Chapter 10 #2
“Mom, we are not driving home. We live an hour away and it’s already raining and so windy here and the storm surge has already flooded the roads.
We are okay. The house has hurricane-impact windows, and everything is secured here.
We’re going to be fine” reassuring her, as much as I’m trying to reassure myself.
Just then Liam’s phone rings, and he walks to a different room to take it.
“Mom, I’m going to be fine. I will keep in touch, and if it’s safe we will talk about coming home earlier” I promised.
“Okay, fine. I love you, Ella Bella” she finally murmurs.
“I love you too, Mom. Goodbye”
Just as I hang up with my mom, my phone rings again.
“Hello?”
“Isabel, you’re not still on the beach, are you?”
My stomach dropped. “Oliver?”
“Yes. It’s me. It’s not safe out there. I’m coming to get you.”
A rush of anger surged through me, cutting straight through the adrenaline. “Absolutely not,” I snapped. “I’m perfectly safe with my boyfriend. Do not come here. Don’t call me again this entire weekend.”
There was a pause on the line, just long enough to make my skin crawl.
“Bella-”
I hung up.
My hand was shaking as I lowered the phone. Part of me felt proud for setting the boundary so clearly. Another part of me felt unsettled because Oliver had never cared about my safety like that before. Not when it mattered. Not when I was his.
And somehow, that made everything feel messier than it already was.
I hung up without a response.
Right then, Liam walks back into the room.
“Your mom?” I asked.
“Yep, she and Bob are trying to convince us to come home,” he said, a little amused.
“Just had the same conversation with my mom” laughing, sitting on the couch.
By the time the storm made landfall, it had been downgraded to a Category 1.
Liam and I curled up together on the couch, watching the rain drum softly against the floor-to-ceiling windows.
The sound was hypnotic, almost somber, and for the first time in months, my body finally let go of the tension I hadn’t realized I’d been carrying.
I rested my head on his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart, and for a fleeting moment, the world felt perfectly safe.
The way he held me, whispered little things about us, about the future, it was intoxicating.
I thought about his words from earlier, about raising a family in this house, and a quiet part of me wondered if maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.
Maybe having a life with him… even a family…
wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.
But another, sharper part of me -one I tried to quiet- reminded me to stay careful.
Because the way Liam made the future feel inevitable was intoxicating, yes.
But it was also deliberate. And even as my body melted against his, that warning lingered, faint but persistent, like a whisper beneath the storm.
We were sleeping soundly until three a.m., when my phone started ringing. The screen lit up with an unknown number. Without thinking, I answered it, still half-lost in the warmth of sleep, not yet aware that the calm I’d been clinging to was about to shatter.
“Hello?” I answer groggily.
“Isabel, where the hell are you?” Noah asked concerned.
“Noah?” whispering so I don’t wake up Liam.
“Isabel, where the hell are you? We have a problem”.
“What, what is it?” now panicked by his tone.
“Brad and Olivia broke up. Brad sounded… I don’t even know, Isabel. Hysterical. Shouting. Crying. You need to call Olivia. Now.”
“I’m in St. Augustine right now,” I whispered sharply, glancing at Liam still half-asleep on the couch. “And in case you haven’t noticed, we’re in the middle of a fucking hurricane, Noah. I came up to the beach house with Liam to prep the house. I… I can’t deal with this right now.”
There was a pause on the line, just long enough for me to hear his heavy breathing.
“Bella, I know, I know. I just don't know what to do. Brad’s losing it. I can’t handle it alone,” he said, desperation coating every word.
I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to keep my voice calm, even as my pulse spiked. “Noah, I get it. I care about them too. But I am not leaving St. Augustine in the middle of a hurricane. You’re going to have to manage this until the weather clears.”
“I… okay… I’ll… I just-” His voice faltered, pleading.
“Okay… okay, I’ll call her,” I whispered. “Just… keep him calm. I’ll handle it from here.”
“Isabel… please hurry. I’m serious. This is bad,” he said, his voice shaking, before the line went dead.
I sat there for a moment, heart hammering, staring at my phone. The storm outside had quieted, but suddenly everything inside me felt like chaos again.
I was just about to set my phone aside when Liam stirred, stretching and blinking sleep from his eyes. “Babe… everything okay?” he mumbled, still half-asleep.
I froze, heart hammering. Shit. “Uh… yeah, just… Noah called about Olivia. It’s nothing,” I said, trying to keep my voice calm.
Liam’s eyes snapped open, his gaze narrowing as he processed my words. “Wait… Noah?” His voice went sharp, like a knife cutting through the room. “You talked to him? At three in the morning?”
I tried to shrug it off. “It was just about Olivia. I didn’t-”
Liam shot up, hands gripping the edge of the bed, his jaw tight. “You answered him at three am? After everything? Isabel… do you even realize how insane that is?”
“I-he was panicking about Olivia and Brad-” I started, but he cut me off, pacing the floor now, every step radiating controlled fury.
“No. No, no, no. You don’t do that. Not now.
Not ever. I don’t care that it’s Olivia.
That man doesn’t get to drag you into his mess, and you don’t get to let him.
” He stopped, storming toward me, grabbing my hands in his.
His grip was firm, almost suffocating, but I couldn’t deny the intensity of his gaze.
“I’m not letting him mess with you, Isabel. You hear me? He’s done. Completely. And if he so much as breathes near you again, I swear-” His voice dropped low, dangerous, like a promise and a threat all at once.
I swallowed hard, caught between the surge of relief that he was fiercely protective and the flicker of unease that he could be this intense.
This is love, right? Or something dangerously close to it…
I yanked my hands free, taking a step back.
“You know what, Liam? I can’t deal with this right now.
You think you’re protecting me, but all I see is someone who doesn’t give a shit about anyone else in my life except you.
Noah panicked because Olivia needed help, and you act like I’m doing something wrong for answering a call.
Do you even care that my friends matter? That my life exists outside of you?”
His eyes flickered with something unreadable, anger, shock, maybe hurt but he didn’t back down. “Bella, there’s a hurricane outside. Right now, you’re safe here with me. That’s all that matters! You can deal with Noah, and his bullshit when we get home”
I scoffed, voice shaking with anger. “Safe? Safety isn’t being controlled!
Safe isn’t having my actions policed every time someone else needs me.
You don’t get to decide what’s okay for me and what isn’t.
I have a life, Liam. I have friends, family, a past and you, but that doesn’t give you the right to erase everything else! ”
He froze, jaw tight, like my words landed harder than he expected. For a moment, the room was silent except for the soft hum of the storm outside.
“I… I just want to protect you,” he said finally, quieter now, almost pleading.
“And I want to live my life,” I shot back, tears welling in my eyes. “I love you, Liam, but I can’t breathe if everything has to revolve around you. I’m not yours to control.”
He looked at me like I’d thrown a grenade between us, and I knew this was the first real crack in the perfect little world he’d been trying to build.