Chapter 126
ISABELLA
Before the cold earth met my knees, there had been a dress, a plan, and a lie I told with too much ease.
I was ready—at least physically—to meet Mr. Antonio an hour before the time Levi had given.
The dress fit: elegant where it needed to be, daring where it shouldn’t—especially for Levi. My hair was pinned up, soft curls held in place like a memory. I’d even sprayed the perfume I used to wear, my favorite from the past. I didn’t know why. Maybe, deep down, I hoped it would trigger something in Levi. A recollection. A miracle.
That was the only miracle I’d prayed for that night. But I didn’t believe in miracles, so instead, I rehearsed. The tilt of my smile. The lines of my plan. The rhythm of my voice.
The lies. The truth. I’d even upped the dosage of my anxiety meds.
Then, I told myself I was ready for the chaos. But nothing could’ve prepared me for the questions I was trying not to ask myself.
“Is all this really necessary, Isabella?” Caroline asked gently from behind me. Her voice, a thread of worry, reached for me like something delicate—genuinely concerned, not annoying for once.
“Don’t you think you need to think everything through properly?”
I turned slightly, just enough to see her standing in the doorway. She looked small somehow, though she wasn’t. Her arms were crossed tightly over her chest, sleeves shoved up to her elbows, revealing the red half-moons her nails had carved into her skin. She was trying to hold back her worry, but I knew it was only a matter of time before she gave in to the need to speak her mind.
She had every right to be scared for me. God knew I was scared for me, too—but for reasons far more complicated than she could ever imagine.
Caroline always sensed the things I tried to bury. And now, without needing to say it aloud, she understood what I was too stubborn to admit: I was walking headfirst into something that would not let me leave the same.
On paper, it was clean. Neat. Practical. Marry Levi. Divorce Levi. Walk away with enough to start over—somewhere far, somewhere free.
But reality doesn’t obey ink. It breathes. It whispers behind your back. It lingers in headlines and stares. It tastes like secrets waiting to be unearthed, ghosts that would awaken and haunt us all.
And that didn’t even begin to touch the fame.
That would come. Matt had already tasted it in his fantasies—his boyish grin dreaming up talk shows and scandal. Maybe I had, too. Maybe, deep down, I’d let myself believe a new name in the press would buy me a new beginning. An open door back into the business world I’d fallen out of. Perhaps some company would find me worthy again. Maybe they’d hire me. Maybe I’d finally get to do what I loved.
Though I doubted any of that would happen— Not unless Mr. Antonio let me be. And that’s where my plan came in.
I exhaled sharply, the thought of that plan scaring the shit out of me.
“What do you know, Caroline?” Matt’s voice sliced through the room as he pushed past her to step inside. When he saw me, his jaw dropped.
“Gosh, sis… you’re the most—argh!—beautiful woman ever.”
I arched a brow. “What are you doing in our room?”
“Exactly,” Caroline echoed, turning to him with the same tone.
He slouched onto the couch like he had nothing to lose. His long legs crossed at the ankles, and a lazy smirk tucked itself into the corner of his mouth.
“What? Why are you guys ganging up on me? I was passing by and heard Caroline. Don’t discourage our brave sister. She’s doing this for us. And for you too. Your college application’s still pending, remember?”
There was something in his tone that made my chest tighten.
He didn’t see it. Not really. He didn’t understand what I was giving up.
All he saw was opportunity—money, ease, escape. The easy way out.
“That doesn’t mean she has to sell herself out just to keep us comfortable!” Caroline snapped, her voice rising like a match struck too fast. “I’d rather drop out than watch Isabella make a sacrifice she clearly doesn’t want to make!”
“Don’t say that,” I interrupted, stepping toward her.
I placed my palm gently over her lips. She stiffened. Her breath hitched beneath my fingers.
“I’m not being forced into anything,” I said softly.
“You won’t drop out, okay? I said yes to this because I wanted to. Not because I was pressured.”
The lie curled bitterly at the back of my throat, but I swallowed it, and she let herself believe me. Or maybe she didn’t—but she wanted to. And wanting to believe someone is sometimes more dangerous than belief itself.
But now—now, with Mr. Antonio’s words still thick in my memory—I knew the truth.
He hadn’t raged. He hadn’t argued. He had smiled. Calm. Composed. Controlled.
That frightened me more than fury ever could. More than any chaos.
He had been steps ahead of me the entire time. And all my plans came crashing down, because I had only anticipated madness—not the calm of a deadly man.
How do I fight a man like that alone?How do I fight him at all… when I’m already on my knees for his son, begging for ruin disguised as desire?
Because this may be the last time. The only time we might ever get this chance.
And I wanted to remember it as a moment I surrendered, Not one where I was taken.
Levi’s hand found my face— And my breath stopped.
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