Chasing The Wrong Bride

CHAPTER 5 - FIANCÉE

Isabella's POV

"That's not true!" I shouted, my voice cracking. Tears pooled in my eyes, falling down my face hot and fast. "You're lying, Chloe! You're lying!"

I turned to the cameras. "She gave me this necklace! She said I could keep it! She brought me here last night! She gave me drinks! She said it was our room!"

Chloe's eyes filled with perfect tears instantly. Tears that didn't ruin her expensive makeup. She is such a good actress.

"Isabella, how could you say such a horrible thing about me?" she sobbed, looking at the paparazzi for sympathy. "I only invited you out because you never go out. You are always locked in your room, depressed. I wanted us to bond as sisters! I was trying to be nice! And you... you get drunk and end up in a stranger's bed wearing my stolen necklace!"

"I didn't get drunk! You gave me those drinks! You brought me to this room! You said it was our room! You were on the phone saying…'"

She cut me off quickly.

"Our room?" Chloe laughed through her tears, like I was crazy. "Why would I book a room for us when we live twenty minutes away?”

My mouth dropped in absolute shock, how is she doing this?

“After you snuck out from the bar, I went home. I was at home all night! Mom saw me! Ask Mom! You're making up stories because you got caught stealing and sleeping around!"

She was twisting everything. She interrupted me every time I tried to speak so I couldn't expose the truth. She was so good at lying.

"She's always been jealous of me," Chloe told the cameras, wiping her eyes delicately with her fingers. "She steals my clothes. My makeup. Now my expensive jewelry. I didn't want to say anything before but... but now she's trying to ruin my reputation too because she is jealous."

I looked at Theo, begging with my eyes. "Please, you have to believe me, she gave it to me! She said an admirer sent it and she didn't want it! She said I could have it if I came out with her. Please, I’m not a thief!"

The two paparazzi men started whispering loudly again, not caring if we heard, their cameras still flashing.

"This is gold," one said. "Theo Di Laurentis caught in bed with a random girl. And Chloe Reynolds is the other woman. Love triangle with hot stepsisters. This will get millions of clicks!"

"Headline: Billionaire Bachelor Caught Cheating On Heiress With Her Thieving Stepsister In Hotel Room. This will break the internet by morning."

I felt like I was going to vomit. My life was over. Everyone would see this. Everyone would think I was a slut and a thief.

Chloe heard them too and her tears got louder and more dramatic. She was enjoying this so much. She was winning.

That's when Theo spoke.

His voice was calm, but cold. The kind of cold that made the whole room stop talking. Even the cameras stopped clicking.

"Enough."

Everyone looked at him. The paparazzi stopped whispering, Chloe stopped fake crying, I stopped sobbing. My eyes went straight to his face, the anger in his eyes made me gulp down nothing.

He has that kind of power. When he speaks, people listen.

He stepped forward and stood next to Chloe. He put a firm hand on her shoulder, not romantic, but to calm her down.

"Chloe is a very dear friend of mine," he said clearly to the cameras. "A very dear friend. She saved my life once. So I will not allow anyone to drag her name into the mud with cheap gossip. You will not write anything bad about her, is that clear?"

The paparazzi nodded quickly, scared. “Yes Mr. Di Laurentis”

Chloe smiled through tears, moving closer to him to lean on his chest while trying to hold his hand. "Thank you, Theo. You are so kind and noble."

Theo looked down at her, a warm smile stretching across his lips. He looked genuinely pleased to have her around him.

The paparazzi lifted their cameras again, looking at me with hungry eyes. "And who is she, Mr. Di Laurentis? The random woman you were caught in bed with? Is she your girlfriend? Is this a cheating scandal?"

Theo looked at me.

I was standing there, holding the blanket, hair messy, eyes red and crying, wearing a necklace that everyone now thought I stole. I looked exactly like what Chloe said I was. A slutty, thieving, jealous stepsister.

I thought he would agree with them. I thought he would force me to hand over the necklace and call security to have them throw me out of the hotel.

But he looked at me for a long second. At my scared face. At my shaking hands. At the rose necklace on my neck. At my tears.

Then he did something I never, ever expected in my whole life.

He left Chloe’s side and walked to me to my utmost surprise. He pulled the blanket gently from my tight hands and put his expensive jacket around my shoulders. He put his arm around me, pulling me close to him, warm and safe.

His scent hit me. Expensive cologne and something clean.

He looked straight into the flashing cameras, his face hard like stone.

"Her?" he called, loud and clear so everyone could hear. "She is not a random woman."

My heart stopped beating.

"She is my fiancée. Isabella. We came here to spend time together as a couple. Just the two of us. In the private room that was booked for us. And I don't appreciate you all bursting into our room at 8am and harassing my future wife."

Silence.

Complete, dead, shocked, unbelievable silence.

Chloe's mouth fell open as her eyes bulged in shock. “WHAT?"

The paparazzi almost dropped their cameras. "Fiancée?"

And me? I couldn't breathe. I couldn't speak. I just stared up at him, my eyes wide.

His fiancée?

What was he saying?