Chapter One
ISABELLA
A MONTH LATER
Tears flow down my eyes as the driver pulls out of the estate, heading to the airport. I clasp my mouth with my hand, muffling my heart-wrenching cries.
This can’t be happening to me. Maybe I’m daydreaming, and I’ll be up soon. But no matter how hard I try to believe that this is all a bad dream, I still can’t shake off the thoughts of what just happened in a few minutes.
Father’s feral anger. I’ve never seen him like that before. In all my twenty-three years of living, I’ve never seen my father like that. So unhinged and broken. His eyes held a depth of hatred and rage as he said the venomous words that would forever be etched in my heart.
“ISABELLA CLAUDIA DANTE! How the hell did this happen?” Father’s boisterous voice thunders in the living room as he waves the newspaper in my face.
I stare at the papers blankly, shivering from the tension that it came with. A picture of me is nicely displayed on the front page with a headline that sentences me to a lifetime of doom.
-ISABELLA DANTE, THE LEGITIMATE DAUGHTER OF THE FAMOUS BUSINESS TYCOON, IS PREGNANT…-
How the hell did the media find out? After feeling weird for weeks, I took the courage to see the doctor yesterday. And he said that I was a month pregnant. It’s the most unnerving and shocking news I’ve ever got, and it’s yet to sink in. I’m yet to wrap my head around it, and this morning I already made the papers? Who gave them that information?
“Father, Please…” My lips quiver, and I hurriedly kneel in front of him, tears rolling down ceaselessly from my eyes. I hope he’ll calm down a bit and let me explain.
“Isabella, don’t make me repeat myself. What the hell is this?” He repeats through clenched teeth, venting his anger on the papers by squeezing them in his grip.
“I don’t know. I–“
“So you’re not pregnant then?” He asks, giving me a look that has a bit of hope in it. How do I take that hope away from him? How do I break his heart by telling him that I'm really pregnant?
“These are just ugly rumors, right? Tell me, baby. Tell me these are all lies. Please.” He grabs my hands, thumbing off my tears and flashing me a warm smile.
My gaze drops, and I slowly withdraw my hands away from his hold. The words are difficult to say, but I say them regardless.
“I’m sorry, Father. But I’m pregnant. I found out yesterday…”
Silence followed—a pin-drop silence. And when I look up, he’s fuming with a murderous rage. He stands to his feet and swipes the papers on my face