Chapter 14

• Isabella’s POV
• I did not sleep that night.
• Even as the rest of the estate folded in on itself in silence, when the flicker of candlelight had long since faded and the creaking of footsteps gave way to stillness, I remained wide-eyed and alert. Somewhere between my ribs and my spine sat a weight I couldn’t shift. It wasn't quite fear, and not quite certainty, but something murkier — like the moment before a storm breaks, when the air tastes like metal and your skin knows what your mind has not yet admitted.