CHAPTER 2: DECISIONS
The pounding in my head was rhythmic, a dull throb that kept time with the flickering neon light outside the window. I shifted, my skin sticking to expensive silk sheets that weren't mine. My hand brushed against something cold on the bedside table. I forced my eyes open, squinting against the harsh morning light. It wasn't a dream. I wasn't in my bridal suite. I wasn't with David.
I sat up fast, the world spinning for a second. The room was empty. No sign of the man from the club, just a heavy silence and the smell of expensive woodsmoke lingering in the air. I looked at the nightstand. A sleek, matte black credit card sat there, no name on it, just a silver chip catching the light. Beside it, my phone was vibrating like it was about to explode.
I picked it up. Fifty-two missed calls. Thirty-eight texts. Most were from my mother. I hit the green button before I could talk myself out of it.
"Isabella! Where are you? Do you have any idea what you've done?" My mother’s voice was a sharp blade, cutting through my hangover.
"Mom, please listen to me and David he was with Amaya." My voice sounded like I’d swallowed glass.
"I don't want to hear your excuses Isabella and you humiliated this family. Everyone was waiting for the grand exit and you vanished like a thief in the night. David is distraught and he says you had a breakdown and ran off."
"Distraught?" I let out a jagged laugh that hurt my chest. "Mom he was rimming her. In the VIP suite. On our wedding night. Amaya told me she’s been with him for years."
There was a long silence on the other end, but not the kind I wanted. Not the kind that meant she was shocked. It was heavy and cold.
"Men have their needs Isabella and your sister is just more lively than you are. You should have just walked back in there and shown him you can be what he needs. Instead you made a scene. You need to come home right now, go to David, and beg for his forgiveness before the press gets a hold of this."
"Beg him?" I gripped the black card so hard the edges dug into my palm. "He cheated on me with my sister and you want me to beg?"
"You are nothing without that marriage Isabella and the Jones Tech partnership is the only thing keeping your father's interests afloat. Don't be selfish. Come home."
"I'm not coming back Mom and don't call me again."
I hung up before she could scream. My stomach did a slow, sickening roll. I looked back at the black card. It felt heavy, like a ticket to a life I didn't recognize. I didn't know the man who left it, but he’d given me more respect in one night of silence than my family had in twenty-four years.
I dressed quickly, my wedding gown a crumpled, stained heap on the floor. I found a spare robe in the closet, pulled my hair back, and walked out. I needed air. I needed to move.
I ended up at a small park near the outskirts of the city, sitting on a bench with a coffee that tasted like cardboard. I didn't see them coming until a shadow fell over me.
"Look at the little runaway bride."
Amaya stood there, looking perfect in a cream-colored sundress. David was beside her, his hands in his pockets, his expression bored, like he was checking a chore off a list.
"What do you want?" I didn't stand up. I didn't have the strength.
"You look like trash Isabella." Amaya leaned down, her eyes scanning my messy hair and the dark circles under my eyes. "Where did you go? Some cheap motel? Or did you find a gutter to sleep in?"
"Get away from me Amaya."
David stepped forward, his shadow looming over me. "The tantrum is over Isabella. You're coming back. We'll tell the media you had a health scare. You'll play the doting wife and I'll keep the company's stock from dropping. It's a simple deal."
"There is no deal David and I saw you. I heard you. You said I was just leverage."
David smirked, a slow, cruel twist of his lips. "You are and you're boring Isabella. You're a plain wall I can hang my reputation on. Now stop being a brat and get in the car."
"No."
Amaya’s hand moved faster than I could blink. The slap echoed through the quiet park, stinging my cheek and sending a shock of heat through my face. I gasped, clutching my skin.
"You're a weakling Isabella and you always have been." Amaya sneered, her face inches from mine. "You're a coward who runs when things get hard. David belongs to me. He always has. You're just the puppet who holds the ring for us. Now get up before I really lose my temper."
I looked up at her, my vision blurring with tears of rage. "You can have him Amaya. You deserve each other. You're both rotten to the core."
David grabbed my arm, his grip bruising. "You don't get to decide Isabella. I own you until I say otherwise."
"You don't own anything." I hissed, shoving his hand away with a strength I didn't know I had. "I'd rather die than spend another second in your shadow."
I turned and ran. I didn't look back to see if they followed. I ran until I hit the main street, hailed a cab, and didn't stop until I was at a pharmacy three miles away. My stomach had been cramping all morning, a dull ache that felt different from the heartbreak.
Three weeks later, I sat in a tiny bathroom of a rented room, staring at the plastic stick on the counter. Two blue lines.
I felt like the floor had dropped out from under me. One night. One mistake with a stranger.
I leaned my head against the cool tile of the wall, my hands shaking. I could call David. I could tell him I was pregnant, and he’d take me back just to keep the image of the perfect family. I’d be a queen in a gold cage, watching him sleep with my sister every night.
Or I could use the card.
I pulled it out of my pocket. It was still there, a silent promise. I didn't know who he was, but his money was real. I could build something. I could be someone.
I walked to the mirror and looked at myself. The "Isabella" who cried over David was gone. Her eyes were hard now.
"I'm keeping you." I whispered, my hand resting on my still-flat stomach. "And they are never going to find us."
I packed my one small bag. I didn't take anything David had bought me. I left the wedding ring on the dresser of the cheap room. I went to the bank, used the black card to withdraw enough cash to disappear, and bought a bus ticket under a name I’d seen on a billboard. June.
As the bus pulled out of the station, leaving Maverick City behind in a haze of exhaust, I looked at the city lights for the last time. David would be looking for his leverage. Amaya would be looking for her punching bag.
But Isabella Jones was dead.
I leaned my head against the window, the rhythm of the road lulling me into a dreamless sleep. I didn't know where I was going, only that I was free.
The bus stopped at a rest area four hours later. I stepped off to get some water, and that’s when I saw the news on the small TV in the corner of the cafe.
"Trillionaire Dante Valenti reports a security breach. A personal black card has been activated after weeks of silence."
I froze, the bottle of water slipping from my hand and hitting the floor with a splash. Dante Valenti. The man people called the King of AI. The man who owned half the world.
I looked at the card in my wallet.
He wasn't just a stranger from a club. He was the one man David Jones was terrified of. And I was carrying his child.
I didn't wait for the bus to start again. I walked to the edge of the parking lot, hitched a ride with a trucker heading south, and vanished into the dark.
Five years. I just needed five years to become the woman who could destroy them all.
I'll be ready for you Dante Valenti. But you'll never see me coming.
