Page 148 of Mine Again
“I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. Just… noise in my head. Everything caved in.”
I rake a hand through my hair, pulling hard at the roots like I’m trying to rip the memory out. But it’s burned into me. Every frame. Every second of footage. Hale made damn sure of it.
“I knew what it meant. That if I didn’t stop the wedding, I’d lose you forever. And not just to Moretti.”
I lean in, fingers laced behind my neck, head hanging as I try to steady my breathing.
“Hale would have set you and his cousin up somewhere I’d never find you again.”
Isa’s hands are clenched so tightly her knuckles have gone white.
“The only thing worse than that marriage license would have been a wedding video. No, scratch that.”
A bitter laugh escapes me.
“A video of your wedding night would’ve driven me into freefall. And I’m sure Hale planned to let me find that too.”
My vision blurs from the heat behind my eyes. My body remembers the fury before I do. The shaking hands, the blood roaring in my ears, the wild, feral need to destroy something. Anything. To make the pain stop.
“Do you have any idea what it was like to sit there and watch your dates on video?” I ask, my voice quieter now, wrecked with the same grief I see on her face.
“You smiling at Moretti when you went riding. Kissing him. Throwing your arms around him. Even just holding hands on the beach…”
I swallow hard, the words catching in my throat.
“Him proposing there.”
I punched the screen. Put my fist right through the man trying to take what was mine.
“Hale was there, posing as atourist,” I spit the word, drawing quotation marks in the air, “to capture the moment.”
A broken cry escapes Isa’s lips. The tears are a steady stream now.
“He’d planned it like a damn military campaign. Multiple angles. Perfect timing. Maximum emotional damage.”
My voice drops to a rasp.
“And at the end of the clip, after Moretti kissed you like you were already his, the camera shifted… to show a hand.”
I clench my fists, nails digging into my palms.
“A ring caught the light. The Jackal’s crest, carved into gold. His fingers lifted in a lazy little wave, smug as hell, like he expected I’d be watching.”
My whole body shakes with the memory.
“It was a Trojan horse. Beautiful. Strategic. Engineered to break me.”
I pause, chest heaving.
“It felt like you were slipping through my fingers. Like everything we were was being erased. And I couldn’t stop it. Couldn’t reach you. I was screaming inside, and no one heard me.”
My voice breaks.
“I thought the night we were torn apart was the worst moment of my life,” I whisper. “But that… that topped it.”
Isa bends over in anguish, hugging her body as it shakes.
“I’m so sorry,” she hiccups through her sobs. “Luca, I’m so, so sorry. I truly believed you were dead. I would’ve never agreed to marry him otherwise. If I’d had even the slightest sign of life from you, I’d have waited.Forever.”
