Chapter 861 Just to Keep You

Chapter 861 Just to Keep You

Isabella had always believed that even if her uncles could not understand her, Michael would. He should know what was in her heart.

She had chosen him, and that meant there was no room for anyone else.

For years, she had felt nothing for other men. If falling for someone else were so easy, she wouldn't have given her whole heart to Michael in the first place.

Michael lifted his head. His eyes were red.

"What if people started rumors about me and another woman? Would you still care?"

Isabella's expression shifted.

She was about to ask if he was slipping back into his old ways when a bitter smile curved his lips.

"Bella, are you like your uncles? Do you think the changes in me are temporary? That one day I'll go back to being the man I was?"

She faltered.

Before she could answer, his next words cut her off completely.

"If that day comes, you wouldn't listen to my explanation. You'd take Michelle and leave me. Isn't that right?"

She stared at him for a long moment, then sighed, pressing a hand to her forehead as if the weight of his thoughts had just landed on her. There was a helplessness in her eyes, and a trace of disbelief.

"So, your grand idea is to use the Brown Group shares to tie me down, so I won't leave?"

She had expected him to deny it. Instead, he nodded without hesitation.

"Yes. It's the only way I can think of. My grandfather's words never made sense to me before, but now they do. A husband and wife are one. If we're bound tightly enough, you won't walk away so easily."

"Michael, you—"

She stopped herself. The words she wanted to say lodged in her throat, blocked by the thought of his fragile state.

"You don't have to go to extremes. I'm not going anywhere. We're fine right now."

She wanted him to loosen his grip on their relationship, to stop holding it so tightly it might break. But Michael wasn't listening.

All he wanted was to hold her, to feel her in his arms and know she was real.

And once the thought took root, he acted on it.

His arms came around her slowly, drawing her in, his voice rough and low when he finally spoke.

"Bella, whether you believe this or not, I still can't convince myself we've truly found our way back to each other. I fear this happiness is only an illusion—something that could vanish without warning.

"We've been through too much. I can't rewrite the past. Getting here was anything but easy, and I won't let anything else tear us apart.

"You never speak of what came before, so I don't know where the landmines are. If I say the wrong thing, if I touch an old wound, I'm terrified you'll leave.

"What scares me most is waking up one day to find you've decided I'm no longer enough—that coming back to me was a mistake. And then you'd be gone.

"You could move on. I couldn't. I can't lose you again, Bella. It would break me."

Isabella listened in silence.

She was beginning to understand why his condition had worsened, why he had refused to seek help. The roots of his illness lay in her.

Neither medicine nor therapy could heal him if the fear in his heart remained. She had always believed Michael was unshakable—a wall nothing could breach.

She had been wrong.

Back then, she had lied to her uncles, promising she would help him only once before cutting ties forever. They had believed her, lending their full support to saving the Brown Group.

But the path had twisted in ways she had never foreseen.

Michael had laid his heart bare to her.

They had found their way back to each other.

Later, her uncles' disapproval—along with Bianca's final words before her death—had driven her to step back, to take time to think. She had needed space.

But she had overlooked one truth.

Michael's pain was no less than her own.

Nolan imprisoned, Aiden gone, the weight of the Brown family pressing down on him—and through it all, she had been his only anchor.

For the first time, he had confessed his love. And she had answered with a breakup without explanation, followed by her complete disappearance.

For eight months, she hadn't dared to see him. She hadn't dared to hear a word about him.

Even now, Isabella sometimes marveled that after everything, the reason they had made it this far was because he had never stopped waiting.

That night in Auroria, with his injured hand clutching the original diamond, he had asked her to marry him again.

In that moment, one thought took hold of her: whatever came, she belonged to him. Whatever the future might bring, his love was real—here, now.

And all she had to do was live each day with him as her heart desired.

The thought drew her arms around him. Her hand moved slowly along his back, part comfort, part reassurance.

"I don't know if these fears are new, or if you've carried them for years. But I can promise you this—if we are together, if you love me, I will never look at another man."

Michael shuddered, his arms tightening as if to keep her inside his very skin.

"How could I not love you? This past month since we remarried, my greatest fear has been waking to find you gone—to realize all this was just a dream. No matter how much I wanted to find you, to tell you I loved you, you wouldn't even look at me. I can't live through that again.

"Bella, I'm not joking. If you ever think about leaving me, the next time you see me will be behind the walls of a psychiatric ward."

His words tumbled out, unmeasured. He only knew this was the only way to make her see what lived inside him, to make her feel real in his arms.

There had been so many chances to speak before, but shame had kept him silent. And he had lost them all.

Now he understood.

Isabella was his lifeline. With her, he was himself.

Without her, he would be like a plant stripped of sunlight—shriveling into nothing. And he would choose that willingly