Chapter 22 - Izabel
Crouching low on the upper stairs, I keep my body huddled to the corner of the railing, staying out of sight and listening intently as Anton threatens my brother. My heart is breaking into pieces.
I can’t believe the things he is saying.
I can’t believe he would speak about me like that and use me as some kind of pawn in his war against my brother for power.
What the hell is going on? All this time I was wrong about him.
My hands are shaking as I lift them to cover my mouth to stop the soft sob from escaping my lips.
Anton is still threatening. Still saying horrible things.
The call ends, and I don’t dare move. He’s furious. I can hear him muttering and storming up and down the hallway. Finally, he walks away, towards his bedroom.
Standing up, I cautiously look down the hallway to make sure he’s really gone.
My first instinct is to run. To leave right now. But it won’t be that easy, and it will set off every alarm in Anton’s mind. He might go after my brother right away. I don’t know. I have no idea what to think anymore.
My legs are shaking and unsteady as I walk towards the bedroom. Pausing at the door, I hear the shower running and take a deep breath to try and calm myself.
For now, I need to play it cool and pretend I didn’t hear anything.
I’ll wait until he’s asleep, and then early in the morning, I’ll find a way to leave.
I won’t stay with a man who treats me like an object or a tool.
I won’t stay with a man who has lied and made me believe I’m something special to him, that I have a place in his heart when I’m just…nothing.
My chest wants to collapse in on itself. My heart is shattering, but I have to put a smile on my face as I hear him climbing out of the shower.
I walk into the bedroom and sit on the edge of the bed, taking my shoes off as though I’m going about my normal bedtime routine.
“Do you feel better after a hot shower?” I ask, glancing over my shoulder at him with a smile.
He smiles at me and nods. “A little,” he sighs.
My heart breaks all over again as I look at the man I was falling so deeply for. Is this really how it ends? The truth is finally revealed, and here I thought my brother was the one trying to steal my happy life away from me…but it was a happy life that was never real to begin with.
“I’m…” I try to speak, but my throat closes over the words. I clear my throat quickly, pretending like I just needed to cough. “I’m going to hop in the shower too now,” I say.
“You okay? Are you getting sick?”
I laugh, hoping I sound lighthearted. “No, I just swallowed wrong and ended up half-choking on my own spit. Embarrassing, I know,” I giggle, walking past him.
I stand on my tiptoes and plant a very quick kiss on his cheek, something I always do when he’s passing me.
Something I have to keep doing until I can escape this charade that I thought was real.
“I’m climbing straight into bed. Don’t be too long,” he calls after me as I step into the bathroom.
Relief floods me when I get out of the shower and find him asleep in our bed. I was panicking, wondering how I would make excuses to not be intimate with him without causing suspicion.
But he’s breathing deeply, his hand resting on his chest as he lies on his back.
In sleep, he is beautiful. The shape of his face. The outline of his jaw silhouetted by my bedside light.
I tear my eyes off him as tears spill from them.
He is beautiful.
But I can’t unhear his words. I can’t unsee the truth of what I really am to him.
A pawn in his game.
I hardly sleep at all, and it’s still dark outside at four a.m. when I crawl out from beneath the covers and grab a backpack from the closet.
As quietly as possible, I shove a few essentials into it, then get dressed in my jeans and hoodie and favorite sneakers and tiptoe out of the bedroom.
I don’t take one last look at him. My heart is aching enough as it is.
Downstairs, I find the keys for one of the cars and leave the house in absolute silence.
The only obstacle I face now is the gate.
One of the guards comes to my window to talk to me, confused why I’m up so early.
“Where are you headed?” he asks as he leans in. “It’s freezing outside,” he adds.
“I’m just shooting out to the twenty-four-hour pharmacy quickly, then I’m going to drop the meds with a friend of mine. She’s not feeling well, and I want to go and sit with her,” I smile.
“Anton is letting you go alone?” he asks, glancing back at the house.
“Yes, it’s close enough to drive and still very early. The roads will be quiet,” I explain.
He waffles, unsure, but not able to argue with me because I am technically his superior, being Anton’s wife.
Finally, he nods.
“Please drive safely, the roads are slippery.”
“I will,” I smile, rolling my window back up.
