Chapter 163
ASHER
As I watch Isabella close Luca’s door, my heart tightens. She’s so tired, more tired than I’ve ever seen her. The weight of everything hangs on her shoulders, and I know I’m to blame for a lot of that. I want to fix it, but I don’t know where to start. Every time I try, it feels like I’m digging us deeper into this mess.
When she finally sees me standing in the hallway, her body stiffens, and I hate that reaction. She’s preparing for the worst from me, like I’m just another thing weighing her down.
“Isabella,” I say softly, stepping toward her.
She lets out a heavy sigh, her eyes glancing toward her room. She’s looking for a way to escape me. “I don’t want to do this right now, Asher,” she says, her voice carrying that tired edge.
“I know,” I say, keeping my tone calm, trying not to push too hard. “But we need to talk. I need to explain.” She turns away, walking toward her room, and I follow her, like a damn shadow. I feel like I’ve been chasing her for weeks now, trying to fix what I broke.
Inside her room, the silence between us is unbearable. It’s not the first time I’ve stood in front of her with no idea how to make things right, but it’s definitely the worst. She crosses her arms, a defensive posture that cuts into me, but I don’t blame her.
“I’m sorry,” I say, the words feeling heavy on my tongue. I’ve said them before, but they don’t feel like enough. “For everything. For the way I handled it. For keeping the truth from you. I acted on impulse. My instincts… they took over, and I didn’t think.”
She doesn’t respond, just stands there, her gaze fixed on the floor. The silence is unbearable, and I feel like I’m standing on the edge of a cliff, waiting for her to either pull me back or push me over.
“I didn’t want to drag my brothers into this,” I go on, my voice cracking slightly. “After I kidnapped him—after the torture—I couldn’t let him live. Dominic was a threat. He could have come back, tried to get close to you again, and what if he found out about the pack? I couldn’t risk that.”
I’m laying it all out now, but I can see the hurt deepening in her eyes, and it’s killing me.
“Jax and Knox, they only found out later. They didn’t want any part of it, but once they knew… they had no choice.”
Still, she doesn’t speak, but I can see the way her body tightens, her breath coming in shallow, controlled inhales. When she finally looks up at me, the pain in her eyes is enough to knock me off my feet.
“Do you even realize how much you hurt me?” Her voice is soft but sharp, cutting through the air between us. “You didn’t just make a decision about Dominic, Asher. You made a decision about me—without me. You didn’t trust me enough to tell me the truth. You didn’t think I could handle it. You just decided for me.”
Her words slice through me. She’s right. I didn’t tell her. I didn’t trust her to handle it because I thought I was protecting her, but in doing that, I hurt her more than Dominic ever could have.
“And what’s worse,” she continues, her voice shaking now, “is that you acted just like Dominic. You took control. You made choices for me, kept the truth from me, just like he did. You manipulated things. Now, every time I look at you, I see him. How am I supposed to live with that?”
Her words hit me harder than any punch I’ve ever taken. Like Dominic? The man who controlled her, manipulated her? I never wanted to be anything like him, and now I realize, in trying to protect her from him, I’ve become the very thing I hated.
“I—” I start to speak, but the words die in my throat. What can I say to that? She’s right. I tried to protect her, but I didn’t trust her, didn’t give her the chance to be part of the decision. And now… now, I’m paying for that.
“I never meant…” I whisper, my voice barely there. “I never wanted to hurt you like that. I thought I was doing the right thing. I see now… Godess, Isabella, I see how wrong I was.”
She’s looking at me, and I can see that she’s trying to hold herself together. She takes a breath, closes her eyes for a second, and when she speaks again, her voice is steady but full of pain. “It’s not just about being wrong, Asher. It’s about trust. You broke mine. How can I trust you again when you kept something like this from me?”
Her words hit harder than anything else she could’ve said. Trust. That’s what I’ve broken, and that’s what I don’t know how to fix.
“I don’t know,” I admit, my throat tight. “But I’ll do anything to earn it back. I love you, Isabella. I’ll do whatever it takes. Just… give me a chance.”
She looks away, her face still drawn, and I can see the war going on inside her. When she finally meets my gaze again, there’s a glimmer of something—maybe hope, maybe exhaustion. I can’t tell.
“I don’t know if I can forgive you right now,” she says, her voice quiet but strong. “But I’ll try. For Luca. For us.”
Her words are a small lifeline, and I cling to them like a drowning man. “That’s all I can ask for,” I whisper.
But deep down, as I stand here apologizing, I know I’d do it all over again. Dominic was a threat. If he had come back, if he’d tried to get close to Isabella again, it would have only caused more damage. And if he ever found out about Luca, about our world… there was no way I could let that happen.
I did what I had to do to protect my family, even if it meant hurting her in the process. But now, standing here, I realize that protecting her doesn’t always mean keeping her in the dark. I have to learn to trust her, to let her in, or I might lose her for good.