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CHAPTER 21.

Author: Noir.E
last update publish date: 2026-07-22 07:42:20

ISLA'S POV

Monday morning arrived grey and reluctant. I stood in my room, staring at the suitcase yawning open on my bed, half-packed with the business attire Dare had commanded me to wear and the single black dress I'd added out of spite—not for him, I told myself. But for me. Because I refused to walk into his world looking like I needed his approval.

My phone buzzed. It was Thea.

"Are you actually doing this? Spain? With him?"

I typed back with shaking fingers. "It's business. I'll be fine."
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  • Between Two Brothers    CHAPTER 43.

    DARE'S POV"The marquee goes on the east lawn," Irena was saying, spreading a folder of vendor photographs across the drawing room table like she was planning a coronation rather than an engagement dinner. "White and gold, obviously. I won't have anything that clashes with the family colors.""It's an engagement party, not a state visit," I muttered, though nobody at the table seemed inclined to agree with me."It's the finalization of my nephew's future," Irena corrected, not even glancing up. "There's a difference, Darian, and I'd appreciate you treating it with the appropriate weight."Victor sat at the head of the table, reviewing a guest list with the same focus he usually reserved for acquisition terms, occasionally striking a name with his pen and murmuring something to Julian, who sat beside him nodding along with practiced enthusiasm."The Ashworths should be seated near the front," Julian said, tapping the page. "Their fami

  • Between Two Brothers    CHAPTER 42.

    ISLA'S POVI didn't sleep well after the boutique incident. I kept replaying it — Serena's voice, Dare's silence, the way he'd thrown my own words back at me like a shield he was grateful to finally have. 'You told me to stay out of your business.' He wasn't wrong. That was the worst part. I'd handed him the exact sentence he needed to justify doing nothing, and now I didn't know who to be angry at more — him, for using it, or myself, for giving it to him in the first place.By Monday, the wedding was six days away, and the office had become a minefield I had no choice but to keep walking through."Conference room, in ten minutes," Dare's assistant informed me flatly, not looking up from her screen. "Mr. Blackthorne wants you there for the Voss follow-up."I nearly asked which Mr. Blackthorne, since apparently half my week now involved being summoned by one or the other, but I already knew. Dare had taken to requesting my presence in meetings that

  • Between Two Brothers    CHAPTER 41.

    ISLA'S POV A week had passed since the dinner at the Blackthorne estate, and somehow, working in the same office as Dare, I hadn't seen him once. Not in the corridors. Not near the lifts. Not even the flicker of his shadow through the glass walls of his office, which had stayed dark and empty every time I passed it, blinds drawn like he'd vanished entirely from a building he owned. I told myself it was a relief. Most days, I almost believed it. The wedding was in one week now, and the list of things I still needed felt endless — shoes, undergarments for the gown Irena had insisted on having custom-altered, a hundred small errands that made the whole thing feel suffocatingly real every time I checked one off. "You've been quiet all morning," Thea said, looping her arm through mine as we crossed the busy shopping street, bags already swinging from her other hand. "More quiet than usual, I mean. Even for wedding-dread quiet."

  • Between Two Brothers    CHAPTER 40.

    ISLA'S POV"Darian." Serena's voice cracked back through the foyer before she'd even reached the door, spinning to face him one last time, fury still bright in her eyes. "You humiliated me tonight. Defending her, in front of your entire family, like I don't even factor into your decisions anymore.""Leave her out of this, Serena." Dare's voice was low, final. "This was my decision. I stopped you because it was the right thing to do, not because of anything Isla did to provoke it. If you're angry, be angry at me.""Oh, I am," she snapped, though something in her voice had thinned, exhaustion bleeding through the anger now. "Believe me, I am."Fine," she said, voice tight. "Enjoy your evening, both of you." She turned sharply and swept toward the door, heels striking hard against the marble until the sound faded entirely into the night beyond it.The silence she left behind felt heavier than the argument itself.Dare turned to me s

  • Between Two Brothers    CHAPTER 39.

    ISLA'S POVThe rest of the dinner passed in a blur I could barely follow, my mind too tangled in the weight of Dare's stare across the table to properly track the conversation happening around me. By the time dessert had been cleared, the engagement had been discussed as though it were already settled fact — Victor outlining plans for the two families to formally meet the following weekend, Irena chiming in about venues, Julian nodding along with the easy satisfaction of a man who'd gotten exactly what he wanted. The wedding itself, they decided, would take place in two weeks.Two weeks.The number rattled around in my head long after everyone had risen from the table, long after Julian had excused himself to see his father out to the study for some final business discussion, leaving me standing alone near the enormous front windows while I waited for him to bring the car around.I was still staring out at the dark garden, trying to steady my brea

  • Between Two Brothers    CHAPTER 38.

    ISLA'S POVDare stood so abruptly his chair scraped hard against the marble floor, the sound cutting through the stunned silence like a gunshot."No." His voice carried across the table, flat and final. "I'm opposed to this."Victor's expression shifted from satisfaction to something colder, sharper. "Excuse me?""You heard me." Dare's jaw was tight, hands braced against the table's edge like he needed something to hold onto. "This engagement isn't happening. Not like this. Not tonight.""And why exactly not?" Victor's voice had dropped into the low, dangerous register I recognized from every negotiation he'd ever conducted, the one that meant he was already calculating how to win. "Give me one good reason, Darian."Dare's eyes flicked briefly to me before returning to his father, something raw and unguarded flickering there before he schooled it back into something harder. "Because Julian isn't fit to be her husband."T

  • Between Two Brothers    CHAPTER 4.

    ISLA'S POVThe ring on my finger felt like ice.I stared down at it, my heart hammering so loudly I was sure everyone could hear it over the low hum of the restaurant. My mouth had opened, the word “yes” balancing on my tongue like a white flag. I was tired of fighting. I was jobless, terrified fo

  • Between Two Brothers    CHAPTER 3.

    ISLA'S POV I stared at the imposing glass tower of the Blackthorne Group, my stomach twisting into knots. The morning sun glinted off the building like a mocking smile, reminding me exactly where I stood—far below the people inside.Swallowing my pride tasted like ash. Yesterday, after the disaste

  • Between Two Brothers    CHAPTER 2.

    ISLA'S POVThe morning sun filtered through my bedroom curtains, but I couldn't bring myself to face it.I hadn’t told my mother about losing my job yet. When she had called me early this morning, her voice bright with the bustling sounds of her restaurant kitchen in the background, the truth choke

  • Between Two Brothers    CHAPTER 5.

    ISLA'S POV I stood up slowly, the earlier humiliation fueling my own fire. “Working, Julian. Something I desperately needed to do.”He crossed the distance in three long strides, grabbing my arm and pulling me toward a quieter corner near the massive windows overlooking London’s skyline. “I told y

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