"Bella," Vicky's baby voice reached her ears and Isabella opened her eyes, trying to figure out where the sound came from. "Bella." "Vicky?" Isabella gasped, jumping to her feet, and looking around her. "Vicky, I'm here! Victoria?" "Bella," her baby's voice echoed back to her, then slowly faded away. "Vicky!" Isabella screamed when she could no longer hear her voice anymore. "Vicky!" "Isabella!" Anna's loud voice pierced through the cloud of nightmares that had cocooned her and her eyes flipped open. "Vicky," she whispered tiredly, staring into Anna's dark eyes.Her friend was hunched over her, a hand on her shoulder as if she had been trying to shake her awake. On her stomach lay Samuel who peered up at her with soft brown eyes, cocking his head to the side. "Picky?" He mumbled and smiled when his mother gave him a small sad smile. "What's going on?" Isabella asked, glancing around the hallway. Mrs. Allen, her mother, and Nate all stood up, peering at the entrance to the thea

A loud beep sound echoed in the room. It bounced off the walls in ping pong and through Isabella's ears. She sat by a bed, staring down at the face of a man she had yearned for but hoped she would never see again.The beeping sound came from the machine he was wired to. The squiggly lines on it were supposed to tell her he was still alive. Like an inverter. Isabella had been so close to it just once. And that day, it slowly migrated from slow and steady beeps into one loud and long one. It was the day Irene died. Or Victoria as she preferred to call her sister.She had laid on the bed in the same way Seth did. Her skin had turned white and sickly, but it had a bit of color there as well. Black and blue fresh bruises, fading purple ones, had littered her sister's skin like she was Joseph's coat of many colors. Her husband had made sure there was nothing to salvage anymore of her sister. Isabella had been asleep by her sister's bed when the loud long beep sound woke her up and she saw

Her cheeks were stinging, her neck was tired. She was fatigued from lack of sleep. Yet she turned around from Dave and walked back into the hospital. "You'll regret this, Isabella!" He shouted behind her. Isabella gave a simple non-committed shrug. She was not new to regrets. She had abandoned her daughter, yelled offensive words at her mother in outrage and where had it gotten her? To the land of regrets. And so if she regretted yelling at her double-faced boss for trying to harm an older woman in public, it was a welcomed one.But dammit, she thought angrily. Had he always been like that and she simply had not seen it?! Was she really that blind? He had never behaved like that before her. Heck, she had thought that if Seth was a hot-headed Zeus, then Dave was a cool-headed Poseidon. But now? She was starting to fear that he might be a manipulator after all. Just which parts of him were real? The timing of how he had arrived when she was walking from the ball seemed perfect. The

Vicky whipped around, the spider forgotten, when she heard her mother's voice. Isabella watched as her daughter's pink cute face suddenly distorted as she burst into tears, flailing her arms around. "My poor baby," Isabella cried, rushing towards her. She picked her up and cradled her to her chest. Closing her eyes in relief. She had imagined so many things that could go wrong. Imagining losing her daughter. A shudder rippled up her spine as another unwanted image flashed in her head and she pressed the girl against her tighter. "Bella..." Vicky cried, her baby hands gripping onto her mother's shirt and never letting go."I'm so sorry. Mommy is here now. Okay? Shh." She consoled, rocking her slowly. Vicky looked better. She had healed up pretty fast and Isabella was grateful for that. Now all she had to worry about was Seth surviving the coma. And she would do everything in her power to make it happen. "Good to see you missed her." Her mother's voice reached her ears and she look

"What the hell?" Isabella spat, rising to her feet. She had known that the bitch was pregnant. Heck, the crazy woman had flaunted it before her at the damned ball, causing a mad scandal and a terrible turn of events. Isabella could as hell blame all that had happened on Kaitlyn. If she had never tried to come between her and Seth, Isabella would have been oblivious to the brewing problems beneath her and would have continued to enjoy a happy, blissful life with Seth. But Kaitlyn just had to ruin things. She had tossed some stupid ass pregnancy result in her face and sent Isabella running. Like a pathetic weakling. Perhaps she should have stayed, Isabella mused, watching the bitch in question sashay into the room. Perhaps she should have shown the bitch just who the boss was. But the thought of sharing Seth with some other woman, the thought that he did not belong to her and would probably never terrify her. Isabella did what she knew best, she ran away from heartbreak as far as sh