Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 11 - Chapitre 20

Isabella POV"Okay, that was weird, right?" I said. "Tell me that was weird.""That was so weird." Sheila grabbed my tray and mine both, hauling us three tables away like the distance itself could fix it. "Also, ten out of ten, do not make eye contact with the nose ring guy again. He gives off serial killer energy.""Thanks, very comforting.""I try." She dropped into a seat and immediately stole one of my fries, completely unbothered by the fact that my hands were still shaking a little. "Okay. Since you're clearly spiraling, let me distract you with gossip. Everyone in this town either works for the Kingstons or is scared of them. That's basically the whole social order, in one sentence.""You said that already.""Did I? Feels important enough to say twice." She leaned in, lowering her voice like she was handing over classified information. "So, Marv's dad basically runs the town. Old money, old everything, nobody really knows the full story. And Aiden's, like, the heir. Which is a

Isabella POV "Marv. Marv, slow down, you're hurting my arm."He let go like he'd been burned, muttering an apology that didn't quite reach his eyes, and shoved me gently but firmly into the passenger seat before jogging around to the driver's side. His hands were shaking on the wheel before he'd even started the engine."Okay," I said, once we were moving. "You need to tell me what that was.""It was nothing.""People don't sprint out of diners over nothing.""It's probably just some hunters messing around. Coyote calls, that kind of thing." He didn't look at me once, eyes fixed hard on the road like it required an unusual amount of concentration. "Nothing to worry about.""You're a terrible liar, you know that?""I'm an excellent liar, actually. You're just annoyingly observant." That got half a smile out of him, at least, though it didn't last. "Can we just ... can we talk about literally anything else? Please?"I let it go, mostly because his knuckles were white on the steering wh

Isabella POV The knock on the door made both of us jump like the house had been struck by lightning.Jacob froze mid-step, one hand still on the curtain rod, his eyes darting to me and then to the door and then back again like he was doing rapid math on whether it was safe to answer."Dad.""It's fine." He didn't sound like he believed himself. He crossed the room slowly, checked through the side window first, and only then did his shoulders drop, all at once, like someone had let the air out of him. "It's fine. It's just Fiona."He opened the door, and there she was ... the woman from Marv's photos, warm and put-together even in the middle of what was clearly an emergency, wrapped in a cardigan like she'd left the house in a hurry and hadn't bothered to change out of her house clothes."Marv called me," she said, stepping inside without waiting to be invited, already scanning the room, the locked windows, Jacob's white-knuckled hand still gripping the door frame. "He said Isabella f

Isabella"You want me to deliver what, exactly?""Just a folder." Fiona held it out like it wasn't the strangest request anyone had made of me all week. "Your dad forgot to drop it off, and honestly, I think he could use a day without walking into that building. Would you mind?""Into what building?""You'll know it when you see it." She smiled in that way she had, warm but never quite giving me the whole answer. "Just hand it to whoever's at the front desk. You don't even have to go past the lobby."I should have asked more questions. Instead, I found myself driving to the edge of town twenty minutes later, following directions to a building that, true to Fiona's word, had no sign out front at all... just a heavy stone structure with a carved crest above the door, the same crest I'd seen once before, carved into a mantel in a house I wasn't supposed to have visited.The second I stepped inside, I understood exactly why Fiona hadn't tried to describe it.The lobby didn't look like any

Isabella POV "You've been avoiding me for three days."Aiden didn't stop walking. "I've been busy.""Busy." I fell into step beside him anyway, refusing to let him out-walk the conversation the way he clearly wanted to. "Busy enough that you can't even look at me in the hallway? Busy enough that yesterday you took the long way around the entire courtyard just to avoid passing my locker?"That got him to stop. Just for a second, just long enough for something to flicker across his face before the wall came back down."You've been watching that closely?""Don't turn this around on me." My heart was going faster than I wanted it to, but I wasn't backing down, not this time. "Something happened. I don't know what, but something changed, and you've been colder than usual ever since, and I'm done pretending I haven't noticed.""Isabella...""No, I want an actual answer. Not a deflection. Not one of your one-word non-explanations." I crossed my arms, planting myself directly in his path. "W