His Brother's Bride

I forced my still-recovering body out of bed and stormed to Isabella’s hospital room.

The door was unlocked. I burst in. Isabella was standing by the window, holding my grandmother's locket ring, dangling it in the sunlight.

“Isabella, you murderer—” A fire of pure hatred burned in my chest, so hot it hurt to breathe.

I pictured my grandmother's face in her final moments, her eyes filled with tears. It all made sense now—why she had insisted on seeing Dante. She knew the hell I'd been through, and she was desperate for someone to protect me.

But her last wish never came true.

Isabella's voice echoed in my head, taunting me. "So call the cops. Who do you think they'll believe?"

She was right. It was just like before, when she bullied me. No one would listen.

"Give it back," I gasped, out of breath. "That's the only thing my grandmother left me."

"Oh, you mean this?" She held the ring up high, out the window. "It's a beautiful antique. But I think it suits someone like me better."

My heart hammered against my ribs. "Isabella, I'm warning you one last time. Give me back the ring."

"Give it back?" She smiled brightly, dangling it further out the window. "Then get on your knees and beg me. Like a dog. Maybe then I'll consider it."

"In your dreams."

"Not kneeling, huh?" Isabella's fingers suddenly went limp. "Well then, what if I were to have a little... accident?"

I watched in horror as my grandmother's ring fell from the high-rise window, tracing an arc through the air before disappearing from sight.

"NO!" I lunged toward the window, trying to catch something, anything, but it was too late.

In that instant, Isabella grabbed my arm as it reached out the window. Then, as Dante and Marco burst through the door, she let out a piercing scream.

"HELP! ROSE IS TRYING TO PUSH ME OUT THE WINDOW! SHE'S GONE CRAZY! SHE'S TRYING TO KILL ME!"

"What?!" Dante's face turned to stone as he charged over.

"I didn't!" I struggled against Isabella's grip. "She threw my ring out the window! She's framing me!"

"Shut up!" Dante yanked me away from the window, his eyes blazing with fury. "Are you insane? We're on the tenth floor! You were trying to kill her?"

"I really didn't push her! She provoked me, she deliberately—"

SLAP!

A sharp, stinging slap landed across my face, cutting off my words. My cheek burned, and I could taste blood.

"Enough!" Dante's eyes were full of rage. "You're so jealous you'd resort to murder?"

"Dante, I was so scared..." Isabella sobbed, burying herself in his arms. "She was really trying to push me. If you'd come a second later, I would have..."

"Rose, you've disappointed me more than I can say." Marco's voice was cold with disgust. "I thought you had some basic morals."

"I didn't! I really didn't push her!" I screamed, trying to make them see the truth. "She used my grandmother's ring to threaten me! She let it go on purpose!"

But no one believed me.

"Get her out of here," Dante ordered Marco, his voice like ice. "Don't let her near Isabella again."

"No, you have to listen to me—"

Before I could fight back, Dante and Marco grabbed my arms and began dragging me out of the room. I thrashed and struggled, but they were too strong.

As they hauled me through the doorway, I locked eyes with Isabella.

She was smiling at me, a triumphant, venomous smirk that belonged on a snake.

She mouthed one silent word at me: Idiot.