The silence that followed at the mention of that name was Heavy and unforgiving lingering in the air like smoke after a gunshot. Lorenzo froze as the world around him seemed to pause.
Then he laughed with dangerous disbelief
"Be careful now, any unjust mention of that name carries a lot of consequences" he said quietly.
Isabella's heart pounded, but she didn't look away.
"Cut the crap Lorenzo, I know exactly what it carries," she replied.
His eyes snapped up to meet hers in a sharp, lethal gaze.
"You stand here accusing my right hand man, one of the most loyal people who have stood beside me for years," Lorenzo said.
"He was the man who killed your father," she shot back.
The tension snapped and Lorenzo began taking slow, measured steps towards her, each step heavier than the last.
"You're gonna have to explain that," he demanded.
Isabella swallowed. This was it, the truth that had cost her almost everything no matter how hard she tried to bury it.
"I wasn't supposed to be there that night," she began, her voice steady but her hands shaky.
"I went to see you at your father's place but you weren't home. One of your guards told me your father was in the study…"
Lorenzo's jaw tightened, the memory was still fresh and sharp on his mind.
"I heard voices before I entered, they were yelling and arguing. Your father and someone else" she continued as her heart tightened in her chest.
"At first I didn't recognize the voice till I heard your father call him out."
Lorenzo's eyes darkened as dead silence ensued.
"And when I opened the door…" her voice faltered,
"He shot him." the words hit like a bullet.
Lorenzo's entire body went still tightening with every ounce of control he could muster.
"And he saw me because I couldn't run fast enough," Isabella added quietly. "I didn't run fast enough."
"The only reason he didn't kill me was because one of your men walked in. Luckily I was able to escaped through the back door" she continued as her breathing grew uneven.
"If I had stayed, I'd have died and if I came to you…" she hesitated.
"Finish that sentence." Lorenzo's voice dropped.
"I didn't know if you'd believe me." Isabella said as she met his eyes.
That landed hard on Lorenzo because he knew she was right. If she has told him anything of that sort that last time, he would never have believe her .
After a long silence, Lorenzo turned slowly turned away running a hand through his hair. His mind racing with a thousand thoughts, connecting several dots.
He began questioning Marco's loyalty and timing, why was he the first to "discover" his father's body.
The man he trusted…
The man he never questioned…
The man who had been standing beside him this entire time.
Gradually, that slow, dangerous realization settled in coldly.
"You let him live," Lorenzo said quietly.
"I didn't have a choice…" Isabella flinched.
"You ran." he said accusingly.
"That's because I was pregnant" she snapped, stopping him completely.
"I had more to lose than just my life," she continued, her voice shaking now but stronger than before. "If I had stayed, he wouldn't just kill me he would kill our child."
Lorenzo turned back to her, his gaze dropping briefly to her stomach as if imagining it again, then back to her eyes.
"And you decided,that I wasn't worth trusting" he said quietly, the hurt audible in his voice.
Isabella's chest squeezed.
"I didn't really know who you were back then," she said softly. "Not fully."
That was a truth that cut deeper than anything else because it wasn't just about Marco, it was about Lorenzo. Who he was and what he represented.
And the kind of world he ruled.
Before he could respond Sofia burst into the room with visible urgency.
"Okay, emotional breakdown later," she said quickly. "We've got a problem."
"What now?" Lorenzo said,without even looking at her.
Sofia held up a tablet, her usual calm was gone now replaced with sharp focus.
"They didn't just track Isabella," she said. "They hacked into one of your lower security grids."
That got his attention as his eyes snapped to hers.
"That's not possible."
"It wasn't supposed to be," Sofia replied. "But they didn't break in from the outside, they used internal access."
The room went still again even worse this time because that only meant one thing there was still a traitor inside.
"Who?," he asked.
Sofia tapped the screen and pulled up a feed that included the access points and security logs. A name popped up.
"No… that can't be" she whispered.
Lorenzo stared at the screen as a slow, cold smile spread across his face.
"Bring him to me." he said simply
"Lorenzo, if we're wrong…" Sofia hesitated
"We're not." He responded, his voice left no room for doubt.
The command had already been given and now someone was about to pay.
*****
Heavy footsteps echoed down the halls of Villa Nero as a man was dragged down the hall, held in place despite his struggling and bleeding. He was thrown to his knees in front of Lorenzo.
"Boss, I swear… I didn't…"
Lorenzo didn't let him finish and the moment he looked up, Isabella recognized him, her blood ran cold. He wasn't just one of Lorenzo's men, he was the one who helped her escape five years ago…