Chapter 22
Isabella
It sure felt good to be home. The ocean breeze and warm weather relaxed me. I still couldn’t believe I’d told Dante that I could fall in love with someone like him. What was I thinking? We couldn’t go down that route. We both knew it. I’m married, so there could be no future for us. After talking with him, there was no doubt in my mind that he had feelings for me.
He said he wanted me, but he couldn’t have me. And he was right. As long as I was with Nathan, I belonged to no other man. I had to realize that before I began to fall in love with Dante. It just couldn’t happen.
Speaking of my husband, I wasn’t too sure I even wanted to see him at the moment. I was upset with him. He’d ignored my calls, texts, and emails the entire time I was away. He’d better have a good explanation because he didn’t even answer my texts when I told him I was at the airport. I’d wanted him to pick me up. He had better have been in the hospital or incapacitated or something.
I walked up to the front door and there he was, looking out the window, no hello, no how are you, no anything. He opened the door but didn’t come out to help me with my bags or anything—he just retreated into the house. If I had known he was going to be such a prick, I would have told my staff to stay for the evening so I could get some help with this luggage.
“Hurry up!” he shouted at me. What the hell was his problem? I struggled my way through the door as he watched, sitting on the couch with a bottle of vodka beside him.
“Are you going to help me or just sit there?”
“I think I’ll just sit here,” he said. I threw my handbag at him, left the rest of my bags at the door, and marched upstairs to change my clothes.
“When you’ve stopped acting like a child, we need to talk about something,” he scoffed. This was the last thing I needed after that fourteen-hour-long flight. Maybe I should have just gone to England with Dante and Gaspard, or better yet checked into a hotel so I would be spared his moody attitude.
“Woman! Come down here—we need to talk!” he screamed.
Calm down, Isabella. Don’t do anything you might regret. He’s just in one of his moods. Just breathe in and breathe out. Close your eyes and go to your happy place.
“Get down here now!” he shouted again.
“Stop screaming at me! I just got off a fourteen-hour flight with no sleep!” I yelled back.
“Once again, it’s all about you. You—you—you! When is it going to be about me?”
I had no idea why he was acting like this, but it was the last thing I wanted to come home to. I went downstairs in my pajamas and confronted him as he sat there in his underwear.
“What is it, Nathan? What is so important that you have to treat me like crap the second I step into this house?” He sat up on the couch and leaned forward. He looked as if he hadn’t bathed in days, nor had he groomed himself. He allowed his beard to grow out wildly, and his hair looked greasy and messy. I drew closer to him, and he smelled like garbage. I didn’t know if he was drunk or losing his mind, but I hoped I was able to talk some sense into him without going crazy.
“Listen, woman. All you do is neglect me! Everything is always about you.”
I was stunned by his constant accusations that I was somehow selfish when I worked myself to death while he enjoyed the life of luxury I provided. Every time I came home from a business trip, he acted this way. “Are you listening to me, Isabella?”
“You’re not going to flip this on me this time, Nathan. Why the hell didn’t you answer my calls when I was gone? Not a single word from you the entire time I was in Korea. What were you doing here, besides being lazy?” He didn’t answer. He just sat back and drank his vodka straight from the bottle. This was getting tiresome, and his attitude was working my last nerve.
“I didn’t call you or answer your calls because I don’t need you, just like you don’t need me.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” I tried to hold back my rage.
“You go off on your little trips while continuing to neglect me.”
“How am I neglecting you, Nathan? How? Tell me. This is my job, my business—it’s how I put food on the table, and it’s how we can afford this nice house and all the expensive wine you drink.”
Still, he sat there undeterred, as if my words weren’t even getting through his thick skull.
“Why don’t you just get rid of your business then?”
“What are you talking about?”
“I said why don’t you give up your business? We’ve made enough money. Just sell all your shares in the company, or better yet find an investor to take it off your hands.”
Did he get a lobotomy while I was gone? “Are you insane? Is that what you are?”
“If you loved me, then you would retire and spend more time with me.”
