Valentina
“Good morning, everyone.” Matteo said the moment he walked into the sitting room.
At nine in the morning.
My fingers traced the rim of my coffee cup, the sight of Matteo warming me up more than it ever did. Ethan satvacross from me, flipping through pages of some document, his sharp eyes occasionally flicking toward me, then Matteo.
“Look who the cat dragged out of bed.” Ethan clicked his tongue at Matteo in a teasing way
Valerie sat next to him, arks folded across her chest, as she tried to keep herself from laughing.
“What can I say? I had a nice night.”
My cheeks flamed up from the suggestion in his words, which Ethan and Valerie had caught on before.
Oh, help me.
“We can tell.” Valerie teased. “But we need to get back to business.”
“We need to start putting the pieces together. We can’t just wait around for answers. What do we know so far?” She continued, her voice cutting through the silence like a knife.
I sneaked a glance at Matteo, who was staring at me already. His blue eyes twinkling with delight as he processed everything that had happened from last night till this morning.
Those hands palming my body like it was his personal…..
No. No.
Focus. I needed to focus on Isabella.
“We know Isabella came to that party, and we know someone brought her there, but we still don’t know who…” I said, focusing on the facts instead of how much I wanted Matteo to take me against a wall. “She was missing for weeks, and then she just showed up…. it doesn’t make sense.”
“She didn’t just show up,” Ethan interjected, not looking up from his papers. “We know someone else is behind this. Perhaps the person who told her to use Dante’s name.”
Valerie nodded, her dark hair falling over her shoulders. A beauty despite being a new mother with all the stress. “So they made sure to cover their tracks.”
I bit my lip, trying to suppress the anger bubbling within me. “But why? Why go through all that trouble? What does the person gain by doing this?”
Matteo finally spoke, his voice low and controlled. “The person is using Isabella as a pawn. He or she just wants to hurt me. Or you this time.”
I stiffened, my gaze snapping to him. “What do you mean?”
Surely, whoever took her had no interest in me.
Matteo’s eyes darkened. “I’m just running theories here. But I think he or she wants to hurt you by holding your sister.”
A chill ran down my spine.
The idea of being a target wasn’t new. I’d felt it the moment I was forced into this marriage, this life. The moment I became married to Matteo.
Before I could respond, the door to the kitchen swung open, and Jackson entered, his expression grim, a folder in his hand.
Jackson was the only one among Matteo’s men who showed me he was more thanna bodyguard by smiling in my direction.
With dark hair and built like a professional bodybuilder, he was the sort of man I wouldn’t dare get into a fight with.
Everyone straightened up, the air in the room shifting as we waited for him to speak.
“I found something,” Jackson said, his tone urgent. He placed the folder on the table in front of Matteo, but his gaze flicked to me. “You’re going to want to hear this.”
Matteo picked up the folder and began flipping through the pages, his jaw tightening with each passing second. Valerie leaned in as she was the closest to him, her brows furrowed as she read over his shoulder.
Ethan remained still, his face now an unreadable mask.
But I kept my eyes on Jackson.
“What did you find?” I asked, my voice trembling despite my best efforts to remain calm.
Please don’t be dead, Isabella.
Don’t be.
Jackson finally met my eyes. “Additional footage from the party.”
Oh…
Oh.
“What kind of footage?”
He hesitated for a moment, glancing at Matteo as if seeking permission. Matteo gave a slight nod, his expression grim.
“Isabella didn’t come to that party alone,” Jackson began. “The moment she entered, she spoke to someone-someone we couldn’t identify from the initial footage. The person was out of frame in the first few clips, but we managed to recover another angle.”
Valerie leaned forward, her eyes narrowing. “And? Who did she talk to?”
Jackson pulled out a set of still images from the folder and laid them on the table. My breath caught in my throat as I stared at the photos. Isabella, dressed in a simple black dress, stood at the entrance of the grand ballroom, her head turned slightly toward someone just out of view. In the next frame, she was talking to a tall figure.
A man.
“Who is he?” I whispered, my pulse racing.
Jackson’s expression hardened. “We’re still trying to identify him. He didn’t show up in any of the guest lists, and none of the security teams remember seeing him that night.”
“How is that possible?” Ethan asked, frowning. “No one walks into a party like that without being noticed.”
Jackson shrugged. “That’s what we’re trying to figure out. But there’s more.”
He reached into the folder again and pulled out another image. This time, the photo showed Isabella moving down a long hallway, away from the main party. My stomach churned as I recognized the hallway leading to where Matteo and I had been that night.
“That’s when she was looking for us.” I muttered, piecing it together.
Jackson nodded. “It seems like it. But she didn’t make it all the way. She stopped halfway down the hall, and then… she vanished.”
“Vanished?” Matteo’s voice was sharp now, his full attention on Jackson.
Jackson nodded grimly. “There’s no footage of her leaving that hallway. No exit through the main doors. It’s like she disappeared into thin air.”
Valerie narrowed her eyes. “That’s not possible.”
But Jackson’s face remained tense. “I didn’t say it was. But it gets worse.”
He pulled out one last image, and my blood turned to ice.
Isabella was sitting in the back seat of a car, her face pale, her expression blank. The car’s door was open, and a man stood beside it – his face obscured by shadows – but still recognizable.
Luca.
That was Luca’s car.
My stomach dropped.
Luca Nevarro. Matteo’s half-brother was responsible for sowing discord during the family meeting Matteo went to earlier.
“Why is Isabella in Luca’s car?” I demanded, my voice rising with panic.
Matteo’s jaw clenched so hard I thought it might break. “I don’t know.”
Jackson looked between the two of us, his expression serious. “The footage shows Isabella getting into the car willingly. But we still don’t know where Luca took her.”
I felt my chest tighten, the weight of the revelation crashing down on me. “Why would Luca be involved in this? What does he want with Isabella?”
Ethan leaned back in his chair, his gaze thoughtful. “Luca doesn’t do anything without a reason. If Isabella is in his car, it means she’s part of something bigger. Something dangerous.”
I swallowed hard, my mind racing. “We have to find her. We have to figure out what she’s involved in.”
Matteo stood up abruptly, his face a mask of determination. “We will. But we need to be smart about this. Luca is dangerous, and if he’s involved, we’re already playing a deadly game.”
I looked at him, my heart pounding. “So what do we do?”
Matteo’s eyes met mine, and for the first time in days, there was a clarity in them. “We find out why Luca has Isabella. And then we bring her back.”
If only it was that simple.