Chapter 5 - Bonus

Isabel

The taste of rejection lingered bitterly on my tongue as I stormed out of Jane's apartment, consumed by fury and indignation. How dare my stepsister treat me like this, I seethed, kicking me out without even listening to my threats?

I've always prided myself on my status and privilege, the designer clothes, the luxurious lifestyle, the adoring gazes of strangers as I walked down the street. But now, standing alone on the quiet sidewalk, I felt a sense of vulnerability creeping in, a fear that I was losing control of my own life.

And then there was Nicholas, the man I once believed would be my salvation, my ticket out of the suffocating confines of my humble upbringing. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I'd be strutting down to the hometown I despised so much. The whole point of being Mrs. Sokolov was to forget about Brookside and its people.

After all, it was the main thing that made us close, the decision to leave town as soon as possible. For him, it was the decisi