This absolutely cannot be safe for him. I think over a dozen times as we slowly make our way back to the front of the house.
My own adrenaline wears off just as we round the side of the building. The sudden pain in my thigh causes me to stumble forward awkwardly, and Rocco slips.
It’s all I can do to fall along with him to ensure he doesn’t crack his head on the concrete.
“Rocco!” I half groan as I roll out from under him.
His eyes are shut again, but at least this time, there’s a reassuring rise and fall of his chest. I almost sag back into the floor in relief.
“No, NO!”
A scream draws me back to the present, and I scramble to my feet.
The smoke unhelpfully blocks my view, so I carefully begin to approach the direction of the sound.
Only to freeze when the scene finally unfolds before me.
Leon, with hands around Isabella, as if holding her back.
Cas screaming.
Ida is holding onto Cassandra’s hair with one hand.
The other is holding a knife to her stomach.
And that quietness overwhelms me once more.
28
ISABELLA
“Ialways thought out of the two of you, Leon would be the bigger disappointment.”
My mother’s words pierce through me with unrelenting venom.
It was all too much. Her lies had felt like a betrayal before, but to see her now, looking at me like I’d seen her do to anyone she felt was beneath her.
She’s never looked at me like this before.
I was her equal. Or, at least, her protégé. She didn’t look at me like this.
For so long, I’ve been spared of this. For so long, I have bent myself over backward and done unspeakable things to gain her approval. For so long, that was all I ever wanted to do.
I would have been proud to have become her heir, to uphold her beliefs and to honor our family legacy. To help my brother lead the Prince’s Hand to prosperity.
But there was always a stark difference between what she was capable of and how far I was willing to go. And that difference is here, now, in her icy gaze with the backdrop of a burning building behind her.
“Teo, please.” I flinch slightly at the sound of Cas’ sobbing.
He had left. I had begged him to stay, but he had kissed me and gone anyway.
When I turn to look at him, I foolishly hope that maybe, maybe, he stayed for me.
But there’s no expression of kindness on his face. His dark eyes are fixed on my mother, fingers flexing at his side as if he hasn’t quite decided how he wants to kill her.
I think I might be sick.
“Go, Teo. She’s not going anywhere.” Leon suddenly straightens up at my side.
