MasukAXEL SALVATORE ROSSI“Have you heard anything from Isabella?”I’d heard that question repeatedly in the last few weeks, but I’d never expected it to come from my brother.Without looking up from my table, I shook my head. “No. Why?”He paced around the council room, his footsteps disrupting the peace I tried to keep in that space.“How could she just leave?”He asked like he didn’t know the reason. Maybe he wanted to shift the blame on everything other than himself.I shrugged. “Why don’t you tell me?”“Salvatore,” he stopped pacing and I felt his eyes on me. “You’re not taking this seriously.”I sighed tiredly, pushed the documents aside, then raised my head to him. His forehead was creased, and I refused to believe that he was actually worried about her whereabouts.“What exactly do you want me to do, Damien?”His expression faltered for a second before turning rigid again.“Elizabeth and Olivia have been crying their eyes out, worried sick about her, and I…” he paused before contin
OLIVIA“I don’t understand,” I whispered, darting my eyes between Axel and Damien. “Why would she leave? Where did she go?”“Olivia—‘’“—She can’t just leave,” I cried, suddenly gasping for breath. “What happened? Why…? What…?”I lost all my words, unsure of what to do, what to say, or how to react. Axel gripped me tightly, his hands steadying my shoulders after I swayed.How could Isabella, someone I was having a conversation with minutes ago, suddenly… leave?It wasn’t making any sense.Axel’s hands tightened around my waist, steadying me as I began to sob uncontrollably. “She said she loved you,” he murmured. “And… she…”“Why didn’t you stop her?” I asked through the tears, my lips trembling. “Why did you let her leave?”“Olivia, I tried my best to talk to her. To stop her. But her mind was made up.‘’“She promised to walk me down the aisle,” I sobbed, trying to break free from his grasp. “She… she can’t leave me. What about Mum? What about…?”Damien turned around and walked out o
OLIVIA“What?”I was stunned, completely caught off guard by Isabella’s words. My eyes fell on her stomach, trying to see if the bump was already visible.Damien and Isabella having a baby together?I didn’t know what to feel about it, but it was totally unexpected.“I… I don’t even know what to say.”She sipped her juice. “Right. Don’t tell Mum. Nobody knows yet. Except you and Axel.”So… that was why they were exchanging those glances. I knew… I mean, I suspected they were hiding something.My eyebrows furrowed. “You haven’t told Damien?”She shook her head. “No.”“Isabella—‘’I didn’t get to say the words before someone interrupted me. It was Grant, and he sounded urgent.“Ace is probably having some private conversation, and there’s nobody else I could think of telling.”“What?” I asked.“She’s outside,” he murmured, glancing at the main entrance. “Rosa.”My stomach instantly dropped. Rosa. I hadn’t seen or heard anything from her since Axel was in the hospital back in Willow Cree
AXEL SALVATORE ROSSI“What are you doing?” I asked Damien calmly, and immediately we walked into the council room.He strode in, halting a few steps away while I walked towards the table. His forehead creased, and he looked totally confused.“What?”“What’s she doing here?”“Who?” He asked, fueling my anger before adding. “Caterina?”I’d seen the painful look on Isabella’s face after he’d introduced Caterina as his girlfriend, and it made my stomach churn.She didn’t deserve that—the betrayal, the heartbreak, Isabella didn’t deserve any of that from him.Not when she was carrying his baby.“I just told all of you,” he stepped forward, still unaware of the chaos he’d created. “She’s my girlfriend. We met in Italy years ago and kicked things off.”Kick things off? He made me scoff. So, what if they’d met years ago? That didn’t give him the right to mess with Isabella’s head and make her fall for him.The main thing that annoyed me was the fact that he saw nothing wrong with it. And if
OLIVIAI didn’t see Isabella again until one week later. It was Alix’s second birthday, and Axel insisted on throwing a grand party.He’d said something about inviting close friends, but ended up having a full hall of people who were not familiar to me.Isabella attended, and I rushed to meet her the moment she walked into the hall. The last time she’d stormed out, I had no idea where she’d gone.“Bella,” I whispered, running into her arms with my glass of wine in my hand. “You came.”Her familiar scent relaxed me, and I wanted to remain in her arms for as long as I could.Conversations were going on in the hall between the guests, and the slow music made the atmosphere cozy.She patted my back gently, her voice soft and void of the anger I’d heard the last time.“Of course, I came. It’s my nephew’s birthday.”Tears stung my eyes as I pulled away, threatening to stream down my cheeks. My sister smiled at me, her fingers brushing against my cheek gently.“I’m sorry,” I apologized. “If
AXEL SALVATORE ROSSI“I called for this meeting, and I’ll give you my orders however I want.”I said sternly to Giovanni, after he kept trying to ignore every single word I said.The council members were getting on my very last nerves. They were hell bent on punishing Isabella, but forgot the times when nobody sat in that room with me.“She stole the ledger,” Carlos muttered. “Broke the omertà, and you’re not going to punish her?”I reclined my back against my chair, gently swirling so I wouldn’t lose my temper. Although, I was slowly getting there.“No.”“Are you listening to yourself, Ace?” Hector said. “After everything that girl has caused us?”“She returned the ledger. Why would you want to punish her?”“Because it’s a part of the rules,” Hector slammed his fist into the table. “And right now, you’re breaking them all for someone who isn’t even worth it.”That ‘someone’ was treated like trash and she had every right to do what she’d done.I cleared my throat slightly, my eyes fix
OLIVIA It felt wrong to admit it, but— Axel had gone crazy. First, he was yelling at me for the slightest reason, and had blatantly ordered that I take my hair out of the bun Antonio had wrapped it in. Then, he’d warned me with his eyes blazing with venom that I wasn’t allowed to go close to a
AXEL SALVATORE ROSSII’d spent all night tending to Olivia and making sure she’d regain consciousness. I couldn’t take chances— couldn’t let anything happen to her.Viper had retreated while fuming. He felt I was losing myself for her. Felt that I was making a mistake that could not only cost me bu
OLIVIA“You’d better eat before you starve.”Like anyone really cared. The guard muttered to me, pushing a tray of food towards me with a long stick they’d constantly used to hit me.I didn’t even take a look at it. One glance and I knew I’d puke into the disgusting food.I was tired. Weak. Worst
OLIVIAWeakness.The kind of weakness I felt couldn’t be described through words. My whole body was trembling, it felt like I carried the world alone on my shoulders.My lips quivered, and I couldn’t even open my eyes. A tingling sensation of cold coursed through my body, searing like I was about t







