Chapter 6 - The Ex-Fiancée Who Became My Unexpected Sister
Valentina returned six months later.
Not with an emergency.
Not bleeding.
Not afraid.
She walked into the restaurant wearing a white suit and sunglasses.
Isabella nearly dropped a plate.
"You look alive."
Valentina smiled.
"I've been told."
They hugged.
Dante appeared behind Isabella.
His expression was amused.
"Why are you here?"
"I bought the building next door."
Dante frowned.
"What?"
Valentina removed her sunglasses.
"I needed a legitimate business."
"Doing what?"
"Interior design."
Isabella laughed.
"You bought the building next door?"
"I like convenient neighbors."
The next year changed all of them.
Valentina built a successful design firm.
Sofia expanded the family's legal businesses.
Dante invested in restaurants and property development.
Isabella became the heart of Belladonna.
Their home changed too.
The old estate was sold.
They moved into a renovated townhouse with high ceilings, a small garden, and no armed guards stationed in every hallway.
At first, Dante didn't know how to live normally.
He woke at noises.
He checked locks repeatedly.
He avoided crowded events.
Isabella noticed.
"You can stop looking over your shoulder."
"I'm working on it."
One night, she found him checking the front door for the fourth time.
"Come here."
He looked at her.
She held his face.
"You are home."
His eyes closed.
"I know."
"No."
She kissed his forehead.
"Believe it."
Slowly, he did.
Then came another surprise.
Isabella became pregnant.
Dante cried.
Not elegantly.
Not quietly.
He sat on the kitchen floor with the test in his hand and stared at her.
"Is this real?"
She laughed.
"Very."
He pulled her into his arms.
"I never thought I'd get this."
"What?"
"A normal life."
She kissed him.
"It won't be normal."
"Why?"
"Because I'm your wife."
He laughed.
"Fair."
The pregnancy brought Valentina and Isabella even closer.
Valentina designed the nursery.
Sofia organized the baby shower.
Dante became absurdly protective.
At seven months, he banned Isabella from lifting a grocery bag.
"That's ridiculous."
"It weighs too much."
"It's cereal."
"It's heavy cereal."
She laughed.
He was finally learning how to be afraid without turning fear into control.
Then, one night, Valentina arrived with an unexpected visitor.
A young man named Luca.
She introduced him as her business partner.
But Dante noticed immediately that Luca knew the old family structure.
"How?"
Luca explained that his mother had once worked for the Ducas.
He had spent years trying to distance himself.
Isabella watched Valentina around him.
There was something different.
Softness.
"Are you dating him?" Isabella asked later.
Valentina blushed.
"No."
"Yet."
Valentina rolled her eyes.
"I hate you."
"No, you don't."
"No."
Valentina smiled.
"I don't."
The past was fading.
But it wasn't disappearing.
One rainy evening, Isabella received an anonymous message.
A photograph.
Her unborn baby's ultrasound.
Under it:
You can leave the family business.
The family business doesn't always leave you.
She showed Dante.
He went completely still.
The old fear returned.
But this time he didn't order guards to surround the house.
He didn't hide the message.
He told Isabella everything.
Then he called Marco.
"This ends now."
Marco arrived.
They traced the message.
It originated from a former employee.
Not a member of the old family.
Just a disgruntled man hoping to extort money.
The police arrested him.
Afterward, Dante sat with Isabella.
"I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"I thought I could keep fear from touching you."
She smiled.
"You finally did something better."
May you like
"What?"
"You let me stand beside you."
