Chapter 39: THE EX RETURNS
The air around the mansion was charged with a strange heaviness the morning she appeared. The sun had only just risen, brushing the estate with streaks of muted gold, but Isabella’s presence was like a shadow slipping back into a place it no longer belonged. She arrived not as a stranger but as a memory made flesh, polished, dangerous, and deliberately calculated.
Aria had been walking through the east garden when she heard the low purr of an expensive engine pulling up the long driveway. She paused, clutching her shawl tighter around her shoulders, and turned toward the sound. The sleek black car that rolled to a stop wasn’t one she recognized among the Don’s fleet, though it carried the same aura of power.
The door opened slowly, deliberately, and out stepped a woman who looked like she had stepped from the cover of a glossy magazine. She was tall, with striking dark hair that cascaded over her shoulders in perfect waves, and eyes sharp enough to cut glass. Her heels clicked against the stone path as she approached the main entrance, her stride confident, as though she owned every brick of the place.
Aria felt the unease coil in her stomach before she even heard the voice.
"Tell your master Isabella is here," the woman told one of the guards, her tone commanding, familiar in the way one only spoke when certain they still had a claim.
Aria’s breath caught. The name was enough. She had heard whispers in the hallways, murmurs among the older staff, of a woman who once held the Don’s heart. A lover, a partner, and if the rumors were true, the one who had betrayed him in ways that nearly destroyed everything.
Her feet carried her closer, though instinct told her to step away. She wanted to see the Don’s reaction, to read the truth in his eyes when he saw this woman again.
The doors opened, and there he stood. Luciano, Don Luca, looked at Isabella as though a ghost had returned. His jaw tensed, his body coiled, but his eyes... they flickered with something Aria couldn’t place. Recognition, anger, and perhaps a hint of pain.
"Isabella." His voice was low, dangerous, a warning wrapped in a single word.
"Luca," she replied, her lips curving into a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. "You look well. Time has only sharpened you."
Aria remained partially hidden behind a marble column, her heart pounding as though she were trespassing into a moment too intimate to witness. Yet she couldn’t pull herself away.
Isabella stepped closer, ignoring the tension thickening the air. "I heard about your... marriage." Her gaze flicked toward Aria’s direction, sharp and calculating, though Isabella made no sign of acknowledging her presence outright. "I’ll admit, I was surprised. It doesn’t seem like you, Luca, to bind yourself in such a way."
Luca’s jaw tightened. "You shouldn’t be here."
"On the contrary," Isabella said smoothly, "this is exactly where I should be. You may think the past is buried, but you and I both know it never really dies. I came back because I still have a place in this world you’ve built, and perhaps in your heart."
The last words hung in the air, poisonous and deliberate. Aria’s stomach churned, the seed of doubt planting itself before she could reason it away.
Luca took a step forward, closing the space between them, his voice iron. "You forfeited that place the moment you chose betrayal. You’ll find no welcome here."
Isabella only smiled, tilting her head as if amused. "We’ll see about that." Her eyes darted, finally settling on Aria who had been trying to remain unseen. "Ah. The new wife. Curious. Very curious indeed."
Aria stiffened, caught in the open. Isabella’s gaze swept over her, assessing, dismissive in a way that burned more than an insult.
"So, you’re the one who managed to do what no one else could," Isabella said with a soft, mocking laugh. "You put a ring on him. But tell me, dear, do you really believe you’ve tamed him? Or do you even know who he truly is?"
Aria’s lips parted, but no words came. She wanted to defend herself, to defend him, but the weight of Isabella’s confidence left her momentarily stunned.
Luca stepped in sharply, his voice leaving no room for doubt. "Enough. You don’t speak to her. You don’t look at her. You’re here on borrowed time, Isabella, and it will run out quickly if you push me."
Something flickered in Isabella’s eyes, a crack in the polished mask, though she recovered swiftly. "I see. Protective now, are we? That’s new."
She turned as though to leave, but not before leaning close to whisper, loud enough for Aria to hear. "Be careful, darling. Men like him don’t change. They only hide their truths until it’s too late."
With that, she swept back toward her car, her heels clicking like gunshots in the silence. The engine roared, and then she was gone.
The courtyard was heavy with her absence, though the echo of her words remained.
Aria finally found her voice, though it was small and trembling. "Who was she really, Luca?"
He looked at her, and for a moment, he seemed torn between shutting down and letting her in. His hands clenched at his sides before he finally spoke. "Someone who thought she could own me. Someone who thought she could play me. I let her close once, and it nearly cost me everything."
"Everything?" Aria pressed.
"My people. My family. My name." His voice was sharp, but beneath it lay an old wound, one still raw. "She sold secrets to enemies. She betrayed trust that can’t be repaired. Don’t give her more power by letting her under your skin."
But how could Aria not? Isabella wasn’t just any woman from his past, she was someone who had been close enough to break him. That kind of history didn’t vanish, no matter how much he dismissed it.
That night, Aria found herself lying awake, staring at the ceiling while rain tapped against the windows. Luca slept beside her, but his breathing wasn’t steady enough to be restful. She realized he was as awake as she was, trapped in memories neither dared to voice.
When she finally whispered, "Will she come back?" his silence told her the answer before he eventually muttered, "Yes."
And she knew then that Isabella wasn’t a ghost after all. She was a storm, and storms always came back to finish what they started.