and her father wanted her to marry the man who killed him. It’s disgusts me and gives me more of a peak into her life.
She moves back to sit on the bed, looking like she’s going to continue and open up to me.
“Tell me what happened.”
“Eric was one of my father’s guards. We got together when I was eighteen. He was Bratva like the rest of circle members and came from a family my father trusted. I guess that’s why he never expected him to be with me like that. We were going to run away. Someone found out about us and my father ordered his execution. Dmitri beat him to death with a hammer and my father made me watch. He held me himself so I could watch and feel helpless, remembering there was nothing I could do. Every day I wonder which was worse… Being made to watch Eric’s death, or watching my father kill my mother.”
My damn throat goes dry. “Your father killed your mother?”
“Yes. That’s the first time I’ve said that out loud.”
I thought it was James Mazzone Sr. a member of the Syndicate who killed her. Mortimer killed him. It was actually the first time they’d had a murder. Maybe that’s because people were playing sides for longer than we thought.
Fuck… When she said she’d been through worse than me I thought it was a bold thing to say without the knowledge of what I’d been through. Now I see she was right.
I get up and move over to sit next to her.
“Isabella…” I rasp.
She gives me a kind smile.
“It’s okay. There are just some things there are no words for. What can anyone say to my story?”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry about the loss of both of them.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that.” She gives me a gentle smile then it fades. “Who did he kill for you Tristan?”
Today as those words fall from her lips, I don’t see her as Mortimer Viggo’s daughter. I just see her as Isabella.
“My wife…” I answer and she brings the hand holding the flower to her chest.
“You were married?”
I nod. Sometimes it is hard to believe. I was the first one of my brothers to get married, and the first to become a widower. “Yeah. It was just for one day. We knew each other from when we were kids. Six years ago, it was her. Mortimer sent Vlad to kill her. Then eighteen months ago he ordered my father’s death.”
“I’m so sorry.”
We stare at each other and I can see she wants to say more to me but like me she can’t.
There are no words.
“I guess now we both know each other’s stories,” I state, and she nods.
“Yeah.”
I know why I was so drawn to her now. I was right.
The question of what to do next still hangs in the air. Setting her free is the obvious thing to do if she can’t help me, but I can’t do that yet. Not until we have a plan. She’s still leverage, even if she can’t help.
I don’t want to talk about that now though and spoil the connection we just formed.
Plan B is… well it looks like we’re gonna have to move to Plan B—letting Mortimer know we have his daughter and demanding he hand himself over.
It would surely start war. I need to think more about it. It’s a risky plan that requires deep thought.
I stand up. It’s time to go.
We talked and I don’t feel that angst anymore.
“I should go,” I say.
“Thanks for talking to me.”
“You too. The door’s open.”
Surprise brightens her eyes and gratitude.
“Thank you.”
I nod my head and leave.
I don’t have to say more. She still knows the only way off this island is if I say so, and we’re a long way from leaving yet.
Chapter Twenty
Isabella
My hand lingers on the handle of the door.
I thought so much about getting through this door on my own that it feels strange now that I’m allowed to.
It’s not just that though, or rather being able to go through this door. It’s the first time I’ve been able to go around freely without being watched or under supervision.
I’m an adult and I’ve lived my whole life like a child.
Whenever Sacha allowed me freedom, I was like Cinderella knowing she’d have to go back to her life at the stroke of midnight.
I’m fully aware if there were a way for me to leave the island Tristan wouldn’t have allowed me this small mercy, and the island itself is like