ISABELLA’S POVI didn’t call after him.I just stood there… frozen… as Drake turned and walked away.And with every step he took, something inside me cracked a little more.When he disappeared around the corner, my knees gave out.I lowered myself to the cold hospital floor, burying my face in my hands, crying silently.The pain wasn’t loud. It wasn’t messy. It just spilled out quietly like a wound that had been bleeding for far too long.All I could think about was how things used to be.How Drake used to wake Eva up by tickling her tiny feet.How we’d make pancakes on Sundays while she danced on the kitchen stool.The laughter.The warmth.The way I used to believe that nothing could ever tear us apart.But it did.And now here I was…sitting in the hallway of a hospital, torn between two men. One I had built memories with, and one who had saved my daughter without a second thought.My phone buzzed beside me.I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand, sniffing as I picked it up.Xavie
DRAKE’S POVOur eyes locked.For a moment, the entire world stood still.And all I could see..feel….was her.Isabella.The woman I had loved, lost, hurt, and somehow… still couldn’t let go of.She looked like a ghost from a life I used to live. Same soft eyes, same trembling lips, but none of the warmth I used to see when she smiled at me. That smile was mine once.But now…Now her lips looked like they belonged to someone else.I didn’t want to show it. The ache. The weakness.But my eyes failed me.My fists clenched. My throat tightened. Every step I’d taken to come here was fueled by desperation, confusion… and fear.And now that she was standing in front of me, all of it erupted in one broken breath.“You kissed him,” I muttered.It came out low. Bitter. Not an accusation, just raw disbelief.Her mouth opened. Then closed. No words.None.That silence tore deeper than a thousand screams.I dragged my hand through my hair in frustration, unable to stop the storm inside me. I stared
ISABELLA'S POVI hadn’t slept.Even after Camille took Eva home and the doctors said Xavier would be fine, I couldn’t close my eyes.I sat in the sterile hospital room, my back aching from the plastic chair, my eyes fixed on Xavier’s sleeping form. Tubes in his arm. Bandages across his ribs. His skin pale, lips slightly parted.And the memory of the fire still clung to me like smoke.I should have smelled it sooner. Heard it. Noticed something. I should have protected Eva.But he did.Xavier ran through fire. For her. For us.And when I kissed him..God.My fingers trembled now just remembering the feel of his mouth on mine. The heat. The desperation. How easily I had melted into him. Like I’d been starving for that kind of touch.And maybe I had.But that scared me more than the fire ever could.I rubbed my palms over my knees, trying to steady my breath.A soft knock on the door broke the silence.Camille slipped in, her eyes going straight to Xavier, then to me. She looked tired, w
XAVIER'S POVThe night had teeth. Sharp. Hungry. Waiting to bite.And I was ready to feed it.I stood in the corner of Eva's playroom earlier that afternoon, crouched by the little pink heater like a serpent winding through a garden. My fingers moved carefully, deliberately, as I tugged at the wire insulation inside. One spark. Just one. That was all it would take.I twisted the casing shut, placed the small rabbit rug over it again, and glanced around. Eva's drawings were still taped on the wall..sunshine smiles and stick figures with wide arms. A fake world of safety. One that didn’t deserve to survive if it didn’t include me.As I stood, a slow grin curled across my lips."Boom," I whispered to myself.I lit a vanilla-scented candle and placed it on the windowsill, directly beneath the fluttering curtain.It would look like negligence. A forgotten flame.Accidents were so easy to believe.The heater would short, heat the cord. The curtain would catch.And I would save her.Just in
XAVIER’S POVThe house was silent when I returned.Too silent.I dropped my keys in the bowl by the door and stood there for a moment, listening..searching for the faintest sound that might tell me Isabella had returned. But there was nothing.She was gone.I paced slowly toward Eva’s room, keeping my footsteps quiet. Her door was ajar, the soft glow of her night light spilling into the hallway. I peeked in.She was curled up on her side, arms wrapped around her stuffed unicorn, her tiny face peaceful.But I didn’t feel peace.I felt betrayal.Isa had left. Without a word. After everything I’d done. After all I’d cleaned up for her. After all I’d protected her from.She’d gone to him.I could feel it like a splinter in my chest.I turned away from Eva’s door, walking slowly back into the hallway. My breath came hard and heavy, like I couldn’t quite catch it. I paused at the mirror in the corridor, staring at my reflection.My bottom lip was still bruised from that idiot’s punch. The s
ISABELLA’S POVSomething was wrong with Eva…and no matter how many times I told myself everything was fine, my heart wouldn’t stop pounding.Ever since Xavier brought her home earlier, she hadn’t been herself.She was too quiet. Too stiff. Like she was trying hard to seem okay, but couldn’t hide the sadness in her eyes.I had knelt in front of her and asked what happened, but she didn’t speak. She just stared at the floor, twisting the hem of her dress with trembling fingers.That’s when I noticed it.The bruise on Xavier’s lip.He told me Drake attacked him. That Drake tried to take Eva away by force.It sounded horrible. Violent. Cruel.But I had no reason not to believe him… right?Still, something didn’t sit right.Eva had looked scared..not the kind of scared you get from a confrontation, but the kind that stays quiet. The kind that watches what it says.I saw it in the way her eyes flickered to Xavier before she nodded to back up his story.It ate at me.Even after Xavier tucked