The Heiress’s Contract Marriage With Her Enemy

Chapter Eleven: The Safe

Once Isabelle returned back, their mansion was quiet. Not peacefully but quietly in a way that made her skin rip apart.

The place was too big, and too clean, and too sharp around the edges. Like it didn't want to be lived in. Like it didn't belong to anyone.

She had picked it herself. 

A house that belonged to neither her nor Reign. Neutral ground, she had called it. 

Reign hadn't argued, which made her even more suspicious. He just signed the papers and wired his share of the money. 

There were questions asked, and it kinda bothered her.

Isabelle used the last of her personal savings to pay for her half. The company's money was gone. 

Her name dragged through the dirt. Every account frozen, every asset was being investigated. She didn't want anything with the Munro name on it. Not now.

She had no idea how long this "marriage" would last, but if she was going to live beside a man she couldn't trust, she'd at least pick the battlefield.

The front doors opened with a faded click. Isabelle stepped inside, cold air greeted her like a ghost.

Then she heard the sound of little feet.

She turned to see the twins being carried through the main hallway. 

Aurora was resting her head on the nurse's shoulder, eyes half-closed. Aron was holding onto his little stuffed wolf tightly. Both looked pale but calm.

They were finally back from the hospital.

Isabelle walked forward and blocked the path. The nurse stopped, and looked startled.

"Take them to my room," she said. "I'll take care of them."

"But Mr. Kraus said they should—"

"I don't care what he said." Her voice was strict but gentle. "I said take them to my room."

The nurse hesitated, then nodded.

Isabelle followed behind as the twins were taken upstairs. 

She didn't even glance at Reign, who was near the staircase, one hand in his pocket, the other holding his phone like none of this mattered.

She didn't say anything to him. Isabelle didn't feel like she had to.

Later, when she entered her room and saw the twins sleeping peacefully in the small bed near hers, something deep inside her calmed. 

A little, of course not much, but it felt enough.

She sat at the edge of the bed and looked at their faces. So innocent and so full of things they couldn't say.

Or maybe they could.

Isabelle held her breath and closed her eyes.

Then she listened.

Silence at first for like at least three minutes, and then…

'I want pancakes.'

'She's watching us again.'

'Maybe she can read minds. Maybe she's a witch.'

'I hope not. Witches eat children.'

Isabelle's eyes flew open. The voices were clear again. Not out loud enough or real…Not like sound. But there…in her head. As if the thoughts had chosen her ears to land in.

'She has strawberry hair. I like her smell.'

'Do you think she's going to be our new mommy?'

'I don't want a new mommy. I want our old one.'

Isabelle's throat tightened. Her heart squeezed, but she didn't speak.

They still didn't know she could hear them.

And she wasn't going to tell this to them yet.

'I miss Caleb,' Aurora whispered in her thoughts.

Isabelle sat straighter.

'Caleb…Reign's brother.'

The twins had never spoken his name until now. She didn't even know if they fully understood what death was. But they missed him. They remembered him, and that mattered.

She leaned in closer. Her eyes were on the little girl, willing her to keep talking.

'Do you think mommy's safe?'

'She said the safe was important.'

'Safe?' Isabelle blinked.

'The one in her old building,' Aron added. 'She said never tell anyone. Not even daddy. Not even—'

'Belle?' Aurora's voice suddenly cut into Isabelle's thoughts, louder and more aggressive.

Isabelle jerked back, heart began pounding in an amazing speed. Had she heard too much?

But the twins were still asleep. Their lips hadn't moved at all.

They were dreaming, maybe. Or whispering to each other in that strange silent way. Not knowing someone was listening.

'A safe…In Charlotte's building.'

Isabelle had never thought of looking there. She hadn't stepped foot inside Charlotte's old place since she left the family. 

The place was still owned under Charlotte's name. The company hadn't touched it. The police had searched it briefly. But nothing came of it. Nothing public, at least.

Isabelle's mind started to form every kind of possibility.

'A safe,' she repeated in her head.

That had to mean something.

There were too many things Charlotte hadn't said. Too many secrets left hanging between them. Now she was gone. And this was all that remained.

Isabelle didn't know what she would find there. But she knew now where to start.

She leaned back on the bed, watching the twins again.

Their breathing slowed. One turned, the other stayed still.

She whispered to herself, soft as the wind outside, "Don't worry, Charlotte. I'll find the truth."

Then she heard it one last time, like a faint echo in her head—

'Find the safe before he does.'

Isabelle's eyes immediately flew to the twins.

'Before who?' she asked silently.

But there was no answer.

Just the soft sound of wind outside the windows. And the long, growing silence of night.