Chapter 38 The Price Of Protection

• (POV: Isabela)
• Life in the gleaming Miami fortress settled into a strange, numb routine. Days blurred together, marked only by the silent delivery of meals to my suite, the occasional chilly appearance of Mrs. Davenport with schedules or instructions, and the constant, heavy presence of guards outside my door. The massive windows showed me a beautiful, unreachable world – endless blue sky, turquoise ocean, the distant shimmer of the city. It felt like looking at a postcard from a prison cell.
• Mateo himself kept his distance for several days after that disturbing night he appeared in my room while I slept. I didn't know if he was busy, or if it was another calculated move, letting the fear and uncertainty settle deeper into my bones. The dagger remained hidden beneath my mattress, a cold, secret weight. The memory of the torture victim, the attack at the gala, the escape attempt and its horrifying end… these thoughts circled endlessly, leaving me jumpy, exhausted, feeling like a ghost haunting my own luxurious cage.