My heartbeat is loud in my ears as I listen to the gate automatically closing behind me. I don’t speed off. I don’t drive like a crazy person. I just ease my foot down on the accelerator and drive off like I do every day. Normal. Calm. Not alerting anyone to my internal distress.
When I am far enough away from the mansion, I pull to the side of the road, squinting head to see if the car stopped outside the gas station ahead of me has the right number plate. It does.
I hurry out of the car I took from Anton and leave it there, key in the ignition, door closed. Then I run towards the Uber I booked.
“Car troubles?” the driver asks, confused about what is going on.
“Yes, the stupid thing keeps stalling in the cold. I’ll come back and fetch it later.”
“You sure it’s okay to leave it there? We can call a tow truck or something,” he says, looking in the rearview mirror at the car standing alone on the roadside.
“No, let’s go. I’m too cold now. I’ll call someone when I get home.”
“Alright, so we’re going to…” he looks at the destination I’ve booked on the app. “Red Heron Hotel?”
“Yes, please.”
He drops me outside the hotel, and I climb out with my backpack slung over my shoulder.
I go inside, walk up to the reception desk, and ask if they can possibly help me book a taxi service.
The plan was never to stay here. I don’t want Anton hacking into my phone or something and seeing where the Uber guy dropped me.
The plan is for them to call me a taxi so it can’t be traced back to me.
Within an hour, I'm at a different hotel, sitting on the edge of the bed and staring out of the window at the snow falling quietly outside.
My phone is in my hand, but it’s off, and I’m nervous to turn it on.
People can track people through phones.
Picking up the hotel phone, I ask reception to dial Chicago for me.
It rings twice before Kayla answers.
“Hi, it’s me. Did I wake you?” I glance at the blinking red alarm clock on the hotel nightstand. It’s half past five here. Shit, that makes it….half past four in Chicago.
Her voice is rough with sleep as she whispers, “Wait, give me a sec….”
I hear movement.
“Izzie, is something wrong?” She asks a little loud.
“I’m so sorry, I didn’t even factor in the time. We can talk later.”
My voice is strained.
“No, tell me what’s going on. I can hear something is wrong. It’s okay, I’m not in my room. Josiah is fast asleep. I’m downstairs in the kitchen.”
I take a deep breath. “I overheard something horrible last night. I…I had to leave Anton,” I sob, finally letting go of the pain I’ve been keeping inside.
I tell her about the call and what he said. She listens carefully until I’ve said everything I need to say.
“So, I’m at this hotel in the city, and I need to get back to Chicago without him finding me.”
“Izzie, I can get you back to Chicago in a heartbeat, but…did Anton not tell you about the meeting he had with your brother? Josiah heard about it though his people.”
“What meeting?” I ask, confused.
"Yesterday…he went to see your brother to try and talk to him, to try and make a truce, but it went really badly.”
“What happened?” I ask tensely, perched on the very edge of the bed.
“Illyin wouldn’t even hear him out. He just opened fire. He started shooting—with deadly intent. But Anton didn’t shoot back. He and his men only gave themselves enough cover fire to escape. He didn’t want to harm your brother because he knew it would hurt you.”
“He…he didn’t tell me any of this….” I mutter, shocked.
“Maybe he was trying to keep you safe from worrying about it? Your brother tried to kill him. He obviously didn’t want to stress about that.”
“He still should have told me.”
“Do you want me to arrange a flight for you? Do you need a driver to collect you from the hotel?” she asks.
“Actually…can you do me a different favor?”
“Anything,” she answers immediately.
“Do you have a number where I can reach Illyin?”
“I do. Josiah knows where he’s staying. I just need to go and fetch Josiah’s phone. The number will be on there.”
“Please get it for me. I need to speak to my brother.”
“Stay on the line…I won’t take long.”
I wait quietly in the hotel room with the phone pressed against my ear and my heart racing with worry. Why didn’t Anton just tell me? What really happened there? Did Illyin really try and kill him?
“Izzy?”
“I’m here.”
“Okay, I got the name of the building. I had to Google, do you have a pen ready?”
I pull the hotel drawer open and find a notepad and a pen in there.
“Ready,” I say, and as she calls out the numbers, I write them down one by one.
“Are you going to be ok?” she asks me.
