Chapter Seven ISLA'S POV
1084 Words
Nadia was sitting on my bed when I walked in, eating cereal and scrolling her phone like the apartment hadn't been violated a dozen times by a man with a camera and no boundaries.
She looked up. "Why do you have security guys in the hallway?"
"I need to pack a bag." I went straight to my closet. "Maybe two bags."
"Isla." She set the bowl down. "What happened?"
"Brandon has been breaking into the apartment. Cameras. Kai's team found them this morning." I pulled a duffel from the top shelf. "I'm staying somewhere else for a while."
Nadia was off the bed in seconds, standing in the doorway of my closet. "Cameras where?"
"Bedroom. Probably the bathroom. I don't know the full list and I don't want to." I started pulling clothes from hangers without thinking too hard about what I was grabbing. "The police are being notified. A restraining order is being filed."
"Okay." Nadia's voice had gone quiet and steady, the tone she used at work when things were serious. "What else aren't you telling me?"
I stopped. Turned around. "I got married this morning."
She stared at me.
"To Kai."
She kept staring.
"At city hall. About an hour ago. It's a long story involving Brandon working for Kai's business rival and a clause in Kai's father's will and—"
"You married Kai Westbrook." Her voice was completely flat.
"Yes."
"Kai. The man you've been in love with for five years."
"It's not like that. It's an arrangement."
Nadia picked up her cereal bowl and pointed a spoon at me. "I have been telling you for three years that man looks at you like you're the only person in the room. Three years, Isla. And now you're married and telling me it's an arrangement."
"It's complicated."
"Where is he right now?"
"Downstairs. He stayed in the car to give me space."
"Because he respects your boundaries." She gestured wildly with the spoon. "While also marrying you and installing security outside your door. Very cold and indifferent behavior."
"Nadia."
"I'm just noting the facts." She came into the closet and started folding the clothes I'd been cramming into the bag. "Where are you staying?"
"West Village. His place."
"Of course it is." She handed me a neatly folded stack. "Marco called me this morning, by the way. He's been trying to reach you."
My stomach tightened. "What did you tell him?"
"That you were busy with the project. But Isla, you have to tell him before he finds out some other way. You know how he gets."
I knew exactly how he got. Marco Moretti got loud and physical and then spent three days not talking to anyone before showing up with food and an apology. The problem was the middle part, specifically when the loud and physical part was directed at Kai.
"I'll call him tonight."
"Call him now. Rip it off."
"I'm in the middle of packing."
"You're stalling." She took the duffel from my hands. "I'll finish this. You call him."
I went to the living room and dialed before I could talk myself out of it.
Marco picked up on the second ring. "Finally. I've been calling you all morning. How's the project?"
"Good. Great. Marco, I need to tell you something and I need you to listen before you react."
Silence.
"I mean it. You have to actually listen."
"You're scaring me."
"Brandon broke into my apartment. Multiple times. He's been watching me." I heard him inhale sharply but kept going. "He's also apparently connected to Kai's business rival, which means he targeted me deliberately when we started dating. Kai found out this morning."
"I'm going to kill him." Marco's voice was low and controlled, which was somehow worse than shouting. "I'm going to find him and I'm going to—"
"Marco. There's more."
"More than my sister being stalked? What could possibly be—"
"Kai and I got married this morning."
The silence was so complete I checked my phone to make sure the call hadn't dropped.
"Say that again."
"City hall. An hour ago. It's a legal arrangement, it gives me his security and his lawyers, and it satisfies a clause in his father's will. It's not—"
"He married you." Marco's voice had gone dangerously quiet. "Kai married you. My sister. Without telling me."
"It happened fast. Brandon was escalating and—"
"He's been in love with you for years." The words came out clipped and hard. "You think I didn't know? You think I haven't watched him stare at you at every family dinner for five years? And now he uses a crisis to finally—"
"He's protecting me."
"He's taking advantage of the situation."
"That's not what happened."
"I want to talk to him."
"Marco—"
"Put him on the phone, Isla."
I walked to the window and looked down at the street. Kai's black car was parked at the curb. "He's not up here."
"Then go get him."
"I'm not doing this right now. I called to tell you what happened, not to hand the phone to Kai so you can threaten him."
"He married my sister!"
"And I said yes!" My voice came out sharper than I intended. "I'm twenty-six. I made a decision. You don't get to be angrier about it than I am."
Another silence. Longer this time.
"Are you okay?" His voice shifted. Still tight, but underneath it was something softer. "The Brandon stuff. Are you okay?"
"Not really. But I will be."
He exhaled. "I'm coming over."
"I won't be here. I'm staying at Kai's place in the West Village."
"Of course you are." He said something under his breath. "I want to see you tonight. Dinner. You, me, and your husband, apparently."
The word landed strangely.
"I'll ask him."
"Don't ask. Tell him." A pause. "And Isla? I'm glad you're safe. Even if I want to put Kai through a wall."
He hung up.
Nadia appeared in the doorway holding my packed duffel. "How'd it go?"
"He wants dinner tonight. All three of us."
She winced sympathetically. "Do you want me to come? Moral support?"
"Yes. Absolutely yes."
She grabbed her keys from the counter. "Give me ten minutes to change. I'm not missing this dinner for anything."
I picked up the duffel and took one last look around the apartment. Somewhere in these walls, Brandon had put his eyes.
I walked out and didn't look back.
- Writer
