Chapter 172 New plan

Chapter 172 New plan
Dante POV

Isabella and I were quiet on the drive home, she didn’t tell me what happened with her mother, but I didn’t mention the conversation I had with her father either.

Judging by our silence, we both knew nothing good happened on either front. We took the elevator to the top floor and went straight to bed. I considered what Conti said, that my criminal lifestyle could catch up with me and hurt Isabella in the end.

She asked me to stop working, but without my job, I wouldn’t have any other purpose. It was a business I’d been running a long time and I couldn’t just walk away from it.

Conti never asked me to and It made me realize he was never going to give me a real chance. If he were, he would have asked if I would quit the business and retire.

The sacrifice would speak volumes, and then he wouldn’t be able to hold it against me. So he didn’t ask at all since it wouldn’t make a difference anyway.

I didn’t tell Isabella because it would only make her upset. We went to bed, and I lay on my back in the center of the mattress. After a
night like that, I wasn’t exactly in the mood for sex. I always wanted Isabella, but the overwhelming sense of frustration burned out my drive. The time I had with her seemed shorter and shorter every time I spoke to her father.

The situation was like a bomb ready to go off.
When it did, she would be gone. Isabella moved on top of my body and lay directly on my chest. She was in my t-shirt with her hair spread everywhere. She was too upset to rememberMto take off her makeup, so she kept it on as she lay on top of me.

Isabella immediately closed her eyes with her hands resting on my warm skin and clinging to me like it was our last night together and she still didn’t mention dinner and neither did I because we were both too depressed to say anything.

The next few days were spent in silence. We hardly spoke to each other, neither one of us wanting to address the dead space between us.

We coexisted without speaking, making love regularly and having our meals together but the conversation had dried up, like muttering a single word would destroy us both and I felt like I’d failed her.

I wondered if there was something else I could have done or said to persuade her father, but I knew there was nothing. Conti was a stubborn man and the good things I did for his daughter didn’t outweigh the bad.

I might protect her, but it didn’t diminish the risk our relationship brought to the table.

Isabella lay beside me one night, her leg hitched over my hip as her arm curled around my torso. Her head rested beside me on the pillow, her.beautiful face not as pretty because she was so sad.

I could see it in her green eyes especially the way her eyes didn’t emit as much light. My fingers trailed up her arm and then stopped at her neck, feeling her steady pulse. I’d made love to her the way she liked, but the connection between us wasn’t as strong as it used to be. “I don’t know what to do at this point…” She stared at my chest, her eyes downcast.

“Every time we’re with my parents, it’s like it’s the first time and they’re just.as angry as the day I brought you home. My mom said she would talk to my.father and they would work on it…but I don’t know.”

I knew she didn’t want to talk about this, but the silence over the last few days had been too much for her. It was eating away at her, piece by piece. “We need to be patient.”

“I don’t mind being patient but it seems like they aren’t even trying.”

“They don’t know where to begin.”

“I understand that…but all my father does is insult you.”

“I can handle it, baby and don’t worry about that.”

“That’s not the point, I can’t stand to listen to him talk to you that way…it hurts me every single time he does that.”

I tugged her closer to me and kissed her on the mouth, making her feel better with my kiss.

“I told my mom how much you mean to me…that we have to make this work because I need you to be happy. She seemed to listen and her eyes light up so brightly every time she sees me because she misses me so much. I see it every single time and I know how much she loves me. I know how much she wants me
to be happy. I’m just not sure if that will be enough.”

I recognized the look Isabella had mentioned, but I saw it on both of her parents’ faces. Isabella was the center of her parents world, and anytime they got to be with her, it brought them such joy. I knew they hated being away from her and they wanted to spend more time with her. “Baby?”

“What?”

“What if we got a place in your parents city?

Somewhere close by?”

Her eyes didn’t soften in hope. “You know I would love that but I don’t want to plan for the future right now…it’ll just make it harder.”

“I meant now, your parents love seeing you. So what if we got a place down there, and they got to see you all the time? We could show them what it would be like if they accepted this relationship. It would make them happy even if that sense of joy has nothing to do with me. I could go to the winery and help out, spend time with them every day even if we don’t talk much. It might work.”

“You would do that?”

She shouldn’t be surprised. “I’ve already put up with a lot. You know my love has no limit.”

“But what about work?”

“I don’t have to be in town. If I get called out for a mission, I’ll fly out of the city.”

“Where would we live?”

“I’m sure we could rent a house nearby.”