By morning, an envelope waited on the nightstand.
Inside: a check worth more than she’d ever held. Enough to save her mother.
Alexander adjusted his cufflinks, emotionless.
“We’ll never speak of this again,” he said.
Her mother’s treatment began the next day. Within weeks, she improved. For the first time in months, Isabella saw hope. But peace didn’t come. Every time her mother smiled, guilt twisted in her chest.
Alexander remained distant. Yet whenever their eyes met, something flickered there — something unsaid.
