His Merciless Redemption novel Chapter 59

Chapter 59

Isabella’s POV

I didn’t hear his footsteps at first.

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All I heard was my own heartbeat, a painful, frantic thud beneath my palms as I crouched on the cold marble floor, trying to trap the pieces of myself before they scattered.

Then, I heard his voice, “Isa?”

He sounded warm, concerned, exactly what I hadn’t been ready for.

I flinched and looked up.

Dominic stood a few feet away, worry etched across his face. He took one step closer, then another, gaze dropping to the way my arms were wrapped around myself like armor.

“Are you hurt?” His voice sharpened, panic threading through it. “Did someone say something? Did something happen? Isa, look at me.”

I shook my head, but tears slipped out anyway. I cursed under my breath and wiped them with the heel of my hand.

“I-I’m fine.”

“You’re crying on the floor,” he countered, dropping to his knees in front of me. “That’s not fine.”

His hands hovered, like he wanted to touch me, cradle my face, steady my shaking, but didn’t know if he was allowed to.

I hated how much I wanted him to.

“I just needed a minute,” I whispered, staring at the floor.

“To do what?” His voice softened. “Fall apart alone?”

The words hit harder than they should have. I swallowed.

“You don’t have to do that anymore.”

A bitter laugh bubbled up in my throat. As if all the places I’d broken in the past had been glued seamlessly back together. As if I hadn’t just been ripped open in all the same places yet again.

“I’m okay,” I lied. “Really.”

He inhaled slowly, like he didn’t believe me but didn’t know how to pull the truth out without breaking something else.

“Is this about last night?” he asked quietly.

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Chapter 59

My breath hitched.

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He continued, guilt flickering through his eyes, “I know I shouldn’t have come down hard on you, I was just worried. You could’ve been hurt. Or worse. I can’t ignore that. I won’t.”

Last night.

Yes. That was one of the things. But it wasn’t the knife currently lodged between my ribs.

“You took me upstairs,” I said, voice barely above a whisper.

“I did,” he admitted. “I wasn’t going to leave you on the floor by the door. I didn’t like seeing you like that.”

“And the Tylenol.”

His lips twitched, not into a smile, but into something sad. “Hangovers and I have been old enemies. Felt like the least I could do.”

That was the problem.

The least he could do felt like the most to me.

I blinked hard. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me,” he murmured. “You don’t owe me gratitude for caring about you.”

My heart twisted painfully.

Because Alessia’s voice echoed back, he cleans up the messes. He always does. It’s one of the things that make him an incredible husband.

Incredible husband.

For someone else.

I swallowed the ache and pulled away slightly. “I should go check on Mateo. I need to find him.”

Dominic stiffened. “He’s in the garden with Maria. He’s fine.” A pause. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“What question?”

His jaw clenched. “Did someone say something to upset you? Because if they did-”

“Why would it matter?” I cut in, voice sharper than intended. “It’s not your responsibility to fix everything.”

His eyes darkened. “Isa, I want to fix things when it’s you.”

The words hung between us.

A promise. A threat. A lie. A truth.

12:59 Sat, Jan 17

Chapter 59

I couldn’t tell which.

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“Why?” I asked, the word trembling. “Because I’m Mateo’s mother? Because you feel guilty? Because you

think it’s the right thing to do? What exactly am I to you, Dominic?”

His silence stretched.

He blinked, as if the question hurt. “You know what you are.”

“I don’t.” My voice cracked. “I really don’t.”

He reached out, fingertips brushing my forearm, and my whole body shivered.

“You’re family,” he said.

Of course, I was. I was the mother of his child.

I pulled my arm away.

He noticed. He frowned.

“Isabella?”

“You should go,” I whispered. “Alessia might need you.”

His brows furrowed. “What does she have to do with this?”

“I heard her talking today. About you. About things.” My throat closed. “It doesn’t matter.”

A muscle ticked in his jaw. “Tell me what she said.”

The thought alone splintered something in my chest. Husband. He can’t bear anything happening to us.

I shook my head fiercely. “No. I don’t want to talk about her. Or this. I just…. I need space.”

He went very still. The kind of stillness that came right before a storm.

“Space,” he repeated quietly.

“I’m trying to do what’s best for Mateo,” I whispered. “That’s all I’m trying to do.”

His eyes shuttered. “And I’m in the way of that?”

Yes. No. I didn’t know. I didn’t know anything anymore.

He rose slowly to his feet, composure slotting back into place like armor. He offered his hand to help me up, a reflex, maybe, but I pretended not to see it and stood on my own.

Something in his eyes flickered.

He nodded once. “If space is what you want….”

12:59 Sat, Jan 17

Chapter 59

Say it isn’t, some small part of me begged.

“….you’ll have it.”

And then, just like that, he turned and walked away.

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Leaving me standing alone in the hallway with the ghost of a future I’d once imagined and the ruins of a present I didn’t know how to survive.

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