Semua Bab ISABELLA (The Night that ruined me): Bab 71 - Bab 80

EVA’S POVI watched him walk away.My daddy.His back got smaller and smaller until I couldn’t see him anymore. But I kept reaching for him. My hands were still up, like maybe… maybe he’d come back.But he didn’t.Instead, Xavier knelt beside me and picked me up gently. I didn’t want him to. I didn’t want him.I cried. So hard I couldn’t even breathe. My chest hurt. My face was wet.“Shh, sweetheart,” Xavier said, brushing my hair back. “You’re safe now.”But I didn’t feel safe.I felt cold.He buckled me into the back seat of his car and started the engine. The car smelled like new leather and strong cologne.I drifted to the side of the seat, away from him. I didn’t want to look at his face. I didn’t want him touching me.But then I saw it.In the mirror.His smirk.It wasn’t big. Just a small, weird smile like… like he was proud. He reached back and gently patted my head.“Good girl,” he said softly.I turned my face to the window, pretending to sleep. But inside, my heart was poun

XAVIER’S POVThe house was silent when I returned.Too silent.I dropped my keys in the bowl by the door and stood there for a moment, listening..searching for the faintest sound that might tell me Isabella had returned. But there was nothing.She was gone.I paced slowly toward Eva’s room, keeping my footsteps quiet. Her door was ajar, the soft glow of her night light spilling into the hallway. I peeked in.She was curled up on her side, arms wrapped around her stuffed unicorn, her tiny face peaceful.But I didn’t feel peace.I felt betrayal.Isa had left. Without a word. After everything I’d done. After all I’d cleaned up for her. After all I’d protected her from.She’d gone to him.I could feel it like a splinter in my chest.I turned away from Eva’s door, walking slowly back into the hallway. My breath came hard and heavy, like I couldn’t quite catch it. I paused at the mirror in the corridor, staring at my reflection.My bottom lip was still bruised from that idiot’s punch. The s

ISABELLA'S POVI hadn’t slept.Even after Camille took Eva home and the doctors said Xavier would be fine, I couldn’t close my eyes.I sat in the sterile hospital room, my back aching from the plastic chair, my eyes fixed on Xavier’s sleeping form. Tubes in his arm. Bandages across his ribs. His skin pale, lips slightly parted.And the memory of the fire still clung to me like smoke.I should have smelled it sooner. Heard it. Noticed something. I should have protected Eva.But he did.Xavier ran through fire. For her. For us.And when I kissed him..God.My fingers trembled now just remembering the feel of his mouth on mine. The heat. The desperation. How easily I had melted into him. Like I’d been starving for that kind of touch.And maybe I had.But that scared me more than the fire ever could.I rubbed my palms over my knees, trying to steady my breath.A soft knock on the door broke the silence.Camille slipped in, her eyes going straight to Xavier, then to me. She looked tired, w

ISABELLA’S POVI didn’t call after him.I just stood there… frozen… as Drake turned and walked away.And with every step he took, something inside me cracked a little more.When he disappeared around the corner, my knees gave out.I lowered myself to the cold hospital floor, burying my face in my hands, crying silently.The pain wasn’t loud. It wasn’t messy. It just spilled out quietly like a wound that had been bleeding for far too long.All I could think about was how things used to be.How Drake used to wake Eva up by tickling her tiny feet.How we’d make pancakes on Sundays while she danced on the kitchen stool.The laughter.The warmth.The way I used to believe that nothing could ever tear us apart.But it did.And now here I was…sitting in the hallway of a hospital, torn between two men. One I had built memories with, and one who had saved my daughter without a second thought.My phone buzzed beside me.I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand, sniffing as I picked it up.Xavie

ISABELLA’S POVI couldn’t breathe.The room was too quiet. Even the hum of machines seemed to hold its breath.The doctor opened the file, eyes scanning across the first page as if debating whether to say the truth out loud. My fingers tightened unconsciously around Xavier’s arm. He didn’t flinch.His mother stood frozen, arms crossed like a statue carved in suspicion. Macy looked like she was about to scoff. Camille, next to me, shifted with unease.Then the doctor spoke.“Xavier has suffered more extensive damage from the smoke inhalation than we initially believed.”I felt my chest tighten. I hadn’t expected that. Xavier had walked, talked, even smiled through it all. How could that mean something worse?The doctor continued. “We discovered scarring in the heart’s tissue. Likely from prolonged exposure to synthetic fumes during the fire. It’s caused a form of cardiomyopathy .. a rare condition that weakens the heart muscles.”He glanced up. “It’s irreversible.”No one moved. Even M