The Unraveling

The Unraveling
Lily and James had already driven into the compound and gotten out of the car as James immediately rushed into the building. They found Isabella and Alex sitting at the dining table, eating nothing. The air seemed charged with tension; it felt dangerous there. There weren't even security guards outside. It didn't even look like Isabella had been kidnapped. She did not look like someone who was scared. 

James looked at Isabella and rushed over to her. "Are you fine? Hope, this maniac didn’t harm you? I hope everything is okay," he said as he continued scanning her body for injuries. 

Isabella just sat there, shocked as to how James knew that she was there. She looked over at Lily and immediately knew that Lily had actually set Alex up. Alex also looked at her, coming to the realization that he had been tricked by Lily. She had set a trap for him, and he had fallen right into it. He touched himself, burning with fury. 

"James, please calm down. Nothing is wrong with me. Alex did not kidnap me. Everything is fine. I came here of my own free will with Alex. Nothing happened. And now I've decided, James, I don't want to be with you anymore. I want to be with Alex. Alex is not the one in the wrong here. He's not a bad person. He was only acting aggressively before because of what I did to him. Put yourself in his shoes. How would you feel if you were cheated on by your fiancée?" Isabella said to James as he looked at her in disbelief. 

"Just don't! What do you mean, Isabella? Are you telling me that you are going to forgive Alex? You can't forgive him! He doesn't love you anymore. He is now aggressive and only wants to take revenge on you!" James exclaimed. 

As Isabella looked at him, she said, "Just stop it already, James. Nothing of that sort is going to happen. Alex only behaved this way because of what I did to him. Nothing is going to happen to me. I have decided to be with Alex, and I'm not going to cheat on him or leave him anymore. Now I have realized that Alex is the one I truly love. What I had with you was only lost." She shouted as James looked at her, tears welling up in his eyes. But he didn't want to break down. He didn't want to believe that this was actually Isabella speaking. 

"I think it’s that Alex might have brainwashed you. Please, Isabella, can you just step aside for a little bit? I need to talk to you in private," he said to her.

"Whatever you want to say, you have to say it here to me. James, I don't want Alex thinking that I am going to come back with you. I promised Alex already that I'm going to get married to him. In fact, I wanted to get married to him today, but he insisted that we wait until tomorrow because he wanted to plan a surprise wedding for me," she said to James as he looked at her, stunned and dumbfounded.

"What are you saying, Isabella? Come back to your senses! What has this boy done to you? Why are you talking like this? Just the other day that you were at my place, I saw the way you felt when I moved closer to you and I saw the way you reacted when I hugged you. You can’t just tell me that you woke up one morning and suddenly realized that it was Alex you love. I'm not going to believe that you don't love me anymore. And I'm not going to believe that you are going to be with Alex! I can't live without you!" he shouted. 

As he dragged her into a corner, Alex did not bother going after them because he wanted Isabella to find clarity and closure. If she still loved James, he would willingly let her go. But if she still chose him, he would gladly accept her back. He thought to himself that he was not going to force her. He would make Isabella take her own decisions. If she chose James, it would be a little odd, but he would overcome it because he planned to leave that place regardless of her decision. He hoped Isabella would come with him; he was holding onto that little hope in his mind. What he wanted was Isabella's happiness and nothing more. He was not going to think about his own happiness anymore, and he was not going to be selfish, he thought to himself as he watched Isabella being taken away by James.

Meanwhile, he looked at Lily and stood up immediately, holding her by the neck and strangling her. "How dare you, Lily? Do you think you can just do this to me and get away with it? You set a trap for me, and I can't believe that I fell directly into it. I knew that you would do this to me all along, but I did not know that you would act this fast. Ever since we joined hands together, I had only thought about helping you so you could help me in return. I did not believe that you were such a snake," he said to her as he released his grip on her neck.

"The only difference between me and you is that at least I still have a conscience while you, you're just heartless. I don’t even think you have a heart beating inside your chest," he said. 

Lily just laughed out loud. "Who do you think you are, Alex, for me to join hands with you? Do you think you dragged me through the mud alongside yourself? Never! I had already seen from the start that you had a soft heart, and you did not even have the heart for all of these things. And I knew that sooner or later, your problems would arise. You would plot out my name without even thinking twice about it," she said to Alex as he looked at her, stunned.

"Who are you? What kind of human being are you? You are a lady! How could you not have a heart? How could you be this heartless? I'm very sure that you would do anything to gain James, even if it means killing him. You would rather kill James than have him be with another person," he said.