Chapter 161 Lost at Sea

Chapter 161 Lost at Sea
Isabella's POV:

"Isabella, when is Donna coming back?" James asked, his eyes scanning the vast expanse of the Sicilian sea.

I tapped a cigarette from my pack and lit it, inhaling deeply as the salty breeze whipped around us.

"Should be soon," I replied, exhaling a thin stream of smoke. "It's been five days already."

James sighed, leaning against the railing. "If she doesn't come back soon, we'll have cleared out all the enemy families in Italy without her."

He wasn't wrong. Since Emma had disappeared chasing that boat, I'd mobilized everyone—Phoenix teams one through twenty had been working around the clock. We'd systematically eliminated family after family from our target list. Every mission had been successful. The only thing we couldn't do was bring our Donna back safely.

"You know," James said, breaking the silence between us, "I've always wondered something, Isabella."

"What's that?" I asked, watching a fishing boat disappear into the horizon.

"Why did you agree to follow Donna in the first place? To work for her?"

I smiled slightly at the question. At thirty, I was the oldest among Phoenix's core members. The memory of how I met Emma was still vivid, though it had been six years since that day.

"I was twenty-four when Donna saved me," I said quietly. "Drug dealers were chasing me through the streets of Sicily. I'd stolen from them—not drugs, just money. I was desperate."

I took another drag of my cigarette, remembering the terror of that day.

"Emma happened to be walking by. She knocked out three men twice her size without breaking a sweat, then took me to a hospital. Paid for everything."

"Lucky coincidence," James commented.

I shook my head. "Not exactly. My parents had died in an accident the year before. I came to Italy to escape my past, but everything went to shit. By the time I met Emma again, I was ready to die."

"Again?" James raised an eyebrow.

"I was at this very harbor," I gestured around us, "standing on that small cliff over there, ready to jump. And there she was again—Emma. She saved me a second time."

"She took me back to Phoenix, had me trained in combat skills, languages. When she discovered I had a talent for cybersecurity, she personally mentored me." I stubbed out my cigarette. "That's how I became her Consigliere."

James nodded thoughtfully. "Jumping into the sea and getting fished out by Donna—you two were destined to meet."

I laughed. "That's not exactly how it happened."

"No?" James looked interested now.

"The truth is, Emma came to the harbor that day because her pet owl had died."

"Her... pet owl?" James's face was priceless.

"She'd cremated it and brought the ashes for a sea burial. As she was boarding a small boat, she slipped and dropped the urn into the water." I couldn't help smiling at the memory. "Emma jumped in after it—she wasn't done with the ceremony and didn't want to lose the ashes."

"Just as she found the urn and was climbing back onto the boat, I jumped from the cliff. The splash startled her, and she dropped the urn again. This time, it was gone for good."

I watched James's expression shift from confusion to amusement.

"She later told me that when she saw me in the water, she knew I was trying to kill myself. She wasn't actually planning to save me. But since she'd lost the urn and couldn't go back empty-handed, she decided to fish me out instead."

James burst into laughter, doubling over with tears in his eyes. "I've lived my whole life without ever hearing of someone giving a sea burial to an owl!"

I waited for his laughter to subside before continuing. "Want to know how the owl died?"

James wiped tears from his eyes and nodded, still chuckling.

"Emma found a nest of owl eggs while climbing trees on some adventure. She brought one home and hatched it herself. But she had no idea how to properly care for a baby owl." I shook my head at the memory. "She fed it everything she thought birds would like—including a whole pound of birdseed in one sitting."

"The poor thing died from overeating. Emma felt so guilty, she wanted to give it a proper sea burial. She said she hoped in its next life, it would be a seagull, flying over the ocean surface where she couldn't find its nest."

James laughed so hard he fell backward, tumbling off the dock and into the shallow water. When he climbed back up, soaking wet, he was still laughing.

"No wonder Donna hasn't kept any pets in all these years!" he wheezed, wringing out his shirt.

I gazed back at the sea, a mixture of fondness and worry filling my chest. "It's strange. Someone as unpredictable as Emma has been the most reliable person in my life."

In all these years, nothing Emma did surprised me anymore—except when she did something normal. That always made me nervous, like something was terribly wrong.

I'd decided long ago that I wouldn't settle down or start a family. I would stand by Emma's side as long as she needed me. And if one day she decided to leave this life behind, I would travel the world alone, find a place I loved, and live out my days there.

"Contact! We've made contact!"

I turned to see the fishing club owner running toward us, waving frantically.

"We've reached the yacht, and... well, sort of made contact with the other boat too," he said, breathing heavily. "They've started their return journey. About three days until they arrive."

"Three days?" James frowned. "Doesn't it only take two days to reach the fishing grounds?"

"Why would the return trip take longer?" I asked.