Chapter 105

Isabella

The sound of the front door opening was soft, barely a whisper against the silence of the house, but something inside me caught it immediately. I had been waiting without realizing it, my body attuned to his return in ways I couldn’t explain.

I was halfway down the marble hallway before I saw him. I caught sight of him at the foot of the stairs, his broad frame slouched, exhaustion carving deep lines into him.

Alessandro stood there, his powerful frame seeming smaller somehow, diminished by exhaustion. His white shirt was no longer white, and sometimes I wondered why he wore white knowing the line of his work. There were dark stains spread across the fabric in irregular patterns that made my stomach clench.

Blood.

His face was shadowed with more than just the dim lighting, and when he moved, it was with the desperate control of someone holding himself together through sheer will.

“Alessandro….” His name escaped my lips like a praye