Slap.
The sound echoed across Azure Bay Marine World’s central plaza, loud enough to silence the applause, loud enough to freeze every smiling face.
Damien’s head snapped to the side, and when he turned back to look at me, there was no remorse—only annoyance.
“Really, Isabelle?” he muttered, rubbing his cheek. “Was that necessary?”
My hand was still raised, fingers trembling, palm stinging. But it was nothing compared to the fire in my chest.
My mother’s heels clicked against the pavement as she stepped forward, a tight smile on her face. “Isabelle, don’t ruin your sister’s moment.”
My sister.
Sophie.
Pregnant. Engaged.
To my husband.
She stood proudly beside him, her hand resting on her barely-there bump, her diamond ring sparkling in the sun like it was mocking me.
---
A few hours earlier.
Luca had just turned six. He was tugging at my hand with excitement, his curls bouncing as he darted ahead toward the shark tunnel.
“Mommy, look! It’s huge!”
I laughed, brushing a kiss on his forehead. “Not bigger than your smile, baby.”
Everything had to be perfect. I made sure of that—VIP passes, a private table next to the dolphin tanks, his favorite cake waiting back at the hotel. Even though I could barely walk without getting dizzy, even though I felt the tumor pressing harder each day, I made it perfect.
He deserved one good memory before everything fell apart.
---
I hadn’t told Damien I was dying.
Stage four brain cancer. The doctors didn’t sugarcoat it.
But what was the point of telling a man who didn’t even look up from his phone when I came home pale and shaking?
“Stop overthinking,” Damien had said. “And stop wasting my money on doctors.”
Money. That’s what I was to him—another expense.
---
And yet, even knowing all that, I didn’t expect this.
I was watching Luca admire the sea turtles when I heard him shout, “Mommy! Daddy’s here!”
Damien?
He said he was in Chicago. “Business,” he told me. “Too busy for birthdays.”
I turned, and the world spun harder than it ever had.
There he was, in front of the whole family. Down on one knee. Ring in hand.
Sophie stood across from him, her hands covering her mouth in shock—fake shock.
Tears in her eyes—fake tears.
Then she squealed, “Yes! Damien, yes!”
They clapped. All of them. My parents. My aunts. My uncles. Clapped.
While I stood there. Alone.
---
“You always overdramatize everything,” Damien said, arms crossed. “Let’s not turn this into a scene.”
“A scene?” I repeated, my voice shaking. “You proposed to my sister. On my son’s birthday.”
“Stop shouting,” my father, Hector Soriano, snapped. “You’re embarrassing yourself.”
My father. The feared capo of the Soriano syndicate. Reduced me to a problem to be managed.
Sophie stepped forward, like she was the wounded party. “Isabelle… you and Damien were already falling apart. I didn’t plan for this to happen, but… I love him.”
“You loved how easy it was to crawl into his bed while I was crawling into hospital beds!” I spat.
She narrowed her eyes. “God, Isabelle, no wonder he chose me. You were always gone.”
“Gone?” I nearly laughed. “I was dying.”
---
Damien exhaled, like he was tired of my tantrum. “Let’s be adults, Isabelle.”
“Adults? You lied, cheated, and proposed to my sister while your wife stood ten feet away.”
“She was never really a wife,” Sophie whispered, just loud enough. “She was just… in the way.”
---
Then she dropped the final blow. Her hand on her belly.
“I’m pregnant.”
The world tilted again. This time, I swayed.
My mother smiled, pleased. “You should be happy. They’re going to be a real family.”
I couldn’t move. Couldn’t speak.
And then Luca’s voice broke through the noise.
“I like Aunt Sophie,” he said cheerfully, wrapping his arms around my waist. “If Daddy loves her, maybe she can be my mommy too?”
That’s when I knew:
There was no coming back from this.
