Chapter 28 A Lesson In Fear

• (POV: Isabela)
• The world had tilted. Knowing the wedding was moved up, happening in days, not weeks, felt like the floor dropping out from under me. There was no time. No room to breathe, let alone carefully execute the fragile escape plan Rena and I had devised. Panic gnawed at me constantly, a cold sickness in the pit of my stomach. The attack at the gala had been the excuse Mateo needed, the lever he used to pry open the last resistance from Papa and force his timeline onto us all. My cage wasn't just locked anymore; its walls were closing in, faster and faster.
• I moved through the next day or two in a haze of suppressed terror. Every interaction felt fraught, every corner seemed to hold a potential watcher. Was Mateo’s heightened security because of the attack? Or did he somehow suspect my frantic, whispered planning with Rena? Camila’s warning about trusting bright smiles echoed constantly, making me jumpy, suspicious of everyone, even Rena, though I still clung to her as my only lifeline.