I couldn’t believe the words coming out of his drunken mouth. What he proposed was utter insanity. Retire? Was he nuts? I couldn’t take a word of what he was saying seriously right now, not until he was sober. I dismissed his ramblings and headed back upstairs, leaving him basking in his filth.
“Where the hell are you going, Isabella?” he shouted.
“I’m going to bed. I don’t have the energy for your nonsense right now.”
“Did I say you can leave? Did I!” He ran up to me and grabbed hold of my arm.
“Nathan, let go of me.”
“Shut up!” He threw me to the ground. “You leave when I tell you to leave! You will sell all the shares in your company. You’ve neglected me for far too long.” He took off his underwear and started to rip away my clothes like a savage.
“Nathan, you’re drunk! Stop it!” I shouted, but still, he was steadfast. He took off all my clothes and lay on top of me. “No, Nathan! Stop!” I screamed, but he didn’t stop. He licked my face and squeezed my breast, leaving bruises around my nipple, biting and scratching. “Get the hell off of me, Nathan! I said no!” I began hitting him on his head with the sides of my fists. He pinned both of my hands down, smiled, then slapped and punched me in the chest and face, cutting the corner of my lip. He dragged me up by my hair and slammed my head into the floor repeatedly. He was trying to kill me.
I pleaded for him to stop, kicking and shouting before he jumped off me, laughing.
“You might be ready for the pain room.” He had a sadistic grin on his face.
“Pain room? Have you gone completely psychotic?”
“You are my wife, and when I want to fuck, that means we are going to fuck—got it?”
“I’m out of here. You’re fucking insane!” I shouted, running up to my room and locking the door behind me. He didn’t pursue me. I heard him smash the bottle of vodka up against my door, however. I had never seen him act like this. I called my driver to meet me out front once I had packed a bag for the night. He’d done many things, but he’d never hit me before. That was the last straw. I wasn’t about to become a battered wife. I couldn’t believe this was happening to me. I married a fucking monster. Maya was right. Everyone was right. My life had become a dramatized soap opera.
I wasn’t going to waste time picking out something to wear, so I just threw on another pair of pajamas. I had to get the hell out of this house and away from him. I grabbed my things and cracked open the door to see where he was. The coast was clear. He was in the living room sitting on the couch with another bottle of vodka. My driver called and told me he was waiting outside. I snuck down the stairs slowly. I didn’t want Nathan to see me leave.
As I crept down, one of my bags flew open, spilling my clothes all over the stairs. Damn it. Luckily, it didn’t make much noise. Nathan was still sitting on the couch taking gulps from the bottle. I gathered all my clothes and put them back into my bag. Once I’d finished, I headed down the stairs, but Nathan stood by the door, blocking me from leaving.
“Get out of my way,” I demanded.
“You’re leaving?”
“Look at my lip, Nathan. You did this!”
He dropped to his knees and hugged my waist. “Don’t leave me. I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I lost control, and I’m sorry. I’m just a little drunk. This will never happen again.”
I threw his arms off me and stepped back for fear of what he might do next. That was when my phone rang. To my surprise, it was Dante.
“Who is that?” Nathan hissed.
“My business partner.” I canceled the call. I couldn’t answer the phone, as Nathan might have gone ballistic in his drunken state.
“Nathan, please let me leave.”
“I said I was sorry, didn’t I?”
“I need to be away from you right now. You hit me. You’re a monster,” I said, trying to hold back tears.
“You don’t know the meaning of the word monster.”
“Move out of my way,” I bellowed again.
“Have it your way then!” He opened the door and pushed me out of the house. I fell to the ground and landed on my ass. That bastard. His whole apology was an act. I got up and made my way to the car. Nathan slammed the door shut behind me.
I never thought he would hit me, not in a million years. What were my clients going to say when they saw me with a busted lip and black eye? What was Maya going to say? I was shaking. I didn’t know what to do. I just had to go somewhere and think.
My phone rang again, and it was Dante. I didn’t want to burden him with my problems and I wasn’t sure if I should answer it. But if I didn’t answer he might keep calling.
“Hello?” I tried to hide the trauma in my voice.
