All Chapters of Ruin me, Gently : Chapter 151 - Chapter 160

ISABELLE His hand came up slowly, rested against my belly, fingers spread wide, palm warm, thumb moving in the smallest circle.He didn’t move it once he started speaking.“Hi, love.” His voice was rough. Quiet. Like he was afraid of being too loud for the moment. “Daddy’s here. Sorry it took so long for me to introduce myself.” He paused, swallowing hard. “Hearing your heartbeat was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard. It gave me so much strength. I honestly can’t wait to meet you.” Another pause. “And you have nothing to worry about. You’ve got the best mommy in the world.” His hand pressed slightly, just barely. “You both mean everything to me. I promise to always be by your side.” His voice dropped even further. “Be good to mommy while you’re in there, okay?” He drew in a shaky breath. “I love you.”Then he leaned forward and pressed a soft, deep kiss against my belly.He wrapped his arms around it—around me—in something that was almost a hug.I was fighting tears and hormon

ISABELLEI saw it the moment we pulled in.Parked just to the side of the driveway, catching the last of the evening light.I stopped walking before I even realized I had.It was exactly as I’d always imagined it. The exact color. The exact model. The one I’d described once in passing—not even seriously, just dreaming out loud the way you do when you’re not expecting anyone to be listening.He had been listening.Every detail.Brand new. Not a mark on it.My hands hovered over the hood without touching it. “Matt.”He was already watching me. Standing close, leaning slightly against his own car, that particular expression on his face—the one he got when he was trying not to smile too obviously and failing completely.“She’s been waiting for you,” he said simply.My throat tightened.I turned to look at him fully.Then back at the car.Then back at him.“Can I—” I started.“Bella.”“Can I sit in it?”“It’s your car.”“I know, but—”“Isabelle.” His voice was patient in a way that was alm

ISABELLEI opened my mouth, but nothing came out.This time.Those two words landed differently from everything else he’d said.Because there had been a first time. After my birthday, in the quiet of his room, tangled together in the dark, shortly after we returned from the Bahamas. He had asked me to be his. To forget the contract existed. To give him time to figure out what this was.And I had said yes.That had been private. Just the two of us. Quiet and contained — the way I had wanted it, the way I had asked for it. Low profile and away from the public eye.He had respected that.But tonight he had said something different. He wanted more. He wanted it in the open.Which meant stepping into his world. Fully. Publicly. I would be known — openly, undeniably — as Matteo Moretti’swoman.I waited for the fear to arrive.It didn’t.I thought about today. The clinic. The grocery store. Walking beside me without his disguise, not caring who saw, not hiding a single thing. He hadn’t done

ISABELLESage arrived with enough snacks to feed a small village.Two bags — one in each hand — and that particular expression she wore when she was trying to appear casual about something she felt deeply guilty about.“Before you say anything—” she started the moment I opened the door.“It’s fine, Sage.”“I wasn’t there.” She pushed past me into the apartment, setting the bags on the kitchen counter. “I promised I would be there and I wasn’t, and I need you to know I feel terrible about it.”“You had a work emergency.”“I know, but—” She turned to face me. “It was the heartbeat, Bella. The first heartbeat. I should have been there.”“You’ll be at the next one,” I said simply. “It’s fine. Really.”She looked at me for a long moment.Then her eyes narrowed. “What’s going on with you?”“Nothing.”“Bella.”“I’m fine—”“No.” She pointed at me. “Something is different. You look—” She tilted her head, studying me with those sharp Sage eyes that missed absolutely nothing. “You’re glowing.”“

MATTEOI knew where she was before I walked through the door.That had always been the case — through the pregnancy, through the years after, through the carefully maintained distance that followed.Knowing where Sheila Hartley was at any given moment had been a habit I’d never quite managed to break. Not out of sentiment. Out of the particular vigilance that came from knowing what she was capable of.The agency that represented her was exactly what I expected — polished, expensive, the kind of place that traded in carefully maintained images.I walked in without announcing myself. The receptionist at the front desk looked up, opened her mouth, and then thought better of whatever she was about to say. I was shown to a waiting area without a word being exchanged.Sheila appeared four minutes later.She stopped when she saw me.And then, before she could stop it, something lit up in her face. Something she immediately tried to rearrange into something more controlled and less obvious.S