His Ruthless Redemption (Isabella and Dominic) novel Chapter 102

Chapter 102

Isabella’s POV

Dominic was busy

Not in the usual way where he disappeared for hours and came back sharp–eyed and contained, but in a way that felt almost evasive. Meetings stacked on meetings. Calls taken behind closed doors. Men coming and going at odd hours.

He still checked on me. Still asked how I was sleeping. Still touched my shoulder in passing like he needed to remind himself I was there. But he either didn’t come home at all, or if he did, it was extremely late at night. I only knew because he would come into my room silently and wrap his arms around me, lulling me to sleep softly when I stirred. Then, in the mornings he was gone before I woke up.

Another thing I’d noticed was that ever since the incident, there was a strange distance between us. For starters, three day had passed since then and I was yet to have a conversation with him. And I didn’t just mean a conversation about the incident, but any kind of conversation in general.

We were in the living room, late afternoon light spilling across the floor. Today, he was finally home for a while, but even now he was reviewing something on his tablet, jaw tight in that familiar way that meant work had followed him home. Thinking this was as good a time as any, I finally asked him what I’d been circling around since the night in the parking lot.

“Dominic,” I said quietly.

He looked up immediately. “Yes?”

“What happened after,” I said. “That night.”

He didn’t pretend not to understand.

“What do you mean?”

“I killed a man,” I said plainly. The words still tasted wrong. “And then nothing happened. No police. No questions. No consequences.” I swallowed. “How?”

He set the tablet aside.

“I handled it.”

“That’s not an answer,” I said, though I kept my voice calm. “He was a wanted man. Someone would’ve noticed.”

Dominic exhaled slowly. “Lou was devastated. He had no idea Nico would lose control like that.”

“So Lou just….apologized?” I asked.

“He did,” Dominic said. “And he understands the cost of that mistake.”

My chest tightened. “And the law?”

“I’m dealing with it,” he said firmly. “You won’t be touched. I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise.”

The way he said it, low, almost too certain, made something inside me shift.

It didn’t sound like reassurance.

It sounded like resolve.

“You’re very sure,” I said carefully.

Tue, Jun

Chapter 102

His eyes flicked to mine. “I have to be.”

The words landed heavier than he seemed to intend. Like he wasn’t just convincing me, but himself as well.

I nodded anyway. “Okay.”

What else could I say?

Caterina helped me become normal more than she probably realized.

She stayed busy most of the time, cooking for me, reorganizing cupboards that didn’t need it, bringing tea/ didn’t ask for She talked to me like I was fragile but not broken, which somehow made all the difference.

“You will heal,” she told me later that evening, pressing a warm cup into my hands. “It doesn’t mean you forget. It means you live anyway.”

Mateo helped too, in his own uncomplicated way.

He had resumed school the very next day and often sat with me while I worked from home on the couch. I’d taken a few days of work from home, at least until I felt normal enough to be able to talk to people without zoning out or bursting into tears. Mateo showed me drawings he’d made at school, insisted I taste–test cookies he absolutely did not bake himself.

“You’re smiling more,” he said during dinner that night, looking pleased.

“I am?”

He nodded. “It’s good. Does that mean you’re fine now?”

I nodded at him with a smile.

But honestly? I didn’t know. Ever since the incident, there was a strange hollowness inside me that wouldn’t go no matter how much I tried to keep myself busy and not think about it.

The days were still better, but the nights were what I dreaded the most. Sleep didn’t come easily, and when it did, I often woke up from nightmares, drenched in sweat and with tears streaming down my face.

Sometimes Dominic was there right next to me to lull me back to sleep, other nights when he was too busy to get back home, I handled it alone, barely managing.

Still, I returned to the office by the end of the week.

Everyone was kind. Too kind. They felt as if I’d recovered from a serious illness, but only I knew what I had gone through, or rather, was still going through. Even so, I worked, focused, answered emails, went to meetings, did all that was expected of me, wishing that this empty feeling inside of me would go away.

It didn’t.

Life moved forward.

Dominic, however, did not move with it.

He was rarely home, and even when he was, he was quiet, and distracted most of the time.

We didn’t fight.

But we didn’t talk much either.

His birthday was the next day.

19:14 Tue, Jun 2 M

Chapter 102

DM

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