Chapter Forty.

They were seated around the dining table in sheer silence, nothing to be heard but the tick-tock echoes from the clock that hung over the muraled walls. Her fingers intertwined with each other—and it took Isabella hours to finally calm her outrage.

She couldn’t speak, her throat was injured. And her eyes sour from the tears that couldn’t even fall again, she’d cried that much but after many assurances, she finally sat opposite Stevens who had promised to get her children back.

Except she didn’t want promises, she wanted action. She wanted to see the work being done but right now, all she had was faith, and hope although she was usually scared to have both.

“Dare to hope” Majorie always said. But in that moment, something as abstract and promising seemed so fearful. And the thought of never seeing her kids again brought tears to Isabella’s eyes—she was wrong, she still could cry, but only if she tried.

She felt his hard yet comforting hands slip through hers in an embrace beneath the t