Chapter 6: Strike One
The boardroom smelled like old money and polished lies.
I sat at the head of the long glass table, hands folded, back straight, wearing a steel-gray blazer over a black silk blouse. My presence today wasn't scheduled — which made it all the more effective.
Everyone from Grant Corp's inner board was present.
All eyes were on me.
Lucian leaned casually against the wall at the back of the room, arms crossed. Silent. Watching.
He didn't need to speak.
This was my fight.
"Ladies and gentlemen," I began, letting my voice echo with calm precision, "thank you for gathering on such short notice."
One of the older directors cleared his throat. "We were told this was... urgent?"
I smiled. "Extremely."
Naomi slid folders down the table, one for each person.
Inside: copies of financial data, leaked emails, and internal legal memos — all pulled by Lucian's tech team. Each one pointed to the same truth:
The Dawsons had used my name — Ava Grant — to secure illegal loans and funnel company stock through shell corporations over a five-year period.
Fraud. Identity theft. Corporate espionage.
I watched the color drain from the room.
"I've prepared legal suits against the Dawson Group for damages, defamation, and identity manipulation," I said. "But I'd like to offer them a chance to surrender quietly."
Murmurs broke out.
One director frowned. "You want to go to war with the Dawsons?"
"No," I said, voice sharper now. "They started a war when they buried me. I'm just choosing the battlefield."
---
After the meeting, I walked into the lobby and was ambushed by a swarm of reporters.
"Miss Grant, do you have any comment on Dawson Group's latest stock drop?"
"Is it true you're filing charges against your former family?"
"Were you and Lily Dawson ever close?"
I paused, met their lenses, and smiled.
"I don't know her. I only know what it's like to lose everything and rise anyway."
Click. Click. Flash.
Lucian stepped in beside me. "No more questions," he said flatly, and they scattered.
As we entered the elevator, I leaned against the mirrored wall, suddenly feeling the adrenaline crash.
"You were perfect," he said quietly.
"I wanted to throw up the entire time," I confessed.
"That's what being powerful feels like. You wear fear like perfume and still walk into fire."
---
That night, I stood in front of my mother's portrait in the Grant mansion.
"You were right," I whispered. "They never expected me to come back."
But the game wasn't over.
Because while I was launching my first attack… the enemy was moving too.
---
Naomi burst into my office the next morning, breathless.
"We found something," she said. "From inside Dawson Group."
She tossed a tablet on my desk.
On screen was a video.
A surveillance clip.
It showed Lily — alone, inside a luxury hotel suite — speaking on a call.
> "No, she doesn't remember. Ava still thinks it was just a hospital switch. She hasn't connected it to the experiments yet."
Pause.
"The Grant vault? She might've found it. If she opens the Persephone file—"
Static.
The video ended.
I stared at the screen, cold creeping through my veins.
"She knows," I breathed.
"She knows everything," Naomi confirmed.
Lucian arrived seconds later, having received the same intel.
"They're planning something big," he said. "They wouldn't move Lily into power unless they were preparing to bury you again — permanently."
I turned to him. "Then it's time I showed them I'm not afraid."
---
Two hours later, I walked into the Dawson Group headquarters, uninvited, with my legal team behind me.
I didn't knock.
I didn't wait.
I stepped into the boardroom in the middle of their executive meeting, heels clicking like bullets.
Harold Dawson stood, startled. "What is the meaning of—"
"You stole five years of my life," I said coldly. "Today, I start taking it back."
I dropped the lawsuit folder on the table.
"Your company used my name, my identity, and my birthright to inflate your stock and secure illegal leverage. I'm filing charges. Civil and criminal."
Lily sat frozen.
Her hands shook slightly, but she kept her voice soft. "Ava... please, we're family. This doesn't have to be public."
I turned to her slowly.
"You replaced me. Now I'm replacing you."
---
That night, as headlines exploded across the web—
> AVA GRANT FILES MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR SUIT AGAINST DAWSON GROUP
"THIS IS JUST THE FIRST STRIKE," SAYS GRANT HEIRESS
WHO IS LILY DAWSON REALLY? SOURCES CLAIM EXPERIMENT FILE EXISTS...
—I received a package delivered to my suite.
No name.
No address.
Inside: a single red rose.
And a card.
> You're awake now. But are you ready to remember everything?
Welcome to the second phase, Persephone.
---
[End of Chapter 6]