Chapter 362: The Past
Long after her family had gone Isabella continued to keep her eyes closed, as if protecting herself against the painful present. She thought back to her happy childhood when Emerald and her had been best of friends. Why then did he change so much as they grew older?
Was it only because of her ’prosmiciousness’ as he claimed? And her parents, she thought they knew her best. But they too had started to believe his lies. She knew she should have stayed back and fought for her right. She should have defended herself with all her might, knowing how old fashioned and orthodox her father was. She’d never had an abortion. Not then and not now.
Instead, she’d been angry that her parents had questioned her instead of trusting her. She’d been horrified that her parents would believe that their daughter would sleep with anyone and everyone. In her rebellion, she’d made sure that the rumors that had been started about her would get even more wild.
Unbeknown to her, Ian who had gone out to talk to his brothers about Gabe, had already returned to her room and now stood there, watching her silently, as tears rolled down her cheeks. He was tempted to go out and teach those men a lesson, something that would make them remember how to behave with Isabella and with women in general.
Luckily for them, they were Isabella’s father and brother, or he’d have shown them some of his knife skills. Slowly, he walked to her side and gently wiped her face. Her eyes snapped open and the vulnerability in them, tugged at something inside him.
Carefully, he wiped her face as he consoled her," Everything is going to be alright."
His words seemed to make her vulnerability disappear and she gave him a cynical smile," Do you really think everything is going to be alright? How? Do you believe in magic, Ian? Maybe a fairy godmother will come and change everything to the way it was when I was younger?"
Ian shook his head," There is no magic in this world, Isi."
Isabella glanced at him at that. He liked to call her Isi while everyone else was used to calling her Bella. She did not know why but she liked it. However, even that warm feeling of liking was like an arrow in her heart and she turned her head away from his warm touch," Then there is only one way to make everything alright. I guess I must change my ways. I should stop sleeping around and getting rid of my pregnancies."
Ian frowned at the bitterness in her tone. Isabella was always different from his pereption of her. And the more he knew her the more different she sounded from her party girl image.
"You don’t need to change anything, Isi. They just need to learn to accept you as you are."
Isabella smiled at that," Like I said, that would be magic."