Isabella POV
The silence that followed my declaration was absolute. It wasn't just quiet; it was a vacuum, sucking the air out of the massive cathedral until my lungs burned.
I kept my finger pointed at Damien Moreno, my hand trembling so slightly that I hoped only I could feel it. I had just signed my death warrant, or my salvation. There was no middle ground.
A gasp rippled through the pews, starting from the back and crashing forward like a wave. Francesca looked as if she might faint. Even the priest looked ready to dive behind the altar.
But I didn't look at them. I couldn't. If I broke eye contact with the monster in the front row, I would lose my nerve.
Damien didn't blink. He didn't scowl. He simply watched me with an intensity that made my skin prickle, as if he were dissecting me layer by layer, searching for the rot.
"You cannot be serious," Sofia Moreno whispered, her composure cracking for the first time. "Isabella, he is the Don. He is... not an option."
"Why?" I turned to her, my voice shaking but gaining an edge of steel. "You said any unmarried Moreno man. Is the Don married?"
"No, but—"
"Then he is an option." I took a step forward, my heels clicking sharply on the marble. "The Pact was made between the Carlson family and the Moreno family. Your son, your blood, broke it. He humiliated me. He humiliated you."
I let that sink in. I saw the flicker of anger in Sofia's eyes—not at me, but at the truth of my words.
"I will not marry a boy who trembles at my glance," I said, gesturing vaguely at Luca, who looked relieved to be ignored. "And I will not marry a man who will beat me because he wishes I was his cousin." I shot a glance at Matteo. "I need a husband who can uphold the weight of this alliance. I need the head of the family."
It was a gamble born of desperation and vindictiveness. If I married Damien, I became the Matriarch. I became the Queen. When Alex eventually crawled back to Chicago, he wouldn't find a weeping ex-fiancée. He would find a stepmother who outranked him in every conceivable way. It was the ultimate checkmate.
And there was another reason, a secret calculation I held close to my chest. Rumors had swirled for years that Damien Moreno was dead inside. That after his first wife died, he had frozen his heart. He took no mistresses. He showed no interest in women. If I married him, it would be a cold union, a business transaction on paper. I would be safe from his touch, safe from the messy, bloody complications of love.
I would be a Queen in a tower, untouchable.
"Isabella," Sofia warned, her voice low. "Be careful what you wish for."
"I am not wishing," I said, turning back to the dark figure in the front row. "I am demanding what is owed. Or was the word of the Moreno family broken twice in one day?"
The accusation hung in the air, heavy and toxic.
Sofia stiffened. She looked at me, really looked at me, and for a second, I saw a flash of something unrecognizable in her gaze. Respect? Or perhaps she just realized I had cornered her.
She turned to her son. "Damien."
The name was a summons and a plea.
Slowly, the Dark Don stood up.
The movement was fluid, predatory. He was taller than Alex, broader in the shoulders, and he radiated a power that made the air around him feel dense. He buttoned his suit jacket with a casual grace that was terrifyingly at odds with the tension in the room.
He didn't look at his mother. He walked toward me.
Every step echoed like a gavel strike. The guests held their breath. My heart hammered against my ribs like a trapped bird, but I forced my chin up. Do not look away. Do not show fear.
He stopped a foot away from me. Up close, he was devastating. The silver at his temples didn't age him; it only made him look like a weapon forged in fire. He smelled of expensive scotch, sandalwood, and danger.
His eyes were black pits, devoid of light, devoid of mercy. He looked down at me, and I felt small. Insignificant.
"You invoke the Pact," he said. His voice was a deep baritone, rough like gravel grinding against bone. It vibrated in my chest.
"I do," I managed to whisper.
"You understand what you are asking?" He tilted his head slightly, his gaze dropping to my lips before returning to my eyes. "You are asking to belong to me."
"I am asking for a husband who keeps his word."
A muscle feathered in his jaw. For a long moment, silence stretched between us, taut as a wire ready to snap. I waited for him to laugh, to order his men to drag me out, to shoot me for my insolence.
Instead, he turned his head slightly toward his mother.
"Our family keeps its word," Sofia said, her voice ringing out clearly, sealing my fate.
Damien looked back at me. There was no warmth in his face, only a cold, terrifying resolve.
"Are you certain, Isabella?" He said my name like a test, tasting the syllables.
I dug my nails into my palms until the skin broke. "I am."
He held my gaze for a second longer, as if giving me one last chance to run. Then, he extended his arm. It wasn't an offer of comfort; it was a command.
"Then let us not keep God waiting."
I placed my hand on his forearm. Beneath the fine wool of his suit, his muscles were hard as stone. A shiver raced down my spine—not of cold, but of a sudden, primal realization that I had walked into the lion's den and locked the door behind me.
He turned us toward the altar. The priest, pale and sweating, hastily opened his book.
I had won. I had secured my survival and my revenge. But as Damien Moreno led me toward the cross, the heavy doors of the cathedral felt less like the entrance to a sanctuary and more like the jaws of a trap snapping shut.
