel.
"Look at the handkerchief around your wrist, Ava," he said gently.
Ava looked down. The blood from her wrist had soaked into the pristine white silk. She carefully unrolled the fabric. In the corner, embroidered with microscopic silver thread, was a crest: a soaring phoenix wrapped around a broadsword, flanked by the letters *B & M*.
Ava gasped. Her hand flew to her mouth.
"Bennett & Moretti," she whispered, the memory hitting her like a freight train.
"Twelve years ago, your father, David Bennett, was not just a tech pioneer; he was my mentor," Dominic said, his voice dropping into a somber, reverent cadence. "When my family went bankrupt after the crash, your father took an orphaned eighteen-year-old street hacker and gave him a seat at his table. He funded my education. He taught me how to read the markets, how to code, how to survive."
Tears finally welled up in Ava's eyes, hot and genuine. "My father died of a heart attack after his company collapsed. Everyone said he was a fraud."
"Your father did not die of a heart attack," Dominic said, his jaw tightening into iron. "Julian Vance poisoned his reputation, shorted his stock through illegal offshore accounts, and blackmailed his board of directors into ousting him. The night David Bennett supposedly had a heart attack in his office, Julian Vance was the last man who visited him."
Ava felt the oxygen vanish from her lungs. "Murder?"
"Assisted suicide. Vance told him that if he didn't swallow those pills, the cartel loans Vance had secretly taken out in David's name would be collected from his nine-year-old daughter. From you, Ava."
A strangled sob escaped Ava’s throat. All those years. All those lonely nights crying in the foster system, believing her father had abandoned her, believing he was a failure who had taken the coward’s way out.
"Your father traded his life so that you would live," Dominic said, reaching forward to gently wipe a rogue tear from her cheek with his thumb. "And on his deathbed, he made me swear an oath. He told me: *'Dominic, become a monster they cannot kill. Build an empire they cannot touch. And when the time is right, find my Ava, and give her back everything they stole.'*"
Dominic leaned closer, his dark eyes burning with an ancient, terrifying promise.
May you like
"For twelve years, I have lived only to fulfill that oath. Ethan Cole was Vance’s puppet, meant to extract the last piece of your father’s legacy from your mind. But their time is over, Ava. Tomorrow morning, the Bennett name rises again. And Ethan Cole will lose every single penny he ever dreamed of possessing."
***
