All Chapters of Between Two Brothers : Chapter 31 - Chapter 35

ISLA'S POV A week after and things between I and Dare is still cold, but i do not care. The Voss cousins arrived in London looking like they'd never spent a week apart from Spain's sunlight, immaculate and composed, settling into the boardroom like they hadn't spent the last visit tearing me apart in front of an audience. Victor sat at the head of the table this time, flanked by Dare and Julian, with Finn beside me taking notes and Elena and Camille across from us, all pleasant smiles and polished terms. The meeting went smoothly — almost eerily so. Numbers were confirmed, timelines agreed upon, hands shaken across the table with the kind of practiced warmth that made yesterday's chaos feel like it belonged to different people entirely. Camille barely glanced my way. Elena was courteous, professional, nothing like the woman who'd needled me about wearing consequences that weren't mine. By the time everyone filed out of the boardroom, I le

ISLA'S POVI don't know how long I sat there in the amber dark before I heard it — footsteps, fast and heavy, followed by voices raised somewhere beyond the door, muffled but unmistakably furious. Then a crash, the sound of something being forced, metal groaning against metal, and the door burst open so hard it slammed against the wall behind it.Dare stood in the doorway, chest heaving, eyes moving over the room in a single sweep before landing on me — glued to a chair, hands raw, mascara no doubt tracked down my face from tears I hadn't fully registered crying."Isla." He was across the room before I could say anything, crouching in front of me, his hands hovering over mine like he wasn't sure whether touching them would hurt me further. "What did they do to you?""I'm fine," I managed, though my voice betrayed exactly how untrue that was.Finn appeared in the doorway a beat later, phone still in hand, breathless. "Thea found me in the

ISLA'S POVI hadn't said a word since the basement.Thea hadn't pushed, not on the drive to her flat, not while she was fussing over blankets and pulling the curtains shut against the last of the evening light. She just moved around me quietly, the way you'd move around something fragile you weren't sure how to hold, and I let her, because I didn't trust my own voice not to crack the moment I used it.I couldn't go home. Couldn't face my mother, couldn't watch her eyes go soft with worry the second she saw my raw hands, couldn't explain any of it without unraveling completely. Thea's sofa, with its mismatched cushions and the blanket she kept draped over the back for exactly nights like this, felt like the only place I could fall apart without an audience I needed to protect."Hey." Thea sat down beside me, careful, voice gentle in a way that made my throat tighten further. "Are you okay?"I nodded. It was a lie, and we both knew it, but