She reaches out and takes my hand, her fingers cool from the soil, and squeezes gently.
"Talk to Matteo," she says firmly. "Tell him everything. Let him decide with all the information instead of making the decision for him. And whatever happens after that, at least you'll know you were honest." She pauses. "And you might be surprised. Your brother wants you to be happy. That matters to him more than you think."
"What about the De Lucas?" I ask. "What about Salvatore and the alliance and everything that depends on this marriage?"
"You let the men figure that out. That's their job, not yours. Your job is to live your life and be happy and stop carrying a weightthat was never yours to carry in the first place." She squeezes my hand again. "Be brave, Isabella. Fight for what you want. You deserve that much."
I sit with her words for a long moment, feeling them settle into the spaces where my certainty used to be, feeling them shift things I thought were fixed.
"Thank you," I say quietly.
"Don't thank me yet. Thank me after you talk to your brother and it actually works out."
I stand and she stands with me and pulls me into a hug that smells like earth and roses, and I hold on longer than I probably should before I pull back.
"Go," she says. "Before you lose your nerve."
I leave the greenhouse with my heart pounding and my hands shaking slightly and head toward Matteo's office with the words already forming in my head, the confession already taking shape.
I'm halfway down the hallway when I hear voices.
Matteo's office door is slightly ajar and I can hear him talking with someone, the low rumble of male voices in discussion, and I slow down because something about the tone makes me hesitate.
"I don't see how we fix this without Salvatore," Matteo is saying, and something in his voice sounds tired, sounds stretched thin. "The O'Rourkes are too entrenched. We need the De Luca alliance to have any real leverage."
"There has to be another way." Rafael's voice, firm and certain.
"If there is, I haven't found it." A pause. "The wedding needs to happen. Isabella needs to marry Vittorio. That's the only path forward that doesn't end with us fighting a war on two fronts."
The words hit me like cold water.
I stand in the hallway with my hand halfway to the door and listen to my brother confirm exactly what I already knew but was hoping somehow wasn't true.
He needs this marriage.
The family needs this marriage.
Without it, we're vulnerable in ways that get people killed.
I pull my hand back and turn around and walk away before anyone can hear me, before the conversation can continue, before I have to stand there and listen to my brother outline exactly how much my happiness is worth in the grand scheme of keeping everyone alive.
I wait until late, until the house has gone quiet and the guards have settled into their night rotations, and then I slip out of my room and into the hallway and stop at the door directly next to mine.
Enzo's room.
I knock softly.
The door opens almost immediately and he's standing there in sweatpants and nothing else, his hair damp like he just got out of the shower, and the sight of him shirtless makes my mouth go dry.
"Isabella." His voice is quiet. "What are you doing here?"
"Can I come in?"
He steps back without a word and I slip inside and he closes the door behind me. We stand in his room and look at each other.
"I need to tell you something," I say.
"Okay."
