Chapter 29 Isabella
Chapter twenty-nine
Isabella
My hands shake as I press the sterile towel against his shoulder, trying to stop the bleeding. He doesn’t wince…his bare chest is warm and still beneath my fingers, but I feel his eyes boring holes in my head.
After Malik and his men left, I told Matteo all I knew about Father’s location and offered to get Dominic’s stab wound cleaned up… so here we are in his bathroom with him on the countertop as I stand between his strong thighs.
I can’t help but think how quickly the tables have turned. A short time ago, I was the injured one.
My throat tightens as I pull the towel back and observe the wound better. The gash is deep and ugly, running jaggedly below his collarbone, but I don’t think the knife hit anything vital. Reaching for a bottle of antiseptic, I pour it onto a fresh gauze and hold it firmly against his skin.
His breathing grows heavy, eyes still trained on me, but he says nothing. That makes my breath hitch and my hands a little uncoordinated, so I distract myself with thoughts. Thoughts of what might have happened to Dominic if we hadn’t escaped.
I tape down the gauze and pull out a bandage, sealing the wound. A slow breath pulls from my lips as I step back, but a hand spreads across my lower back, holding me in place.
For the first time, since dressing his wound, I meet his eyes, and my breath hitches at the rawness in them. I’ve never seen him like this…so vulnerable.
“Thank you,” he breathes. Somehow, I know he’s thanking me for more than dressing his wound.
“You… had no reason to come back after I accused you, yet you did.” He sighs and trails his hand from the small of my back up my side and settles it on my neck. Brushing my neck with the pad of his thumb once, he whispers thickly, “I’m sorry for ever doubting you and I…”
My throat tightens as he trails, pain evidently clouding his eyes and voice.
“I understand if you want to go, Bella. We’ll find your father…and you can finally live life on your own terms. You can walk away from this marriage and—”
My breath hitches as I drown out his words. He’s giving me freedom to call off the alliance.
“You know I did things I never dared to do years ago. I talked back to my father… gave Elena a piece of my mind, and when I see Melanie, wherever she is, I sure will give her hell, too.”
“Down there in the cell I-I willed my brain to work more than it’s ever done in years.
” I release a chuckle, but tears follow.
“All I could think of was you as I tried different means to get out. I rage-baited Father, and it worked. He opened the cell, yanked my hair, and shoved me to the ground. I managed to pick up a plank and hit him just like he hit me.”
His fingers graze the side of my head, and I wince at the memory. It was the most confident thing I’d ever done in my life. Even when I knew there was a slim chance of defeating Father, I went ahead with my plan.
“He fell, but that didn’t keep him down. Somehow, he maneuvered and pointed a gun at my head.”
Dominic inhales sharply. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
My lips quiver. “Then he…he gave Elena the gun and asked her to shoot me.”
“Fuck!” he mutters, pulling me in for a hug. I shut my eyes, recalling the feeling of his warmth against my chest.
“She hesitated but couldn’t do it and instead shot him in the arm. That was the fastest I ever ran in my life, Dominic. I pulled Elena’s hand and ran until we met your men.”
They took Elena to a doctor, while another man brought me to the mansion, where I met Matteo, who guided me to Dominic.
Father was a narcissist and I played him. Somehow thinking about Dominic and all the shit he was in gave me the strength to execute that plan.
“But everything I did, I did to get to you. I did for you,” I say, pulling back and making sure to meet his eyes. Not once did I think about myself. “And in my book, that’s love.”
His muscles grow taut as I steady a hand on his good shoulder. Silence eats up the space between us, and something nasty coils in my stomach. What if he doesn’t feel the same?
It looks like thoughts are spinning in his head until he says, “I’ve killed men for much less than what I thought you did. I’ve never hesitated… second-guessed the truth when it came to dealing with traitors, but I did for you. And in my book, Bella, that’s love.”
I smile faintly, my heart leaping with unfamiliar excitement.
“That AI video was fake,” he breathes.
I shake my head. “I know… Father told me.”
He says nothing, but I continue.
“We both offended each other, Dominic. I accused you wrongly, too. I’m sorry. I should have known it was AI, but I let myself get carried away by emotions, and I somehow…”
“Shh.” He smiles, placing a finger against my lips, then slowly trails it to catch the slow trembling of my lips.
The way he’s staring at me, hot and intense, makes my knees quake.
As if he knows, he jumps down. A strong arm wraps around my waist, lifting me and setting me down on the counter as he parts my thighs to stand between me.
He releases a breath, his jaw twitching as if he’s trying to restrain something. I reach out, settling both hands on his chest as I lightly graze his skin with my thumbs.
“I love you, Bella.” He leans in just enough for me to feel his breath brush my lips. And I can’t believe I finally hear, through his lips, those three words I’ve been starving to hear my whole life. “I love you in a way that terrifies me. In a way I don’t want to undo,” he admits.
It feels like the world stops, and it’s just him and me…existing in space. Heat floods my chest and I raise my hand to his cheek, my heart melting as he leans into it. “I love you, too, Dominic.”
