His Merciless Redemption novel Chapter 54

Chapter 54

Isabella’s POV

I noticed it the moment we stepped out of my office.

Dominic didn’t move away from me.

Not fully.

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He walked close, too close to be accidental, his presence at my side a solid, unyielding thing as we followed Luca down the corridor towards the conference room. Every time Luca slowed, Dominic adjusted his pace so he remained just half a step ahead of me.

Almost as if he was shielding me.

The realization made my stomach twist in a way I didn’t know what to do with.

I told myself not to read into it.

This was Dominic. He was protective by nature. Possessive in a way that had nothing to do with romance and everything to do with control. He had always been like this, especially when it came to things he considered his responsibility.

And I was one of them.

I was Mateo’s mother.

That explanation was enough.

Luca stopped at the conference room doors and turned to us, smiling easily. “I’ll grab Chiara. Won’t be a minute.”

The moment he was gone, Dominic shifted, subtly angling his body so he stood directly in front of me now, blocking my view of the hallway.

I looked up at him. “You’re doing it again.”

“Doing what?” he asked calmly.

“Standing like that.”

His brows drew together faintly. “Like what?”

“Like you think someone might steal me if you blink.”

Something sharp flickered across his face, annoyance, maybe? Or something closer to discomfort? But it was gone before I could figure out what it meant, his expression shuttering into the indifferent mask he usually

wore.

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Chapter 54

“That’s not what I think,” he said.

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I crossed my arms, mirroring his rigidity. “Then what do you think?”

He hesitated just long enough for irritation to spark in my chest.

“You’ve been through enough,” he said finally. “You don’t need distractions.”

The words hit wrong.

“Distractions,” I repeated quietly. “Is that what you think another man would be?”

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“I think-” He stopped himself, jaw tightening. “I think your priorities should stay where they are. Mateo needs stability.”

I exhaled slowly. “And you think I’d forget that?”

“That’s not what I said.”

“It’s what you implied.”

His gaze darkened. “You’re twisting my words.”

“Am I?” I challenged. “Because it sounds an awful lot like you don’t trust me to know what’s good for my own life.”

“I trust you,” he said sharply. “I just don’t trust anyone else around you.”

The edge in his voice startled me.

I stared at him. “Why?”

Silence.

Not the thoughtful kind, but the dangerous kind, the kind that meant I might not like the next words coming out of his mouth.

“If this is about Luca,” I finally said, my tone soft, unwilling to start arguing with him again, “there’s nothing there. He’s my colleague. My friend.”

“I know,” Dominic replied immediately, too fast, too certain.

“You do?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“How?”

His eyes flicked away for half a second before returning to mine. “Because I would know.”

“You would know,” I echoed, my brows furrowing. He had hardly known me that well when we had been

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Chapter 54

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married, let alone now, when he had met me years later, a changed woman. I didn’t think he knew me enough to judge whether I liked a man or not, or what I thought about him.

“Yes.”

“And how exactly would you know, Dominic?” I probed.

His jaw worked, tension rippling through him like a warning tremor.

“Because,” he said slowly, “I pay attention.”

My pulse spiked. Did he?

“And paying attention means you can know who means what to me?”

“In this case, it does,” he said, frustration bleeding through his control. “Look, I just don’t want you distracted.

I don’t want you pulled into something unnecessary when you already have responsibilities.”

I stared at him, unable to decide what to say to him.

Sometimes with the way he acted, it seemed as if he was concerned about me, about the men I was around, and then sometimes, it felt as if he was only saying that because it was his duty to make sure I wasn’t distracted from taking care of Mateo.

But he couldn’t be concerned about me like that, could he? He had Alessia waiting at home for him. And me? I was only Mateo’s mother to him.

I decided it was probably the latter he was concerned with.

“I’ve managed my life just fine without you,” I finally said to him, my voice quiet. “I raised Mateo. I built my career. I didn’t fall apart.”

“I know,” he said. “And that’s exactly why-”

He stopped himself.

I leaned in slightly. “Why what?”

His eyes burned into mine.

“Why I don’t want anyone else stepping into spaces that are mine to protect.”

The world seemed to tilt at his words.

Mine.

To protect.

My breath caught painfully in my throat.

“What did you just say?” I whispered.

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Chapter 54

He froze.

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I saw the exact moment it hit him what he’d said, how it must have sounded, what it revealed.

So, he thought of me as his? That I belonged to him? Enough that he wanted to protect me in his own way?

“I meant-” He scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “I meant Mateo. You. Your safety.”

“And by anyone else, did you mean Luca?” I asked, still stuck on that once sentence where he’d slipped, my voice barely steady now.

“That’s not the point,” he said, trying to brush it off as if it was nothing.

It wasn’t. Not to me.

“That’s exactly the point, Dominic.”

Because suddenly, the explanation I’d almost convinced myself was true had been flipped upside down.

If this was only about Mateo, why did his eyes harden every time Luca smiled at me?

If this was only about safety, why did his body instinctively place itself between me and anyone else? Why did he look like something inside him recoiled at the thought of me belonging emotionally, even casually to someone else?

This wasn’t logic.

This wasn’t duty.

This was something else entirely.

The doors opened then, Chiara and Luca returning mid-conversation, unaware they’d just interrupted something raw and unfinished.

Dominic stepped back instantly, the Don slipping back into place with seamless precision.

I followed him into the conference room on unsteady legs, my heart racing with

questions I didn’t dare voice.

Because if his possessiveness wasn’t about Mateo, then what was it about?

And worse-why did a part of me want it to be about me?

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