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"Damn it!" I can't believe what I'm reading. The implications... the lies... This changes everything.
I clutch the contract tightly, the paper crinkling under my grasp. This is Juan's will – I’ve stumbled onto a web of deceit and betrayal spun around Isabella.
"Everything goes to Capo Conti..." I read aloud, my voice barely a whisper. "Including Isabella's land and the gold that might lie beneath it, should anything happen to me."
Why the hell does Juan even have a will, declaring something to give that’s not even his to begin with? And what gold are they talking about.
"What have they done?" My hands tremble as anger courses through my veins. I can't stand here doing nothing. I need to uncover the truth.
I keep looking through the bookshelf, my hands tracing on top of and under every shelf, feeling in every corner. Then, I discover a small lever, hidden from view, revealing a makeshift shelf. I open it, and put my hand inside the tiny nook, pulling out a folder.
I go to sit on the Capo’s bed, and begin looking through it all. There was gold discovered under Diego Torres’s land. Juan had a hit on Torres. It's a paper trail that depicts a sinister plot involving Isabella, Juan, and the Capo. My blood runs cold as I piece together the details.
The Capo made a deal with Juan, for the gold under the land. And all this while, I thought he was protecting Isabella.
"Isabella..." I mutter under my breath, horrified. The Capo had planned to kill her after all and stage her release, framing her death as an accident. The realization hits me like a ton of bricks.
"Damn him," I mutter, gritting my teeth. The weight of the realization settles heavily on my shoulders: I've been nothing more than a pawn in his twisted game, and Isabella was just a toy to be discarded.
What would the Capo have done? Killed her, made her disappear, all the while allowing me to believe he tried protecting her?
"Is this really happening?" I question myself, feeling my pulse quicken as the gravity of the situation sinks in. "Everything I believed in, everything I fought for...it was all a lie."
I cast the papers aside, and lower my face into my hands. For the first time in a long time, I cry.
Isabella tried telling me that day, why she killed the Capo. I was so hot-blooded and angry, that I told her I’d kill her if I saw her again. What did she do to deserve my wrath?
And why, oh why, did I take my loyalty to the Capo so far, that I never even saw who he was up close?
I burst out of the compound, as fast as I can, and order for the car to come around to the curb. I need to find Isabella, tell her I know everything and beg for forgiveness.
Damn it, I love that woman and I allowed anger and insecurity to destroy the truth. I'm a wreck right now, barking instructions, barely registering a word anyone says to me.
"Sir," a soldier comes to me. "The driver will take ten minutes."
"Give me your car," I snap at an associate who just drove in. I take his keys, get into the driver’s seat and begin driving ... to nowhere.
Isabella. Where are you? I've cut her out of my life to the extent that I don't even know how to find her. But, I'm desperate and at this point, I'll resort to begging.
There's only one reasonable man who'd still hear me out, after all the mistakes I've made. Felix answers on the second ring.
“It’s Stefano. I need your help.”
“What is it?” His voice is wary. I don’t blame him.
“The Capo planned to kill Isabella. I found proof that he meant to stage her death as an accident to inherit her land. Juan had left the land to the Capo if anything were to happen to Juan.”
A sharp intake of breath. “Are you sure?”
“Positive. I have to find her, I... Felix, I love her and I fucked up. Do you know where she is?”
Silence. Then, “My cautious side tells me this could be a ploy from your end, but my instinct tells me you won't harm her. She was headed to the private airport, last I heard. Probably catching a flight out of the country.”
My heart leaps into my throat. “When was this?”
“Not longer than an hour ago. Stefano, what are you planning to do? She’s on her way back to Mexico.”
I glance at my watch. It takes less than thirty minutes to get there.