“Hello, Isabella? Are you there?”
“Yes, I’m here.”
“You sound like you’re crying. Is everything all right with you?”
“Yes, everything is fine.”
“I was just calling to see if you and Maya made it home safely. I trust my pilot took care of you both.”
“Y-yes. He . . . he was great.” I didn’t know if he could sense something was wrong with me, but I dared not explain what I had just been through. This was my personal issue, and I didn’t want to involve someone I was doing business with.
“So. H-how was your flight to London?” I tried to change the subject.
“My flight was fine. I can tell by your stuttering that something is wrong. Did my pilot run into some turbulence on the way back?”
“No, the flight was great.” I attempted to put cheer into my voice, but I failed.
“You’re upset about what I said when we were in Korea, aren’t you? About me wanting you?” His voice was anxious.
“No, Dante. That’s not it. It’s my husband.” I let the words slip from my tongue.
“What about him?” Dante sounded pissed despite how much he tried to hide it.
I sighed and shook my head. Dante was relentless in his questioning. I wasn’t sure if I should tell him. “What happened, Isabella? After our last conversation, I feel as if we can divulge anything to one another. Just get it off your chest. I’m here to listen.” I wanted to trust him. I needed someone to talk to.
“He . . . h-he hit me,” I whispered into the phone. Dante grew silent for a good minute, despite my attempts at saying hello multiple times. I thought maybe we had lost the connection or that he had hung up, but I could still hear him breathing.
“That fucking piece of shit! He’s done—” he said coldly.
“Dante—”
“I shouldn’t have left you. I shouldn’t have let you go back to that house. Go to a hotel and wait there until I get back,” he commanded.
“You want me to stay in a hotel for two weeks?”
“I’m on my way back right now. To hell with that damned software company.”
“Dante, please. You can’t just cancel your business deals for my personal problems. You should—”
“I’m on my way back, Isabella. Don’t try to talk me out of it. The only thing I care about right now is you,” he confessed. I held the phone close to my ear as tears rolled down my face.
“Are you sure about this?” My voice trembled.
“I’ve never been so damn sure about anything in my life. I’ll bring some bodyguards with me—to keep me from killing him.” The rage underneath his soft demeanor was apparent. This was the first time I had ever found Dante to be noticeably upset.
He didn’t have to do this, but he insisted. There was no talking him out of it. I was going to feel incredibly guilty if he lost that software company because of my personal problems. Although, I couldn’t help but wonder why he would risk losing an investment just for me. I had only known him for a couple of months, but he had always been there when I needed him.
“How badly are you hurt, Isabella?”
I wiped my face. “My lip is busted and I have a black eye. I didn’t stay in that house long enough to assess the rest of my body. But my chest hurts.” I could hear his teeth grinding through the phone.
“I’ll be there by tomorrow morning. Text me the address to the hotel you’re going to check into. And I want you to promise me something.”
“Yes?”
“Promise me you will not go back home if he’s there. Don’t talk to him. Don’t meet with him. Can you promise me that?”
“I-I promise, Dante.”
He sighed in relief. “Thank you, Isabella. Please be safe until I get there. If you need anything between then and now, just call me. I’m here for you.” I wanted to be wrapped in his arms right then. “Do you want me to stay on the phone with you until you’ve calmed a little?” he asked.
“No. I’m fine. I’ve disrupted you long enough.”
“Isabella—” he said firmly.
“Yes?”
“Don’t ever think you’re disrupting me. Ever. All right?” His voice was strong. I’d never seen this side of him before . . . But I liked it.
“Okay.” I sniffed back tears.
“All right. Well, I’ll let you go. Don’t hesitate to contact me if you need anything.”
A small grin appeared on my face. I was glad I’d answered the phone. I’d needed someone at that moment. I was just glad it was him. “Okay, Dante. And thank you.” We both hung up and I gazed out the window. It began to rain. A manifestation of the turmoil in my heart perhaps. I tried to hide my face from the driver as I nursed my busted lip. I just hoped the swelling went down before I saw Dante, or anyone for that matter.