Isabella's POV
You are not leaving, are you? His voice shivered my spine, rough and hardly above a whisper.
I did not respond straight away. How could I? The words were caught in my throat, twisted in the middle of feelings I couldn't quite sort. Enzo stood before me, his face marked with genuine fear, frustration, and a yearning need I could not overlook as his eyes scanned mine.
"I... I choked hard as everything fell over me. The risks we would be facing, the secrets we would have discovered, the difficult decisions ahead. All of it smushed into my chest, choked me. "I'm not sure if I can stay, Enzo."
The pain that tore over his face seemed to my heart like a razor. I could sense the strain, heavy like smoke rolling about us. It was us, too, not only the approaching catastrophe hovering above us. Secrets, deceit, and an underlying truth we both were too scared to confront frayed our relationship.
