Fury and Disappointment

The mansion was silent. A suffocating, dense silence, like the prelude to a storm. Alejandro stood in the living room, watching Isabela’s shadow at the foot of the stairs. His queen. His love. His everything.

She now seemed as distant and far away as a ship in the open sea, while he watched her from the shore of his anguish at losing her.

She was the only woman who could destroy him with a single word. Isabela was his true love, his illusion, his life.

Since he met her in Greece, this woman had gotten under his skin. She was his poison, his antidote. Without her, his life had no meaning.

That’s why he called her his queen—because she was. And everyone knew it.

Dino had ruined everything.

Alejandro thought with fury about what that bastard Dino had done. He had torn away the veil of ignorance that Alejandro had so carefully placed over his wife’s eyes.

Now, Isabela knew the truth. She knew who he was. She knew that his world was stained with blood. And worst of all… she knew he hadn’t been completely hers.

He had always told her that he was all hers, he had sworn it, and now she knew it hadn’t been true.

Alejandro felt fury bubbling in his gut. He clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles cracked. It wasn’t just anger. It was desperation. It was fear.

— “Dino will pay dearly for this!” — he said to himself.

But now, at this moment, the most urgent thing wasn’t thinking about how he would make Dino pay. It was her. Isabela.

He approached slowly, controlled steps, though his chest burned with the need to touch her, to explain himself, to beg if necessary.

— “Tell me what you’re thinking,” — he murmured, his voice softer than usual.

Isabela didn’t turn around immediately. She kept staring into nothingness, as if searching for answers in the shadows of the mansion she had once considered a home. When she finally spoke, her tone was icy.

— “I’m thinking that I don’t know who you are.”

The blow hit him straight in the soul.

— “You’re still my wife. The woman I slept with every night, the mother of my children…” — she whispered, finally looking him in the eyes. — “But you’re also a murderer.”

Alejandro felt his chest tighten.

— “I…” — he tried to speak, but she interrupted him.

— “And a liar.”

The word pierced him more than any bullet.

— “I hid the truth to protect you,” — he responded, his tone rough, a man on the verge of losing control. — “To protect our children.”

Isabela let out a bitter laugh.

— “Protect me? From who, Alejandro? From you?”

He narrowed his eyes.

— “Damn it, Isabela!” — he roared, his patience breaking. — “Don’t do this to me!”

She crossed her arms, defiant.

— “Do what? Open your eyes?”

— “You don’t understand.” — His jaw tightened. — “You only see what Dino wanted you to see.”

— “And is it a lie?”

Alejandro looked at her intensely, his gaze darkening.

— “No.”

Isabela felt a lump in her throat.

— “And the other women?”

Alejandro closed his eyes for a moment, exhaling with contained fury.

— “They meant nothing.”

— “But they existed!”

— “You are my everything, Isabela… That’s the only thing that should matter to you… You know I love you, that’s the truth, and you know it!”

— “And does that justify it, Alejandro?” — she whispered, her soul shattered. — “Does that make your betrayal less painful?”

Alejandro ran his hands through his hair, frustrated. He had never had to explain himself to anyone. He had never feared that his world might crumble.

— “If it helps… every time I was with them, I closed my eyes and thought of you.”

The silence that followed was unbearable.

Isabela felt her heart shattering into a thousand pieces.

— “What you’re saying is stupid, and it doesn’t make it better, Alejandro.”

— “I know.”

She turned around, climbing a couple of steps, but Alejandro grabbed her arm desperately.

— “Don’t leave.”

Isabela stayed still, not looking at him.

— “Tell me what you need from me. Whatever it is. But don’t leave me, Isabela.”

She took a deep breath.

— “I need… time.”

Alejandro felt the air leave his lungs.

— “Time…”

— “Yes. To think. To decide if I can live with this.”

— “No!” — His refusal was firm. — “I can’t give you that.”

Isabela turned to him in disbelief.

— “You can’t?”

— “No. Because if you leave… I don’t know if I’ll be able to breathe.”

— “It won’t be hard… you’ll learn.”

She pulled away from Alejandro’s grip.

— “Isabela…” — he whispered, his voice more broken than he had ever allowed himself to be.

She could see in his eyes sadness, desperation, and love. She caressed Alejandro’s face with tenderness, with love, with the sadness of someone who knows they’re leaving a part of their soul behind.

— “I don’t want to hurt you, Alejandro…”

— “But you will if you leave me… If you go.”

She didn’t deny that it was on her mind. Isabela climbed two more steps to go to her children, who were with the nanny.

Stepping back, Alejandro watched her walk away, climb the stairs without once looking back.

He watched her disappear into the darkness of the hallway, a knot in his stomach.

For the first time in his life, the great Alejandro Moretti felt true terror.

The terror of losing the only thing that made him human, losing the most valuable thing in his life. The thing that was more important than his own existence.

Going to his office, he made a call.

— “Hello, boss.”

— “I want all the doors closed, and no one is allowed to leave… Did you understand? No one leaves… reinforce security throughout the house, if anyone makes a mistake… they’ll pay with their life!”

Alejandro’s order was firm. He wouldn’t allow Isabela to leave. He loved her too much, and he wasn’t going to allow himself to lose her, nor his children.

While he paced around like a caged lion in his office, thinking about how to convince his wife not to abandon him, he couldn’t stop remembering the day he met her.

Flashback

— “Hello, beautiful signorina.”

— “Hello.”

— “Can I invite you to lunch?”

— “I don’t know… I don’t even know you.”

— “Let me introduce myself… Alejandro Moretti… And your name is…”

— “Isabela.”

— “Beautiful name, like its bearer, a perfect name, just like everything my eyes see in you.”

Alejandro fell in love with her from the first moment he saw her, he adored the sparkle in her eyes when she looked at him, that gleam that seemed to have stolen two stars from the sky.

Isabela wasn’t just any woman. She was a woman with him, and since he felt her, no woman, no matter how beautiful, had ever come close to replicating even a single one of her kisses.

When she gave him a son, she became his goddess, and with the birth of their daughter, Isabela gave him a carbon copy of herself in their daughter Lucille.

Isabela ruled every part of him, and even though he had slept with many women, only with Isabela did he make love.

And that love, no one would take it from him, not even Isabela herself could take away what he felt for her, and even if he had to kneel before her, something he would never do for anyone, he would do it for her, just to not lose her.

Alejandro was a passionate man in everything he did, nothing was done halfway in his life, and with his wife, Alejandro felt more than complete, and he wasn’t going to lose that.

While he paced with a half-empty glass of whiskey in his hand, Isabela cried bitterly in her room, feeling completely lost.

And he knew it. Feeling fury take over him, he took the last sip of whiskey from his glass, looked at it empty, squeezed it tightly, and, in a burst, threw it against the wall, shattering it to pieces.

— “I won’t let her leave my side, never!”

— “Damn Dino… You’re going to regret opening your mouth.”