A life I didn't choose

ISABELLA'S POINT OF VIEW

He closed the door and the lock clicked like a verdict. For a heartbeat I just stared at him. The room smelled like rain and old fear. My hands were still shaking. I waited for him to speak. For once I wanted him to explain.

He ran a hand over his face like he had rubbed away courage and found none. Then he looked at me and the look on his face made my chest hurt.

“I knew,” he said.

The word landed like a stone. I must have made some sound because he flinched. “You knew what?” I asked because my voice wanted to be steady and failed.

“That you weren’t supposed to—” He stopped. He swallowed. “Isabella, I knew the contract was meant to be mine.”

Heat crawled up my neck. I laughed, short and ugly. “You knew? You knew and you let me walk down the aisle with him. You let me sign my life away.”

His shoulders dropped. “I thought I could fix it later. I thought I could pay Felix back. I thought—”

“You thought.” I spat the word out. “You thought you could play with my life like it was some chess piece and fix everything after. You thought I would be fine with being sold for a debt.”

He winced. “I didn’t plan for him to show up like that. I owed money. Felix came to collect. He offered a way out. He said he would take my place, cover the debt, and the deal would bind you to him under my name until the contract was signed. I panicked.”

“You panicked.” I echoed. “So you handed me over.”

“It wasn’t that simple.” His voice dropped low. “I found you at the hospital, broken. Your family—God, they were gone and you had nothing. I couldn’t go to them empty handed. I was selfish and cowardly and I thought—if I could get you out of that moment, if I could make sure you had security, it would be enough.”

“That’s not security,” I said. “That was a cage. A gilded cage with a lock I had no key to.”

He looked away. For a second I thought he might cry. “I was scared of losing you completely. I convinced myself this was the only way to save you from whole ruin. I told myself I would pay Felix back, take whatever risk, and then make it right. I planned to tell you the truth when the time was safe.”

“And the time was safe on the day I learned to smile while my ribs were bruised from his hands?” I stepped forward and my words were sharp as glass. “When was it safe, Julian? When he locked me in a room? When he told me he would kill my family if I left? When he told me I belonged to him?”

His jaw tightened. “I know. I know everything broke worse than I imagined. I should have done something sooner. I should have found a way out.”

“You should have told me,” I said. “You kept the bargain in your pocket like it was some secret bargain you could unwrap when life felt comfortable. You watched me drown and you... you watched.”

“I did not watch you drown,” he said, and for the first time his voice had an edge that was not apology. “I tried. I have tried. I pulled strings. I gave Felix money back. I bribed people. I tried to buy you out. But Felix is not a man who forgives debts with cash alone. He wanted control, not payback. He wanted possession.”

“Possession.” I said the word like a curse. My legs felt weak. The paper in my hand from the cabinet burned my skin even though I had folded it away. The contract, his name on it, all the signatures. Ten years gone. Ten years of my body, my choices, my future.

Julian stepped closer. He looked smaller than the man I had once thought could save me. “I am sorry,” he said, and it was the most useless thing anyone had ever said. “I am sorry for being a coward. I am sorry for thinking I could fix this on my own. Tell me what to do. Tell me how to make it right.”

“Make it right?” I asked. The laugh that came out of me this time was softer but broken. “Make it right, Julian? You want me to pretend I can be fixed by an apology and a plan? Do you know what he did to me? Do you know what he keeps doing? Fix it? You broke me.”

He flinched as if I had struck him. Then he dropped to his knees without thinking. “I will risk everything,” he said. “I will burn the company. I will drag Felix into the open. I will admit my part. I will confess. I will—”

“No.” I cut him off because the idea of him confessing felt like being handed over to a different prison. “You will not confess in a way that leaves me exposed. You will not make me the scapegoat in your absolution. I am tired, Julian. I am so tired of being bargaining chips in men’s hands.”

He looked up at me and in his eyes I saw that raw, terrible thing I had felt before. Regret. Love. Fear. All at once.

“I am not your wife anymore,” I whispered. “I am not his. I am Isabella Rossi. Fix this. Find a way to cut the chain without chopping me in half.”

Julian stood slowly, and his face was set. “I will find a way,” he said. “I swear I will find a way without hurting you more.”

I wanted to believe him. I wanted to collapse into the lie of his promise. Instead I folded my arms across my chest and let the rain on the other side of the window drum the same rhythm as my pulse.

“Do it fast,” I said. “Because if you don’t, I will not wait around to see what you decide is best for me.”

He nodded, silent. That nod was the only agreement I would take for now. I had given up so much. I would not give up my last piece of dignity.

He left then, closing the door softly behind him, and the click of the lock sounded not like an ending but like the start of a race I did not choose to run.