Sebastian's POV
I hadn't meant to be there.
Some half-instinct, some unease in my chest—maybe it was the way her eyes had lingered on her phone that morning, the forced cheer in her voice when she kissed my cheek.
Something wasn't right.
So I drove to her school.
Parked down the block like a criminal. Watched the entrance with the same stillness I used to have when I used a rifle for a living. Waited.
And then I saw her.
My baby girl.
And Rain.
The ghost of every scar I never talk about.
They stood toe-to-toe like fighters in a ring. Ava with her hair in a high ponytail, jacket half unzipped, confidence dripping from her like gasoline waiting for a spark.
I cracked the window.
"…he'll drop me," Rain was saying. Voice sweet. Poisoned honey.
Ava laughed. Not her usual bubbly giggle—this one was sharp. Lethal.
"No," she said, "because unlike you, I didn't leave him when he was sixteen and trying not to bleed out in a hotel bathroom."
My stomach twisted.
Rain stepped back, and Ava stepped forward.
"You come near him one more time," she whispered, "and I swear on every bone in my body—I will f**k you up in ways no one else ever has."
My heart stopped.
For a second, I forgot how to breathe.
Not because of the words—but because of how steady she was. How much she sounded like me.
She wasn't bluffing.
She wasn't scared.
She was mine.
Through and through.
And for the first time in a long time, I realized—
I hadn't protected her from the world.
She'd grown teeth because of the world.
And now she was using them. For me.
I stayed in the car until she was gone.
Waited until Rain turned and walked the other way.
I didn't get out.
Didn't yell.
Didn't scold.
Because in that moment, I realized—
There were things I'd never taught Ava.
And somehow, she'd still learned how to survive.