The words barely leave my mouth when he leans in and catches my lips in his. Our mouths tangle in passionate promises, slow and hungry, as he releases something between a sigh and a growl. I feel the tenderness in the kiss. I know this is him trying after so long to let someone in…to love someone.
I arch my back, heat spreading through my body when I feel his thumb brushing against my inner thigh.
Everything about this moment feels different.
I can feel all the nerves in my body jumping alive, and with each touch he graces against my skin, there’s an aching desire to have him buried inside me.
“Dominic,” I whimper, my palms slipping to his shoulder when I feel the gauze on my skin. I freeze, but he doesn’t pause; instead, he grabs my hand, redirecting it to grab his boner inside his pants.
“This is where your attention should be,” he groans in my ear. I fist his member and stroke once when a heavy knock sounds on the door. He ignores it and slips a hand under my blouse, fisting my breast in my bra.
The knock sounds again, and he pulls back with a frustrated grunt, walking briskly out of the bathroom. It takes a while, but he returns already clothed.
“We’ve picked up something on Dean. I have to go, Princess.” He gives a lingering kiss to my forehead before disappearing out of sight.
Silence descends for a while until my phone, which I’d retrieved from Father, buzzes beside me. It’s a text from a strange number. Hope you’re fine—Enzo. I furrow my brows.
This is the first time he’s texted me. I briefly wonder if he was aware of the shenanigans Father pulled on me. I don’t reply to the text and drop my phone.
Instinctively, I bring my hands to my belly. I’d wanted to say something about it, but I have to confirm first. Plus, I wanted him to know that I’m staying because my feelings are true rather than because of the baby.
As I head into the shower for a much-needed wash, thoughts brew in my head like a storm. Do I request permission from Dominic to go to the pharmacy? No. He’d probably ask the doctor to come instead. I can’t have a lot of eyes on me when I’m just finding out my status for the first time. Ugh.
Sneaking out myself isn’t an option either. With a limited timeframe to find my bastard father, things are much tighter and tenser. Dominic would never let me out of the mansion.
Then a thought crosses my mind. Sharon.
In the next minute, I find her and give her discreet orders to get me a pregnancy test. I return to my room, and head straight for the bathroom.
The warm shower is supposed to be comforting, but I can’t do anything other than think.
I don’t even know what to hope for. Should I pray that the test comes out negative? Or should it come out positive? Dominic has just confessed his love, and I have to ruin it by shoving a pregnancy test in his face?
I stay under the shower for God knows how long when I hear a knock on the bathroom door. I open it to see Sharon. She bows slightly, handing me a paper bag.
“I told the men I went to get supplies and I bought five, just in case. I’ll be outside if you need me, ma’am,” she says with care in her voice, and I shoot her a genuine smile, taking the paper bag from her and shutting the door.
In the bathroom, I sit on the edge of the bathtub, staring at the five little sticks I just peed on. The seconds drag by unbearably as I clench my fist against the tub.
My heart pounds in my ears, blood pulsing in my veins, until I see them. Two lines.
Tears prick my eyes, and for a second, I go numb. I don’t have time to sink into my feelings when I hear Dominic calling for me.
Instantly, I shove the wrappers and boxes deep into the trash and steady my breathing with a few deep, measured breaths before slipping into my bathrobe and walking outside. I notice that Sharon is gone and it’s just us now.
“Bella,” he drawls in a smooth voice, a contrast to the jittery nerves inside of me. “It was a tangible lead. We’ll find your father, I promise, and he’ll pay for every tear he made you shed.”
I stare at him but don’t hear anything that falls from his lips. All I hear is the sound of my own heart pounding loudly in my ears. Do I even tell him now, or after all of this has died down? Maybe that’s a—
“Are you okay?” He furrows his brows at me and that’s when I realize that I’ve stopped walking to him. “You look really pale.”
He starts to close the distance between us, and I blurt out, “I’m pregnant.”
He pauses mid-step, the expression on his face something I can’t decipher, and I hate it. With each second that passes, the room grows colder, silence taking over.
“Y-you’re what?”
I don’t look him in the eye when I respond this time. “I’m pregnant, Dominic.”
He closes the distance between us and lifts me gently before placing me back on the floor. Then his hand snakes around my neck, pulling me into a breathtaking kiss.
“My God, Bella…”
When the tension in my chest eases a little, I find myself asking, “A-are you happy?” Maybe it’s the hormones, but tears prick my eyes.
“Happy?” he echoes, his lips curving into a grin as he catches a tear with his thumb. “You just gave me what I didn’t know I was allowed to want. I’m overjoyed.”
My heart leaps at the joy in his eyes as his hand falls to my stomach, spreading warmth where he touches. “I promise to be the best father to our son and the perfect husband to you,” he whispers genuinely.
As I watch love fill his eyes, I make a silent vow to myself. To be a good mother and never repeat the same mistakes my parents made.
“Son?” I cock a brow at him when I realize what he said. He presses me impossibly closer to his chest.
“It’d be nice to have a son, don’t you think?”
“I want a girl,” I tease, and he lets out a long, hearty laugh .
Later in the day, I request that the doctor be brought in to check if the baby is okay and administer prenatals.