Bianca finished her call and I heard her moving around the room. I kept my eyes closed and tried to look peaceful, but inside everything was chaos.
How could I have been so stupid? How could I have believed her when she said Daddy was the bad guy? When she said my real mom didn’t want me?
Now I remembered things. Little pieces that I’d forgotten or maybe tried to forget because it hurt too much.
I remembered someone singing to me when I had nightmares. A voice that called me “little star.” Hands that felt safe when they tucked me in. A smell like flowers and something else… something that made me feel loved.
I remembered Daddy crying sometimes, late at night when he thought I was asleep. And Bianca always being there with tissues and soft words, telling him it wasn’t his fault, that some women just weren’t meant to be mothers.
But that was all lies, wasn’t it?
“Sweet dreams, Ava,” Bianca whispered, and I felt her kiss my forehead. The same way she used to when I was little and scared.
But now her kisses felt like ice.
After she went into the bedroom and closed the door, I waited for a really long time. Until I could hear her breathing get slow and even through the wall.
Then I carefully, quietly, got up from the couch.
The room was big and fancy, with huge windows that showed the whole city. Somewhere out there, my parents were probably looking for me. Maybe they were even working together, which would be weird but also kind of nice.
I had to find a way to warn them.
But first, I needed to see those building plans Bianca was talking about.
Her purse was on the table by the window, next to some papers and… and a gun.
My hands started shaking again. I’d never seen a real gun before, except on TV. This one was small and black and looked really, really scary.
But the papers next to it were even scarier.
The first one was a map of a building with lots of lines and numbers. At the top it said “Monroe Technologies – Executive Floors.” That was my mom’s building, where Daddy had taken me.
There were red X’s marked all over the map, with notes like “Structural support” and “Maximum damage” and “Escape route blocked.”
The next paper was worse. It was a schedule:
Day 1: Kidnap child, make demands Day 2: Parents attempt rescue, building destroyed
Day 3: Inherit everything, disappear
At the bottom, in Bianca’s handwriting: “Make sure both parents are in building when charges detonate. No survivors.”
I had to put my hand over my mouth to keep from crying out loud.
She really was going to kill them. And me too, probably, since I’d seen too much.
But there was something else in the papers. A phone number with a note: “Emergency contact – Marcus Chen, Executive Assistant.”
Marcus! He was the nice man who worked for my mom. I remembered him from when Daddy took me to her office.
I looked toward the bedroom door. Still closed. Still quiet.
Moving as carefully as I could, I picked up the hotel phone and dialed the number.
It rang twice before a sleepy voice answered. “Hello?”
“Marcus?” I whispered. “This is Ava. Ava Monroe.”
“Ava? How did you… where are you? Your parents are going crazy looking for you.”
“I’m in a hotel with Bianca. The Ritz Carlton. But Marcus, listen, this is really important. She’s going to blow up my mom’s building tomorrow when they come to get me.”
“What? Ava, are you sure—”
“I saw the plans. She has a gun and explosives and everything. She wants to kill both my parents.”
There was a long pause. Then Marcus’s voice got very serious. “Ava, I need you to stay exactly where you are and don’t let Bianca know you called me, okay? Can you do that?”
“I think so. But what if—”
“Just pretend to be asleep. I’m going to call your parents right now and tell them what you found out. You’re very brave, sweetheart. And very smart.”
“Marcus? Will you tell my mom something for me?”
“Of course.”
“Tell her I remember. I remember her singing to me and calling me little star. And tell her… tell her I love her. Both of them. Even if they don’t love each other anymore.”
“Oh, honey. They both love you so much. More than you know.”
“I have to go. I think I heard something.”
I hung up the phone and hurried back to the couch, pulling the blankets up just as I heard movement from the bedroom.
But it was just Bianca turning over in her sleep.
I lay there in the dark, my heart beating so loud I was sure she could hear it from the other room. But at least now my parents would know the truth. They’d know not to walk into her trap.
Except… what if they came anyway? What if they thought they could save me and stop her at the same time?
What if I’d just made everything worse?
I closed my eyes and tried to remember my real mom’s voice singing lullabies. It seemed like a million years ago, but also like yesterday.
“Twinkle, twinkle, little star,” I whispered to myself. “How I wonder what you are.”
I wondered if she was looking up at the same stars right now, trying to figure out how to save me.
I wondered if she knew that I was trying to save her too.
Outside the window, the city sparkled like a million diamonds. And somewhere in all those lights, two people who used to love each other were probably working together for the first time in years.
Because of me.
Maybe that was worth something, even if everything else was scary.
Maybe that was worth a lot.
But as I finally started to fall asleep, I heard Bianca’s phone buzz with a text message. And then I heard her get up.
“Well, well,” she said quietly. “Looks like someone’s been making phone calls.”
My blood turned to ice.
She knew.
