His Merciless Redemption novel Chapter 72

Chapter 72

Dominic’s POV

I had rehearsed this conversation in my head a dozen times.

Every version of it ended badly.

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She either walked away. Or cried. Or looked at me like I was a stranger she’d once trusted and no longer could.

So when Isabella stood there by the pool, water dripping down her wet hair, with Mateo chasing a floating toy with single-minded devotion, I forced myself to slow down.

Not command. Not corner. Just talk.

“I wanted to ask you something,” I said, when she didn’t immediately cut me off.

She turned, guarded but not closed. That alone felt like a victory.

“Okay.”

I gestured toward the chairs near the pool. “Can we sit?”

She hesitated only a second before nodding.

We sat side by side, close enough that I could feel her warmth, far enough that I knew better than to reach for her. The smell of sunscreen and chlorine clung to her skin. Familiar. Dangerous.

“I’ve been thinking about what you said at the party,” I began carefully.

Her shoulders stiffened.

“About not being my wife.”

She inhaled, slow and measured. “Dominic-”

“I’m not trying to start a fight,” I said quickly. “I just don’t understand.”

She looked away, eyes following Mateo’s laughter across the pool.

“I just meant that we haven’t been in each other’s lives for five years now, Dominic,” she said finally. “You can’t just walk in to my life suddenly and claim it as yours. I am the mother of your of your son, yes. But that’s not how things work.”

Okay. So, I had come off as too strong.

And she was right. Even if she was my wife, there were a lot of years between us now. I couldn’t just stake my claim over her like a caveman. Especially not after the way I’d hurt her in the past.

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Chapter 72

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“I get that,” I said to her. “I shouldn’t have acted all territorial at the party. That was my fault,” I admitted quietly, taking full responsibility for my actions. But I just couldn’t help it. The thought of anyone being close to her made me lose control.

She opened her mouth. Closed it again.

For a moment, I thought she was going to give it to me good. That she was going to finally talk about this thing that lived between us like a landmine we kept circling. And everything was just going to explode around me. But she didn’t.

“It’s just that,” she began, her voice soft. “I don’t know what we are anymore.”

I understood that part. More than she could ever know.

Before I could respond, Mateo ran up to us, dripping wet and breathless.

“Papa-” he stopped himself, cheeks reddening, before he corrected himself quickly, “-Dominic! Can you come see something?”

Isa’s head snapped up. My heart stuttered.

But she didn’t correct him. Didn’t pull him back. Didn’t say anything at all.

I stood. “Of course.”

Mateo grabbed my hand like it was the most natural thing in the world and dragged me towards the shallow end, chattering about how he’d learned to hold his breath underwater.

As I crouched beside him, listening, my eyes flicked back to Isabella.

She watched us quietly.

Something unreadable passed over her face.

By the time I returned, a towel slung over my shoulder, the moment had shifted. Whatever fragile opening had existed was closing again.

“Sorry,” I said. “He’s persistent.”

A corner of her mouth lifted. “He gets that from you.”

I sat back down. “You were saying.”

She shook her head. “It’s not important.”

“It is to me.”

She met my gaze then, steady and calm in a way that made my chest ache.

“Dominic, it doesn’t matter whether we’re married or not.”

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Chapter 72

The words landed softly, but they hit hard.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

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She gestured towards the pool, towards Mateo. “We’re always going to be connected. Through him. That doesn’t change with paperwork or labels.”

Paperwork.

Something about the word snagged my attention, but before I could pull at the thread, she continued.

“And for now, that’s enough.”

Enough.

Not everything. Not nothing. But somewhere in between.

I exhaled slowly. “So you’re not pushing me away.”

Her eyes flickered. Just a fraction. “I’ve tried, but he keeps pulling us right back together. I think it’s best if we tried to maintain a certain level of civility between us.”

I raised a brow.

She wasn’t proposing for us to be a true family like I so desperately wanted to. But it was a start. This was her extending an olive branch, and I’d be a fool to not grab it with both hands.

“I can live with that,” I said quietly.

For now.

If she agreed to talk to me, I could make her see how much I’d truly improved, and then maybe, just maybe, she’d take me back, too.

Silence settled between us, not awkward this time. Thoughtful.

“About the Vitellis,” I said, shifting the subject before we slipped back into dangerous territory. “What you did, going to them, holding your ground, it was brave, and smart.”

Her brows creased. “I was terrified.”

“I know.” I turned towards her fully. “But you did it anyway. And I promise I’ll be right there with you every step of the way.”

A wave of protectiveness rushed through me. She wasn’t reckless. She was deliberate. Calculated. Brave. But I felt the need to protect her, to hold her close, to never let anything bad happen to her. She was like my very own piece of expensive china that I wanted to protect with my life.

Something warm curled low in my gut as I watched her. Sun-kissed skin. Damp hair. Fire behind her eyes.

I wanted her. Not just physically, though God, that too, but in a way that felt deeper, heavier. Like a pull

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Chapter 72

towards something I had once thrown away and was now desperate to reclaim.

My hand shifted closer to hers on the chair.

She noticed, but didn’t move away.

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The air thickened around us, charged.

Her gaze dropped to my mouth.

Mine followed the curve of her lips.

Just a little closer and-

“Dominic.”

Alessia’s voice cut through the moment like a blade.

I turned, irritation flaring before I could stop it.

She stood near the patio doors, phone in hand, expression serious. “I need you. It’s work. Something came up.”

Of course it did.

I looked back at Isabella.

Her face had shuttered again. Polite. Neutral. The distance back in place.

“I’ll just―” she said, already rising. “I should check on Mateo.”

She walked away before I could say anything else.

I stood there, torn between following her and duty pulling me in the opposite direction.

Alessia waited.

I went.

But as I did, my eyes tracked Isabella’s retreating figure, the echo of almost-words and almost-truths ringing in my ears.

Not what I wanted.

But it wasn’t nothing either.

And for now, that would have to be enough.

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