Chapter 86 The goodbye
Isabella POV
The week gradually came to an end, and while I enjoyed spending so much time with my parents, I knew it was time for me to leave. If I stayed any longer, it would seem like I was hiding from something or someone and my mom was already hot on my trail. She knew my relationship with Dante wasn’t something that could be easily swept under the rug. She didn’t ask any more questions about it or make any more comments, but that wouldn’t last
forever she would surely bring it up again.
My father knew I had been on a date with someone that night, but he never mentioned it to me.Thankfully, I could talk to my mother about boys because we always had an open
relationship. She acknowledged I was now a woman when I turned eighteen. My father had never been that way. I couldn’t take a boy to a school dance unless my father drove us, chaperoned the dance, and then drove us back.
I didn’t mind his protectiveness then because I knew he was just being a good parent but as I got older, he remained the brooding and terrifying father figure every daughter hated. It wasn’t until I moved away to school that he
finally backed off. So I really didn’t want to talk about my romantic life with him..Unless it was introducing him to the man I would marry and Dante wasn’t that man. Even if he were, that would be an even bigger problem. So my father would never ask about the man I was having dinner with. The less he knew, the better for all of us and he would live longer for it.
If he knew what was really going on, I didn’t even want to imagine what will happen. I said goodbye to them next to my car, letting them both hold me for a long time. Mom was always sad when I left, and I could feel it in the way she squeezed me. Her hand stroked my hair, and she kissed my temple. “Come back soon.”
“I will. I need to make more paintings to sell since they did so well.”
Mom finally pulled away and smiled. “At this rate, you’ll have your own gallery very soon.”
I turned to my father next. “Bye, Father.”
He hugged me tighter than my mother, both of his arms circling around my back as he rested his chin on my head. He held me that way for a long time, his hand rubbing my back. “my dear call me if you need anything.”
“I know, Daddy.”
He kissed my forehead. “I love you more than anything.”
“I know that too”
He finally released me, an emotional look in his eyes. My father was always proud and stern around anyone who wasn’t family, but when it was just us, he was vulnerable and affectionate. He wore his heart on his sleeve,
and he loved me so fearlessly. It was something he only showed to other Conti. “And I love you.”
He opened the driver’s side door. “Drive safe, alright?”
“yes.” I gave them another wave before I got into the car. I pulled out of the roundabout and watched them stand in the rearview mirror as I drove away. My father wrapped his arm around my mother’s waist and pulled her close to him. They watched me drive away, sadness in both of their eyes. I got onto the main road and was relieved I couldn’t see them anymore.
When I moved to Rome, I craved the freedom and independence. I loved living in a big city but now that I’d been on my own for a few years, I knew the only place I wanted to be was there in Milan. I wanted to live close to my parents so I could see them every day. I also wanted to have that closeness I used to have growing up, when all the Conti were together. My cousin and Varos were both in Rome, but maybe they’d reconsider moving once they
settled down. Whatever the case, I knew I wanted to be in my parents house again someday.
The long ride had finally come to an end and, I was back in Rome. I was tired from driving all afternoon, and now it was evening. All I
wanted to do was go to bed. I’d even skip dinner because I didn’t have the energy to make something or pick something up. The streets started to look more familiar as I approached my neighborhood and It’d been a full week since I last spoke to Dante. I said goodbye to him at the car because I never wanted to see him again. I wanted our sick and twisted connection to sever in half for good but thei I thought about him every day that I was gone, and I thought about him now.
A part of me wanted to drive straight to his place. I could sleep in that comfortable bed with that strong man beside me. He would definitely keep me warm during the night and give me the sex I’d been missing, then protect me from all the evil things in the world.except himself. It was so tempting that I almost drove past my apartment but I found the strength to pull into the parking lot, grab my bag and my
painting, and walk inside.
My apartment was freezing, so I cranked up the heat to chase away the frost. I set my bag on the floor and leaned the wrapped painting against the wall. Even if I wanted to display it somewhere, I couldn’t right now especially not when I didn’t want Dante to see it. I normally wore a long t-shirt or a nightdress to bed, but it was way too cold for that. I pulled on thick sweatpants, a t-shirt, and a thick sweater. I
hated wearing clothes to bed because it wasn’t comfortable, but it was better.than freezing and I didn’t have my personal bed warmer with me. I lay in bed in the dark and closed my eyes.
Despite the exhaustion of traveling all day, I couldn’t sleep.and it had.nothing to do with the freezing temperature. I couldn’t stop thinking about him. A week of silence had distanced me from him, but that silence only made me miss him more. I wondered what he was doing while I was gone. Did he pick up a job? Or did he go out to a bar and find a woman to entertain him?
Did he think about me as much as I thought about him?
He didn’t call me, maybe he wasn’t as obsessed with me as I thought he was. Maybe I was easily replaceable. Maybe my cold goodbye made him move on to someone
else?
My stomach clenched in pain but why did I have to feel that way? Why did I have to care?
I shouldn’t care.