Chapter 2 The Woman He Never Forget

"Get out of the car, Isabella."

Alessandro's voice cut through the rain as he reached Victor Salvatore's vehicle. Two Moretti guards appeared behind him, blocking the street without touching anyone.

Victor smiled from the passenger seat. "You're making a scene, Moretti."

"You brought my enemy's missing family into a negotiation. You should be grateful I'm only making a scene."

Isabella gripped the door handle. "You said you knew where Matteo was."

"I do." Victor's smile sharpened. "Come with me, and I'll tell you."

Alessandro stepped closer. "He's lying."

"You don't know that," Isabella snapped.

"I know Salvatore. He'd sell his own shadow if he could charge twice."

"And you'd sell anyone if it protected your empire."

His expression tightened. For a moment, the rain and the traffic seemed to disappear around them.

Victor leaned toward her. "You see? He still thinks he can order you around. Come on, Isabella. Let's leave him to his little kingdom."

Alessandro's gaze stayed on her. "If you get into that car, I can't protect you."

"I never asked you to."

"No," he said quietly. "You only asked me to marry you."

That stopped her.

Victor's smile faded. "Enough. We're leaving."

The driver shifted into gear. Isabella looked at Victor, then at Alessandro. She hated that the only person who might know the truth about Matteo was the man she had sworn never to trust again.

She stepped away from the car.

"Tell me where my brother is," she demanded.

Victor's eyes cooled. "You've just wasted your best chance."

"Then it wasn't much of a chance."

He raised two fingers. The car pulled away, leaving a sheet of dirty water across the curb.

Alessandro caught Isabella by the elbow as she stumbled back from the splash. She immediately pulled free.

"Don't touch me."

"Then stop walking into danger."

"Stop acting as if you care."

His jaw flexed. "Get in my car."

"No."

"Isabella, someone knows you're searching for Matteo. Someone sent you a message using information that should never have left my organization. Until I know who, you're not going anywhere alone."

"You don't get to give me orders."

"I can't force you. But come somewhere secure and help me find your brother, or walk away and let Salvatore reach you first."

"Why would you help me?"

"Because Matteo may be the key to a problem that threatens us both."

There it was. Not because he missed her. Because she and her brother were useful.

"Fine," she said. "But I'm not your prisoner."

"No locks. No guards outside your bedroom. You have my word."

"Your word stopped meaning anything three years ago."

She got into the car anyway.

---

Alessandro took her to his penthouse, high above the city. He dismissed the two guards waiting in the hall before Isabella crossed the threshold.

"Your room is there. The study is off-limits unless I'm with you. Don't leave the building without telling security."

She gave him a flat look.

"Those were instructions," he said. "Not a request."

"And you wonder why I left you."

The words landed between them.

Alessandro removed his wet jacket and tossed it over a chair. "You didn't leave. You disappeared."

"I left a letter."

"A letter that said you never wanted to see me again. No explanation. No chance to speak."

"You had three years to invent an explanation. I'm sure you found one that makes you innocent."

He went still. "You believe I betrayed you."

"I saw you with my own eyes."

"You saw one moment and decided you knew everything."

"I saw you standing beside a woman while she kissed you. Then I heard you tell your men that I was a weakness you couldn't afford."

His face lost its color.

"You heard that?"

"I heard enough." Her voice trembled, and she hated it. "I had come to tell you I was pregnant."

Silence swallowed the room.

Alessandro stared at her as if she had struck him. "What?"

"I lost the baby two days later. I was alone in a hospital, Alessandro. I called you six times. You never answered."

He took a step toward her, then stopped himself. "I never received those calls."

"Of course you didn't."

"I swear-"

"Don't." She lifted a hand. "You don't get to swear anything to me."

His eyes searched hers, and for the first time that evening, his cold control cracked.

"You were pregnant with my child?"

"Not anymore."

He looked away, one hand closing over the edge of the counter. She had imagined telling him this a thousand times. In some versions he begged her to forgive him. In others he broke down. She had never imagined him standing so still that he seemed carved from stone.

"Who was the woman?" Isabella asked. "The one you kissed?"

"Bianca Rinaldi. My father's allies arranged for her to be seen with me. I was trying to stop a hostile takeover. They wanted everyone to believe I was engaged to her."

"You could have told me."

"I planned to. The same night, my father was attacked. I spent hours at the hospital, then found out your apartment had been searched. By morning, you were gone."

"You expect me to believe that?"

"No." His voice was rough. "I expect you to hate me. But I will not let you believe I chose another woman over you."

Her phone buzzed. A photograph appeared from the unknown number: Matteo outside a warehouse, bruised but unmistakably alive. Beneath it was a message.

He's alive. Moretti knows where he is. Ask him what he traded for your brother's safety.

Isabella turned the screen toward Alessandro.

He read it, and his expression changed.

"You do know something," she whispered.

"I know the warehouse in that picture. It belongs to a shell company tied to Salvatore."

"And the trade?"

"I made an agreement to keep Matteo alive."

"What did you give him?"

"Nothing he could use to hurt you."

"That isn't an answer."

"It's the only one I can give until I know who sent that message."

She backed away. "You're still keeping secrets."

"To keep you alive."

"I don't want your protection. I want the truth."

"Then help me get it." He pulled her contract from her bag and placed it on the counter. "You wanted thirty days. I'll agree to the marriage."

She stared at him. "You rejected me an hour ago."

"An hour ago, you were about to walk into Salvatore's hands. Now I know someone is using Matteo to force us together."

"So this is business."

"At first, yes."

"And after?"

His eyes held hers. "After, we find out whether there's anything left between us worth saving."

Her heart betrayed her with one hard beat.

"I'm not marrying you because you can order me around."

"You'll have your own lawyer, your own bank account, and the right to end this arrangement after thirty days. I won't touch you unless you want me to. But in public, we'll appear united. Salvatore will believe he has lost his chance to use you."

"And if I refuse?"

"I'll keep searching for Matteo. You can search too, but you'll be doing it without the protection my name provides."

The offer was cruel because it made sense. She could refuse and risk losing her only lead, or accept and stand beside the man who had broken her heart.

She picked up the pen.

"One condition. No more lies."

Alessandro's gaze dropped to the contract. "Agreed."

She signed her name. He signed beneath it.

"Thirty days," she said. "Then we're strangers again."

"We were never strangers, Isabella."

She turned to leave, but he caught her hand-not tightly, just enough to stop her. She looked down at his fingers until he released her.

"Tell me one thing," he said. "When you thought I betrayed you, did you stop loving me?"

"No," she whispered. "I stopped believing you deserved it."

Something broke open in his expression.

He moved closer, pausing for her to step away. She didn't.

His gaze dropped to her mouth, then returned to her eyes.

"Tell me to stop," he murmured.

She should have.

Instead, she caught the front of his shirt and kissed him.

The kiss carried three years of grief neither had managed to bury. Alessandro kissed her back, but Isabella remembered the hospital and the unanswered calls.

She pushed him away.

"Don't mistake one kiss for forgiveness."

"I won't."

"Good. Because I still don't trust you."

"Then I'll earn it."

Her phone buzzed again.

A new message appeared, this time from a number saved under no name.

The wedding won't save Matteo. Ask Alessandro what happened at the docks-and why he was the last person to see your brother alive.

Isabella slowly raised her eyes to the man she had just agreed to marry.

"Alessandro," she said, her voice suddenly steady. "What did you do to my brother?"