Todos los capítulos de The Chosen Bride: Capítulo 31 - Capítulo 40

AristideIsabella stood next to me at the small table we’d set up in the safehouse’s study, her arm brushing mine as we watched the drone footage Enzo had just uploaded. The warehouse was a weathered brick structure on the edge of the Bronx industrial corridor, tucked behind a chain-link fence and flanked by two empty lots. From above, it looked like a dead zone. No visible guards. No vehicles. Just stillness.Too still.“This looks like a ghost building,” Bella said, her eyes narrowed on the screen. “But that back alley? It’s been used recently.”She pointed at faint tire tracks in the gravel behind the building. I hadn’t even caught them the first time.“Good eye,” I said, giving her a sidelong glance. She was sharp. Sharp and focused and somehow even more dangerous now that she was using her instincts instead of suppressing them.We kept watching.Around the five-minute mark, movement caught our attention. Two figures slipping out the side entrance and lighting cigarettes under the

AristideThe dining room table had become our war room. Laptops were open. Papers spread out in controlled chaos. Enzo was cross-referencing digital footprints while Elena dug into the shell corporations linked to old DeRossi accounts. My father barked short orders over the phone to an offshore contact I didn’t trust but needed.Bella sat beside me, her brows pinched in concentration as she scanned a series of account transfers we’d pulled from an encrypted drive Enzo had cracked open that morning. The trail was tangled, deliberate, meant to be impossible to follow. But not to us.Not anymore.“She funneled money through a children’s art nonprofit,” Bella muttered, scrolling down. “Then into a consulting firm in Luxembourg. And then…” She trailed off.I looked over. Her skin had gone pale, and she was gripping the edge of the table like she was grounding herself. “Izzy,”

AristideThe bathroom door creaked open slowly.I stood up the second I heard it, heart thudding hard against my ribs. Bella stepped out, barefoot, still pale but glowing in a way I couldn’t explain. Her eyes met mine, wide and a little dazed, like she was trying to understand what her own body had just told her.She held the small plastic test in her hand, white knuckles around it like it might disappear if she let go. I stepped toward her. “Bella?”She held it out to me.Two lines.I stared at it, then up at her again.“I’m pregnant,” she whispered.It took a second for the words to register. For everything inside me to click into place. I reached for her, pulling her into my arms, and she didn’t hesitate. She melted into me, our bodies pressing together like we’d been waiting for this moment without even knowing it.“Izzy…” My voice wa

BellaI stood frozen with the photograph in my hand, heart pounding so hard it echoed in my ears. It was one thing to know I was being watched now, but to realize someone had been watching me before all of this, before Aristide, before the wedding… it was something else entirely.They had known who I was. Before I knew what I meant to any of them.I didn’t hear Elena come in until she was right behind me. “What’s that?”I turned, pressing the photo against my chest like I could shield her from it for just a second longer. But I couldn’t.I held it out to her.She took it, studied it, and her expression shifted from confusion to horror. “Is this… here? From your old apartment?” I nodded, throat too tight to speak. Elena looked at the back. She read the words, then looked back at me. “We have to tell the others.”“I know,” I said quietly. “I just—” I looked down, wrapping my arms around myself. “It’s getting worse. The more we find out, the more I feel like I don’t know who I am anymore

BellaAristide met me at the top of the stairs. His face was tight, jaw clenched like it always was when something was wrong, but his eyes softened the moment they landed on me.Without saying a word, he reached for my hand and pulled me toward him, wrapping me in his arms. I sank into his chest, exhaling the breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. He was safe. Here. With me. For now.He leaned down and pressed a kiss to my temple. “Come with me,” he said.He led me into the bedroom we were using at the new safehouse. Doors locked, curtains drawn, dim and quiet, like the world outside had been placed on pause just for us. The silence between us was charged, vibrating with unspoken things—worry, fear, desire.As soon as the door clicked shut behind us, I turned and reached for him. I didn’t care that my hands were shaking or that my heartbeat was thudding in my ears. I needed more than answers or protection. I needed him. The realness of him. His warmth. His strength. The way his to