FORTY FIVE | Not Good Enough

[ISABELLA]

"This is not you, Isabella," Angela purrs softly under her breath as if sharing one of her many dark secrets that led to the downfall of some very powerful people. The defiance shining like a thousand rubies in her eyes cannot be mistaken for anything else. I know it. I have seen it. I know how irresistible it could be for most men. I know because someone too dear to me once was foolish enough to fall for it. "Why try to be someone you are not?"

"It's actually quite simpler than you think," I tell her, just as brazenly as she is trying to be against the gunpoint of the trained mercenaries surrounding us.

We are standing in the middle of an empty beach. It's dark, dry and cold out here. The streetlights standing high far behind us, appear like tiny man-made stars twinkling and brightening only a small sphere around themselves. The only sound louder than our hopeless chatter is the sound of the ocean waves crashing against the shore.