Nico stood there, staring at her with wide eyes,
He just nodded once and stepped aside, letting her walk past him as he led her out of the basement and into the main foyer.
The house looked even more massive now that she was taking her time to look around, gold accents, tall ceilings, dim lights, and a cold silence that made everything a little scarier.
She followed him through the hallway until they reached the dining room, and there it was, a ridiculously long table with candles lit in the middle and two plates placed on opposite ends like it was some royal dinner,
Raphael was already seated at the far end and he was looking way too calm and way too composed, as if nothing was wrong and this made Isabella want to throw a plate at his head.
She didn't say a word to him and she didn't look at him either, she just walked quietly to the other end of the table and sat down, her eyes were blank, her fingers were knotted in her lap and her thoughts were racing rapidly.
He glanced at her, smiled so casually and said in the softest voice, "Enjoy your meal." but she just sat there in complete silence.
Raphael noticed she hadn't touched a thing on her plate, her fork was still lying exactly where it was placed and her head slightly tilted like she wasn't even really there, she wasn't speaking and wasn't blinking much either.
He chewed slowly and cleared his throat, "You haven't touched anything," his voice calm, quiet and almost too gentle,
Isabella didn't respond,
He put down his fork and leaned in a little, "Can you please just eat something?"
She blinked once, turned her head slightly, then looked right at him, "I'm not hungry."
"You've barely had anything all day." he replied.
"I said I'm not hungry." she responded with seriousness.
He exhaled, nodded slowly and picked his fork back up, continuing his meal like nothing happened.
After a few more bites, Raphael wiped his mouth and spoke again, not looking at her this time, "So just a few things… ground rules, If you might."
She looked up slowly,
He continued, "You can't go out. You can't talk to anyone. Not right now. You're going to have to stay inside this house, at least until I know I can trust you."
She stared at him in disgust like he'd just lost his mind,
"What exactly do you want from me?" she asked, voice rising a bit, "You already took me as collateral, fine! I'll stay here, you win, but don't take my life too. I just got a job. I was finally doing something for myself."
Raphael looked up and smiled softly, "Yeah, you got a job at my company and I'm telling you to sit it out."
She blinked again with her eyes burning with tears and rage,
"I was finally happy," she said with her voice shaking, "I was finally doing something for me."
He shrugged like it was nothing, "When I feel I can trust you, who knows, I might just let you keep working at Voss Pharmaceuticals...we'll see." and that was it.
She slammed her hand on the table and stood up with her chair screeching behind her
"I hate you," she spat out,
her voice trembling with every syllable, "I hate you so much and I swear to God, I hope I'm the one who gets to kill you someday."
Raphael didn't even flinch, he just chuckled quietly, wiping his hands with the napkin and setting it down
"That's highly unlikely," he replied, not even looking up,
Then he leaned back in his seat, staring at the candlelight, "actually, it's probably better that you hate me, because if you love me… and I love you back…"
He looked up now, his eyes locking onto hers with something dark in his gaze,
"…then you're the one who's most likely to die by my hands." her heart dropped,
She just stood there, frozen, "What…?"
He smirked and didn't say a word, he just gave Nico a small nod,
On seeing Raphael's cue, Niko steps forward and grabs Isabella mid conversation,
"No — no, what do you mean by that?" she asked, her voice was loud now, desperate too, her body froze and her mind was spinning,
"What do you mean?! What does that mean?!"
Raphael just leaned back and kept eating,
she was still shouting as Niko pulled her away, "What does that mean?! What did you mean by that?!"
After Nico dropped Isabella back off in the basement, he came back up to the foyer and sat with Rafael, "why did you do that brother?" he asked Rafael...
"do what?" Raf Replied,
"I saw how you hinted about the blood oath curse to her, why did you do that?" Nico responded.
"no reason, I simply wanted to give her something to think tonight" Raf replied.
They both remained silent for a while, Raf continued to look at Niko`s face because he could sense the worry coming from him...
"why do you look so worried brother?" Raf asked.
"with this whole Isabella incident, I worry that lives might be endangered because of this curse" Niko responded.
"relax brother, you should only worry about the curse if there is love involved from my end and I am not in love with her, I never will be...she is simply here as a tool to help me regain full control of my council and reassure the pack, that is why she must be trained to a point where we can trust that she is fully on our side." Raf replied.
Niko nodded in agreement but the worry never left his eyes.