Lahat ng Kabanata ng ISABELLA (The Night that ruined me): Kabanata 81 - Kabanata 90

ISABELLA’S POVThe message lit up my screen just as I was about to step out of the room.Manager : "Check the news now. It’s about Jasmine. You need to see this."My stomach dropped.I quickly unlocked my phone and opened the news app. The headline slapped me across the face:"Supermodel Jasmine Mildred Opens Up About Isabella, Xavier... and Drake?"I clicked it, hands trembling.There she was, seated elegantly in a plush red chair, legs crossed, flashing that perfectly rehearsed smile. Her makeup was flawless. Her voice.. sweet. She looked like she hadn’t lost a single night of sleep while ruining lives. “I’m so happy for Isabella,” Jasmine said, laughing softly. “She’s always been a family-oriented woman. Her choice in marrying Xavier? Absolutely perfect. She’s just following her heart. I have a feeling she might even withdraw from modeling soon to focus on her husband and daughter. And honestly, what a beautiful family they make.”I froze.My heart twisted. My fingers trembled aro

ISABELLA’S POVAfter what happened at the dining room the other time, things haven’t quite been the same.Xavier apologized.He held my hands with a trembling softness I hadn’t seen in a long time. His voice low, heavy with guilt. I nodded to forgive him, but my mind... my heart... it stayed locked on what Macy said.Drake and Jasmine.Together.The thought alone makes me sick.I’ve played it in my head a hundred times since .. Jasmine's smirk on the screen, Drake’s silence over the issue, Macy’s bitter truth. It's a storm that refuses to pass, and I’ve been standing in the middle of it silent and haunted.My heart aches.Worse still, I can’t share how I feel with anyone. Not without judgment. Not without Camille’s eyes narrowing or Ma Hilda hissing behind closed doors. No one would understand. They would say I’m ungrateful. That I’m weak.Maybe I am.I’m in the bedroom now, lying still while Xavier holds me close. His arm is wrapped around my waist, his body warm against mine. I hear

DRAKE’S POVThe glass clinked against my teeth as I downed another gulp.Bitter.Didn’t matter.I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and stared at the half-empty bottle in front of me. Whiskey. Or rum. Hell, I didn’t check.The room was dim. Quiet. Except for the dull ringing in my head. I’d shut the curtains. Shut the world out. I didn’t want to feel. I didn’t want to think.But my brain… it had other plans.Her voice came back to me.“Drake…”And then her face.I blinked, gripping the edge of the table as the memory came flooding back hot, uninvited, and cruel.It wasn’t Jasmine.It wasn’t a stranger.It was Camille.Isabella’s best friend.***********I remembered how my feet had frozen on the pavement. How the sun had suddenly felt too bright. My mouth had gone dry as she stopped a few feet in front of me.Her eyes were wide. Nervous. Like she didn’t expect to see me either.“Camille?” I’d said her name like a question, though I already knew the answer.She bit her lip and lo

ISABELLA’S POVThe phone trembled in my hand.That picture…Drake and Jasmine.Locked in what looked like an embrace.Smiling. Intimate. Familiar.It didn’t matter that I knew the truth had layers. It didn’t matter that my heart screamed for a second chance.All that mattered now was the image burned into Eva’s mind… and mine.I turned away from the screen, holding Eva closer, like I could protect her from it all. From the lies, from the pain, from the endless ache.But her little voice pierced me like a blade.“Mommy… is it true?”I took a slow breath, trying to steady the tremor in my voice.I nodded faintly, even as it crushed me.“Sometimes…” I began softly, brushing a strand of hair from her forehead, “adults choose different lives. They don’t stop loving you, baby. But they start walking different paths.”She blinked at me, confused. “You mean… you and Daddy don’t love each other anymore?”My throat tightened.How do you explain something like that to a child?I forced a small s

ISABELLA’S POVI stood frozen as the flames from the campfire danced, casting flickering shadows across Drake’s face. But it wasn’t just his face that stopped my breath.It was the girl beside him.She clung to his arm like a lost kitten, eyes wide with concern. "Are you okay?" she asked him, her voice soft and laced with a sickening sweetness. It was like a gentle breeze brushing across my nerves in the most irritating way.And Drake…He smiled.That same smile I once knew better than my own reflection. Soft and boyish. That smile that cracked through the stone walls I built around my heart years ago.My stomach twisted.I tried to look away, to focus on the flickering wood or the gentle ocean breeze, but the image of her hand curled around his arm was etched into my brain. That clingy little thing with her puppy eyes and high-pitched voice .. she didn’t belong there, not beside him. Not like that.I could feel Xavier’s eyes on me, and I quickly straightened my shoulders, masking the