All Chapters of Bound By Blood: Chapter 11 - Chapter 15

Isabella's pov.The dress clung to me like it was spun from sin. Deep satin silk, slit high enough to make me wonder if Leonard had chosen it to provoke whispers. He hadn’t said a word when he placed the garment box on the bed earlier, but his eyes had spoken volumes: Wear it. For me. For them.And like always, I obeyed.I stood before the mirror in the master suite, emeralds glinting at my wrist where his gift still sat, the bracelet no lighter than it had been that morning. The gems winked under the soft light, cold and sharp, and I couldn’t tell if they made me look like his queen or his prisoner. Maybe both.A knock sounded at the door before it swung open without waiting for my answer. Of course,it was Leonard. Privacy was a luxury I would stopped pretending to have.He paused on the threshold, eyes sweeping from my head to my heels with a gaze that felt like both judgment and possession. Dressed in black tailored perfection, he was devastating as always, the kind of man who carri

Isabella’s POVThe storm had quieted by the time my eyes fluttered open, but the echo of it lingered in the air. A hush lay over the mansion, broken only by the drip of rain from the gutters and the steady thud of my heart. I reached across the bed instinctively, fingertips brushing cold sheets where warmth had been just hours ago.Empty.Leonard was gone.I sat up slowly, the night rushing back in blueness —his mouth on mine, the taste of wine, the way his voice had cracked when he whispered my name. My skin still burned where his hands had roamed, my lips swollen from his kisses. My body remembered him even if he had already chosen to forget me.The room smelled faintly of him, musky and rich, and my chest ached with the absence. He hadn’t stayed. He hadn’t even waited for the light of morning. He had slipped out like a thief, leaving me to wrestle with the truth of what had happened.What had happened?Was it a mistake? A moment of drunken weakness? Or was it something more—somethi

Isabella’s POVThe mansion was too quiet.The kind of silence that pressed against your ears, heavy and suffocating. After dinner, Leonard had retreated to his study for hours, leaving me alone with my thoughts—and thoughts were dangerous things tonight. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw his face hovering above mine, heard the rough sound of his voice when he whispered my name like a man on the edge of breaking.And then I remembered how easily he had shut me out again this morning. How quickly he had buried me under the word “mistake.”I hated him for that. I hated myself more for giving in that night.The corridors of the house stretched long and empty, candlelight casting thin shadows across the marbles. My Shoes made no sound as I walked, aimless at first. But then I noticed something.The door to his office. It was opened.It was never left open. Ever. That room was his fortress, a place no servant dared enter without summons. And yet, tonight, the door stood cracked, just bare