Chapter 121: Home?

The rain had stopped, leaving the tarmac at the North Executive Airfield glistening under a clear, pale sky.

A sleek, dark matte-black private jet sat near the edge of the runway, its turbine engines humming softly as ground crews loaded the last of the luggage into the cargo hold.

A luxury black van pulled up near the air stairs.

The door slid open. Aaron stepped out first, extending his hand backward into the vehicle.

Isabella stepped down slowly. She was wearing a thick, soft cream-colored coat wrapped tightly around her body, her dark hair pulled back into a simple knot.

She looked frail, pale, her skin almost translucent in the morning light, but her green eyes were clear.

She walked slowly, leaning slightly against Aaron’s arm for support, but she was walking on her own two feet.

Before they could reach the stairs, the loud, desperate screech of tires echoed across the tarmac.

A dark Mercedes crashed through the security gate, ignoring the flashing red lights, and tore across the open concrete, coming to a sudden, violent stop twenty yards from the plane.

Kian threw his car door open and stumbled out onto the tarmac.

Four of Aaron’s armed security guards instantly drew their weapons, stepping into a defensive line between Kian and the aircraft stairs.

"Isabella!" Kian screamed, his voice raw, ragged, and completely broken. He didn’t care about the guns pointed at his chest. He didn’t care about the airport guards rushing toward him from the terminal. "Isabella, please! Stop! Don’t go!"

Isabella stopped near the bottom of the air stairs.

Aaron turned slowly, his hand resting lightly against her back, his blue eyes watching Kian with cold indifference.

"Let him talk," Isabella said softly. Her voice was quiet, but it carried clearly over the hum of the jet engines.

Aaron gestured with his hand, and his guards slowly stepped aside, though their hands remained on their weapons.

Kian ran forward, stopping five feet away from her.

He looked completely unhinged, his tie undone, his hair a wild mess, his eyes red and wet with spilled tears.

He looked at her face, searching desperately for any sign of the woman who used to sit in his house waiting for him to come home.

"Isabella..." Kian sobbed, taking a tiny step closer, his hands held out in a desperate plea. "Please... don’t do this. Don’t leave with him. Please... we can fix this. We can start over. I’ll change, I swear to God I’ll change! I get rid of Alice! Just come back home with me! I need you."

Isabella looked in the direction of his voice. She found it hard to imagine how pathetic he looked. After all, he used to be the most handsome man in the world to her.

She couldn’t decide if she wanted to laugh or scream. She had been given a second chance and yet she failed. Her life ended so pathetically. She felt the shame crawl up her body into her throat, suffocating her.

Now with a third chance, she felt nothing but a vast hollowness threatening to consume her.

The baby she lost felt like a piece of her soul had been carved out of her without mercy. The floating screen, the words on them, the debt, the mark she had almost forgotten behind her ears. Everything remained sharp in her memory as if she were seeing it in the moment.

A part of her wondered what was even the point of her rebirth if she hadn’t been sent back to a time before all of this. Before she met Kian, before she fell in love with him or the version of him he had built for her.

She couldn’t see his bruised jaw or his ruined clothes but she felt a little pity. It was as if he were a complete stranger standing in the rain, soaked to the bone. But Kian wasn’t a stranger and there was no rain drenching him.

"Home?" Isabella asked softly, her voice flat, devoid of any warmth or warmth’s memory.

"I don’t have a home with you, Kian. I never

did. Isn’t Alice the one you’ve always wanted"

"I love you!" Kian cried out, the words ripping out of his throat like a confession he had buried for years. "Do you hear me?! I love you, Isabella! I’ve always loved you!"

Isabella stared at him for a long, quiet moment.

"Do you know how many nights I sat in wondering to myself what I did to deserve being lied to by you?" she asked quietly. "Do you know how many times I wished all of this was just a nightmare? That you actually loved me and none of this was real."

Kian’s breath hitched in his chest. "I’m saying it now! I’m here now!"

Isabella shook her head slowly, a tiny, sad smile touching the corner of her lips before it vanished completely.

"I don’t want it anymore," she said.

Despite her blindness, she looked determined, her green gaze turning into cold, sharp iron.

"I hate your guts, Kian. I hate every lie you ever told me, I hate every quiet night I spent crying because of you, and I hate the sound of your voice." She turned her back on him, placing her hand back in Aaron’s arms. "Don’t ever look for me again."

"Isabella! No! ISABELLA!" Kian screamed, lunging forward, but Aaron’s guards instantly grabbed him by both shoulders, slamming him hard down onto his knees against the wet tarmac.

Kian struggled wildly, his tears dripping onto the cold concrete, as he watched her Aaron guide her slowly up the stairs into the cabin of the plane.

Aaron turned at the top of the stairs, looking down at Kian pinned to the ground like a pathetic, beaten dog.

Aaron didn’t say a word. He simply turned, stepped inside, and closed the heavy pressure door behind them.

Three minutes later, the dark jet taxied down the runway, lifted its nose into the grey sky, and disappeared into the clouds toward Russia.

Kian remained on his knees on the wet ground, staring at the empty sky long after the sound of the engines had completely faded away.