Page 59 of Vow to Me

I’ll be having an attorney draw up divorce papers, I know that’s probably not what you want, but I also know you’re not the type of man who will force me into a marriage I want no part of. So please, just accept it Luca, if any of the love you ever felt for me was real, just sign the papers and let me move onwith my life because I don’t want to live with this pain for any longer than I have to.

Thank you for giving me a glimpse of the sun before I was dragged back down into the darkness.

Isabella

Chapter Forty-Three

Izzy

The apartment Enzo has that he told me to lie low in? It turns out the apartment is the one he’s currently occupying because it happens to overlook a certain bookstore. I honest to God don’t know what the fuck to do with him anymore.

I’ve been here for two days and haven’t heard a single thing from Luca, though he did find out that Enzo helped me back into the city, he has no idea I’m currently staying with him—he’d have a fucking coronary if he found that little tid-bit of information out.

I had Enzo sneak my laptop from his father’s office for me so I can at least work while I’m here. I’ve been focused on helping the women and girls that were in my father’s custody. Alec managed to send a team to intercept a shipment, saving thirty women. But it still doesn’t feel like enough, it never will.

No matter how hard I try to distract myself, all my thoughts keep coming back to Luca. I don’t even fucking know who I am anymore. This isn’t me; I’ve never been the type of woman so sit around and mope over a man. My heart aches when I think about what we could have had, but I know deep in my bones that if it wasn’t for what happened with my father, something else would have torn us apart in the end. It was inevitable, we're bothtoo stubborn, too hot headed, and far too alike for us to ever have a balanced relationship.

The ringing of my phone pulls me from my thoughts, and I frown as I see an unknown number calling me.

Could it be him? But why wouldn’t he try calling me from his own phone first?

I tentatively reach out and accept the call, bringing my cell to my ear. “Hello?”

“Izzy?” a familiar voice asks, and it takes me a minute to recognize the man on the other end of the call.

“What are you calling me?” I sigh.

“Can we meet? I want to talk to you,” he asks, and I inwardly groan.

“Fine.” Resigned but curious as to why he wants to meet me, I agree to meet him at a coffee shop downtown.

I end the call, call an uber and grab my coat before walking out the door. The drive to the coffee shop doesn’t take long. I walk inside, and I’m hit by the strong smell of coffee and cinnamon before seeing the reason for me being here sitting at a table in the middle of a shop with a coffee waiting for me.

“What am I doing here Alec?” I slide into the seat opposite him and shrug out of my coat.

“I wanted to see how you were doing, check up on you.” He gestures towards my face. I look like shit, I know I do. There’s no amount of makeup that can hide the bruises covering my face and body.

Enzo had a doctor meet me at the apartment as soon as I landed in New York, he popped my shoulder back in place and stitched the deeper cuts that cover my body.

“I’m fine,” I answer briskly, and he gives me a resigned nod.

“It’s not your fault you know,” he says to which I give him a confused look before he continues. “I’ve seen everything you’ve been doing. What your father did was not your fault, you shouldn’t blame yourself for something you were unaware of and powerless to fight.”

Right,that.

“Cut to it, Alec. Did Luca send you here?”

“Fuck no. And he has no idea I’m here, he’d probably threaten to kill me if he did, you know he’s sorry right?” I peer out of the window and murmur, “It’s too late for that, he may have been there for me eventually, but he wasn’t there when I needed him the most.”

“You’re right, but I want you to know that I’m grateful for everything you’ve done in the last two years. I don’t want yours and Luca’s relationship to come between our partnership. If you want to completely ignore my identity and carry on as Hurricane and Scorpion, I completely respect that. But I would like us to get to know one another better, you’re my biggest asset Izzy.” He slides a thumb drive across the table and stands. “That’s a copy of everything that Luca was sent, I thought if you saw that, then maybe you could try and see things from his point of view.” And with that little parting gift, he strolls out of the coffee shop, leaving me to wonder what the hell just happened.

I’m in a daze as I take a cab back to the apartment, Alec’s words repeat in my mind over and over until I’m on the verge of a breakdown. I take the elevator up to Enzo’s floor and walk down the narrow hall but my steps falter once I see the man that I’m helplessly in love with sitting on the floor in front of the apartment door.

Luca must sense my arrival as his head snaps up and his eyes widen when he blinks as though he doesn’t think I’m really here.

“Izzy,” he whispers and the pain in his voice makes me want to wrap him in my arms and tell him everything will be okay. But I don’t, because it won’t, I really don’t think we can ever come back from what’s happened.

“Why are you here, Luca?” I murmur.

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