“I’ll be fine. I’ll call you later, though. Thank you so much for telling me this. And for helping me.”
“Anytime, sweetie. Be careful, okay?” she sighs.
“Go back to bed. I’m so sorry I woke you.”
“I’m glad you woke me. I’m here for you at the drop of a hat, don’t ever forget that.”
After the call with Kayla, my heart is warmed by her kindness and the way she is there for me no matter what or when I need her. It’s incredible to have friends like that in your life, people you can rely on through anything.
Staring down at the notepad scribbled full of numbers, my heart pulls tight in my chest.
There is only one way out of this—I have to confront Illyin.
He’s stubborn, and he can be such an asshole, but he’s my brother. He has to listen.
I dial the number on the pad and press the phone to my ear.
It’s still before six, but I don’t care.
When Illyin answers, he doesn’t sound like he was sleeping. His voice is rough and aggressive.
“Who is this?” he snaps into the phone.
“It’s Izabel.”
“Iz?” he stammers in disbelief. “Where are you?!”
“We need to talk, Illyin. We need to talk about a lot of things, but let’s start with what happened yesterday.”
“When that fucking asshole walked into my building and thought I’d let him walk out without—”
“Did you try to kill him?” I demand.
“Yes, and if I see him again, I won’t miss next time!” he snarls.
“Illyin, please, this isn’t helping anything.”
“Helping what, exactly? He has you brainwashed into thinking, what? That you want to be with him? The man kidnapped you, Iz!”
I sigh loudly, fighting my impatience and stress.
“I do want to be with him, though,” I tell my brother.
He growls angrily into the phone. “I’m going to fucking cut his balls off and make him choke on them….”
“Stop!” I snap angrily. “What did you say to him on the phone last night?”
He laughs bitterly. “I told him the truth,” he says coldly.
“What truth?”
“I told him that he was worth nothing. That he’s never been worth anything.
I told him that a man like him doesn’t deserve to be with my sister, and I will never, ever allow it to happen.
He’s scum, Izabel. Open your eyes and see it.
Everyone knows Josiah walked all over him and sent him into hiding like the little bitch he is.
Everyone knows he’s weak and pathetic and doesn’t deserve—”
“How can you speak to someone like that?!” I demand, furious at Illyin for his cruel words.
He laughs again, amused by my shock. “Can you believe it…he tried to tell me I didn’t deserve to have a sister like you.
He actually fucking dared to tell me he would never let me see you again because I didn’t deserve a sister like you.
That fucking asshole tried to tell me I couldn’t see my own family. ”
“Illyin, can you stop swearing and ranting and just listen for as second?” I ask in desperation.
“You want me to listen? But you didn’t want to listen to me. I sent men to fetch you. I sent for you, and you pushed me away,” he snaps.
“No, I pushed your messengers away and told them to tell you to come and speak to me yourself!” I snap.
He scoffs. “You need to come home, Izabel. I’ve had enough of this bullshit.”
“I’m not coming home, Ill. Please can you understand that I am making a choice for my own life? I want to be with Anton, and I want you to talk to him to come to a truce.”
“Not a fucking chance,” he snarls.
“Why can’t you do this for me? Why can’t you understand how badly I want this? How I am happy with everything in my life right now except for how you’re handling all of this?”
“You’re delusional. Not happy. And once I get you away from him, you’ll start thinking clearly and see that you’ve been brainwashed.”
“Illyin, it’s not like that!”
But it’s no good. No matter what I say, he refuses to listen. He refuses to budge from his stubborn, annoying, insistent ideas. I can’t get through to him.
When I finally give up and end the call, there are tears in my eyes all over again.
Confused, exhausted, worried about Anton’s life if I choose to stay with him and worried about my brother who refuses to see past his own arrogance, I curl up on the hotel bed and bury my face in the pillow, soaking it with my tears.
The phone call that made me run away from Anton wasn’t at all what I thought it was. He was pushed by Ilyin’s cruel words. And Illyin sounds like he is never going to stop coming after me to drag me back home.
I love them both. And I don’t know how to fix this.
My tears keep falling, and while I don’t mean to, I eventually cry myself to sleep, exhausted from not sleeping at all last night and emotionally drained after speaking to my brother.