Chapter 184

Chapter 184
ISABELLA

We hadn’t stopped talking since the moment I got into the car. It was as if the silence of the past years demanded to be filled, every word spilling out until the city itself seemed to fade around us, the sun disappearing behind the clouds as we drove. The hum of Charlotte’s Mercedes, the muted rhythm of traffic, the occasional blare of a distant horn—it all became background noise to the steady unraveling of my life story.
By the time we got close to the man’s company—the one Charlotte had arranged for me to meet—we were deep in conversation. She’d mentioned that he sometimes worked through weekends, hardly ever going home, and I caught myself wondering what kind of man could sustain that kind of energy. What kind of life made work his only refuge?
We talked about everything. My contract marriage with Levi, finding my siblings during my mother’s funeral, and the years that had hardened and softened us in turns. I told her about Matt’s attack, about Caroline’s exams and her readiness for college, though it had seemed like an impossible feat before—adding to my anxiety and depression, thinking I couldn’t pay for her education as her elder sister and would watch her dreams go to waste just like mine. But now, things were different. I had enough to see her through her first year and the rest of college should I start working again. I spoke of my desperate attempts to convince Matt to apply too, despite his stubbornness. I was really scared he would lose his way.
I told her how we’d been surviving before I met Levi, almost kicked out of the apartment, scraping through days that blurred together.
Then came the parts I hadn’t said aloud in a long time—about New York, my old job, and how anxiety had nearly broken me. I told her about the panic attacks that had sent me to the hospital more than once, the suffocating moments when breathing felt like a battle. How the medical bills swallowed every cent I’d brought from Italy, how I’d been forced to do yard sales just to clear them since I had no insurance.
“It wasn’t easy,” I said, looking out at the skyline as it glowed against the evening haze. “I went from having something to nothing in months. It’s not like I wasn’t working. I just… wasn’t ready. I’d come from Italy after being bruised and burned out, and New York was supposed to be my restart. But instead, it stripped me raw.”
Charlotte listened quietly, only nodding when I needed her to. Her silence wasn’t empty—it was the kind that said, I’m here. Keep going.
I told her about Mr. Antonio, how he had made sure no company would hire me, forcing me to do menial jobs just to keep me in check. To have control over me.
Charlotte’s jaw tightened. “That man needs to die.”
I nodded. “I agree. He made it clear that if I married Levi, my siblings would pay with their lives. I can’t have that. I can’t have him threatening my siblings, not after everything.”
Her knuckles whitened around the steering wheel. “That bastard. What if he had orchestrated that attack on your brother?”
I looked at her, thinking about it. “You know, back then I thought about it too—that my brother was targeted.”
I laughed softly, though nothing about it was funny. “A fucking bastard. He’s been watching me, waiting for when to strike.”
I sighed. “At least I’m getting better now. I’m slowly weaning off my meds. I’ve stopped seeing my therapist in person—we just chat sometimes.”
I wanted to tell Charlotte more, everything, pour my heart out and cover as much as I could of what had happened over the past two years. But I stopped when it came to the desperate sex with Levi—the fire, the obsession, the fights that left me trembling in ways I didn’t fully understand.
Even though we’d made up, as we drove and talked and laughed like old times, a cautious part of me held back. We’d reconciled, yes—but I was wary, still learning how to trust her again, especially as she had admitted being jealous of this in the past. It was better to avoid such recurrence for now. She was ready to help me and be a good friend, and I needed to respect that.
I told her about the fights, the arguments, the chaos—the things I could put into words without risking too much—but the other part, the messy, consuming desire with Levi, I held back.
The car fell into a comfortable silence for a moment. The road stretched ahead of us, washed in the orange glow of streetlights as evening settled in. Despite everything, it felt good to talk—to have someone who remembered who I was before all of this.
She smiled faintly. “God, I missed you. You always did find the most dramatic ways to live. And trust me, Mr. Mateo would help you get a good job—time for scrapping for a job is over. He answers to no man, only God. So Mr. Ferrari has no grip on him.
I sighed in relief. “Oh, thank God!” I laughed quietly. “Life’s been teaching me lessons I didn’t sign up for.”
The laughter faded. I turned to her, voice soft. “So now tell me about you. I’ve been talking for hours. How many more minutes till we get there, anyway?”