ISABELLA

Chapter 32

Sabrina’s POV

I lingered in the sitting room after breakfast, tracing my finger along the rim of my coffee cup. The house had emptied of chatter, but my mind was alive. Isabella. The way Leo touched her arm, the way his eyes softened for her—things I had never seen him give anyone. Not me. Not anyone.

And then Riccardo walked in.

He leaned against the doorframe like he owned the room, dark hair slicked back, a lazy grin tugging at his mouth. But his eyes… his eyes were sharp, watching me the way they always had.

“It’s good you’re back,” he said smoothly, breaking the silence.

I looked up, arching a brow. “Back? I never left, Riccardo.”

“You did,” he countered, stepping closer. His voice carried that same boyish charm I remembered from when we were younger, but there was steel under it now. “You left the moment Leo stopped being enough for you.”

A sting hit my chest, though I refused to show it. “You’re still chasing that fantasy, aren’t you? All these years, and you still want me to admit I cared about you.”

He smirked, but it wasn’t the same as before—it wasn’t for me anymore. “No, Sabrina. I wanted you once. When we were kids, when I thought maybe Leo didn’t see you. But he did. He always did. And you—” he tilted his head, eyes narrowing—“you always wanted him. Not me.”

I held his gaze, cold. “And now?”

“Now,” he said, sliding his hands into his pockets, “I don’t care. I’ve got better things to focus on.”

It took me half a breath too long to realize what he meant. “Isabella,” I whispered, tasting the name like poison.

His grin widened. “She’s different. Fresh. Not like you, not like the rest of us who’ve been tangled in this family’s game for years. She’s fire in the middle of Leo’s storm, and I like fire.”

I felt my nails dig into my palm, heat rushing up my neck. Isabella. Again.

“You’re making a mistake,” I said lowly. “She’s not one of us. She never will be.”

Riccardo shrugged, almost amused. “Neither was I, once. Doesn’t stop me from playing the game. And Sabrina…”—he leaned in just enough that I caught the edge of his cologne—“…maybe it’s time you stopped chasing a king who’ll never see you, and started seeing what’s right in front of you.”

I didn’t flinch. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. But as he walked away, whistling under his breath, I realized the truth of it: Riccardo wasn’t the boy with a crush anymore. He was a man who’d set his eyes on Isabella.

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

Leo’s POV

I couldn’t sleep. Not when I knew she was just a floor away, probably twisting under her sheets, haunted by the same nightmares that kept her up the night before.

I shoved my hands in my pockets, steps steady but my mind on fire as I made my way down the hall toward her room. I needed to see her—just to make sure she was okay. Just to remind myself she was here, alive, breathing.

“Leo.”

The voice stopped me cold.

I turned, Sabrina. Leaning against the wall like she’d been waiting for me, arms crossed, silk nightdress clinging to her frame. Her lips curved into a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

“Where are you going?” she asked softly, stepping closer, her heels barely making a sound on the marble.

My jaw tightened. “Go to bed, Sabrina.”

She laughed under her breath, a low, bitter sound. “Don’t act like I don’t know. You’re going to her, aren’t you?”

I didn’t answer. I didn’t need to. The silence between us spoke louder than words.

Sabrina’s eyes narrowed, and her voice dropped to a whisper edged with venom. “She doesn’t belong here, Leo. She’s not one of us. She’ll never understand what this life means, what it costs.”

I stepped past her, but she reached out, fingers brushing my arm, trying to anchor me. “You can’t protect her forever. She’ll break. And when she does, she’ll take you down with her.”

I stopped, finally looking at her. Her face—so familiar, so tied to the past—was twisted with something I didn’t recognize anymore. Desperation. Fear. Maybe even jealousy.

“You think I don’t see you?” I said quietly, my voice low enough to cut. “You’ve been waiting your whole life for me to choose you. But I never did. And I never will.”

Her hand dropped, the words hitting harder than I intended, but I didn’t take them back.

“Stay out of this, Sabrina,” I warned, turning my back to her. “Because nothing—and no one—is going to stop me from protecting Isabella.”

I left her in the shadows of the hall, walking toward the one door that mattered.

Sabrina’s POV

I stood frozen in the hallway, staring at his retreating back.

The words echoed in my head like a gunshot.

“I never did. And I never will.”

For a moment, I couldn’t breathe. My chest burned, my fingers tingled, and all I could do was clutch the silk of my nightdress as if that would hold me together. He didn’t even hesitate. Didn’t even flinch when he said it.

And the worst part? He meant it.

I had waited years. Years of dinners at this mansion, of trips with the DeLuca family, of being paraded around as the perfect match for their golden son. Everyone always said it would be us. That Leo and I were inevitable.

But then she came.

Isabella Rossi.

A nobody. A girl with big brown eyes and trembling lips. A girl who didn’t understand this world, who didn’t earn it, who didn’t deserve it. Yet somehow, she had what I had been fighting for my entire life.

Him.

My nails dug into my palm until I felt the sting of blood. A bitter laugh slipped past my lips, shaky at first, then sharper. “He thinks I’ll stay out of this?” I whispered to myself, eyes burning.

No.

If Leo wouldn’t choose me willingly, then I’d make sure she was out of the picture. One way or another.

Because Leonardo Salvatore DeLuca is mine.

And I wasn’t going to let a Russian girl—of all people—take him away from me.