_Isabella_I woke up and checked the clock next to my bed. It was well after 7 am. I dragged myself out of bed, not that I had gotten any sleep the previous night. After the conversation I had with Dominic, I had spent hours tossing and turning.I wanted my freedom, that was for sure. But to have kids that I would never be able to raise? I would not go through that. It was wrong and inhumane.When I reached the breakfast table, Dominic was already sitting down, having his morning coffee and reading the paper."Morning," I said, and he looked up from his paper and gave me a once-over."You look well, not that there was anything wrong with you, to begin with," he said, looking back at his paper.In my frustration and worry about the contract, the fact that I had pretended to be sick yesterday had slipped my mind."I do feel well indeed. I told you I would be fine as soon as I had a warm shower and a good night's rest." I took the chair next to him, and he raised his eyebrows."Cut the c

_Dominic_I managed to change without bringing more pain to myself. When the doorbell rang, Joseph ushered Yuri in, and we went to my home office.No explanations were necessary because Joseph had put Yuri up to speed. The only question on everyone's mind was: "How do we stop this?" I voiced it out. "That's a tough one, given that we don't know who the enemy is here," Yuri said in his usual laid-back voice. "But I cannot let things as they are. It's clear that whoever this person is wants to see the Montego name wiped out."Yuri nodded and seemed to be in deep thought. "What is it?" barely containing my irritation. "There's been some talks recently." He said. It was visible from his features that he was fighting with himself on whether he should say whatever it was that he was thinking of or not. "I don't have all day to prompt you into talking.""Your marriage to that girl." He said simply. "What does this have to do with who I decide to make my wife.""She is not from one o

_Dominic_The cool breeze from the crashing waves left gentle shivers on my skin as we stood at the docks, looking out into the clear blue distance.I knew it was too soon to be out in the open after what had happened. But I couldn't let whoever was responsible think that I was going to sit back and cower.Plus, this in itself was a message to the other families not to even try me.I was with Yuri and Vini. Vini was one of my trusted men. The only downside about him was that Vini had itchy fingers. He was quick to reach for his gun. If left to his own devices, he could create a bloody mess just because someone looked at him the wrong way.But in times like these, when Joseph was unable to come, he made for a good substitute. Besides, with the man I was meeting today, Vini's hothead was a perfect fit.I may have downplayed the whole shooting incident, but I knew that every step I took was crucial. Someone had it out for me. Hence, Joseph needed to keep an eye on Isabella.The fact that

_Dominic_The loud music greeted us at the entrance of the club.I asked Isabella if she liked it, but from her body language, I could tell that she did not hear what I said. We stopped and looked at the scene in front of us and I loved what I saw, sweaty bodies swaying to the beat of the music and on the other side of the club, people were perched on barstools enjoying drinks and watching the action on the dance floor.It was not every day that I came to this particular club. But once in a while, I had to come and see that everything was still in order. And from where I stood, it looked as though things were in order. But only the books would confirm that things were indeed running smoothly. I leaned against Isabella’s ear and asked her,“Do you wanna dance?” Out if habit, she backed away. The action pierced me somewhere deep but I quickly recovered from it and made a humming sound.She mouthed, “Hell no.” and managed to look shocked. That somehow took away the sting of her rejec

_Dominic_This shit was getting out of control and fast. But I had a sneaky suspicion that Ludo was behind this last shootout. The guys in that car had not intended to injure or kill us but rather to send a message. I had been at this game long enough to know what a message looked like. And this one was written in very bold letters to miss. Whoever it was, needed me alive and if it was Ludo, he needed me for the docks deal. This meant that in the next few days, I would be receiving a message for a meet-up or some kind of shit like that. But the biggest problem of all was how to keep Isabella from all of this.She had seen too much in a very short period. Last night had started beautifully but ended in a terrible disaster. I looked at her next to me and her eyes were closed. She had finally given up the fight with sleep. She had been so frightened after the shootout, but being clingy was the last thing I had expected from her. But it was not like I was complaining. If it meant that