For a moment, I'd considered arranging for a placebo instead of the real pill. Something similar had worked for Matteo Bellandi. But when I chose to get Isa pregnant, I'd do it with her knowing what I'd done. There wouldn't be any cloak and daggers regarding our child's conception.
I'd tell her it was time, and that would be the end of it. The nightmare inside of me actually looked forward to her shocked expression and the fight I'd face in convincing her she couldn't change it.
"Still. This business wasn't meant to be dealt with while I was here."
"From the way you speak of Ibiza, I always thought it was home to you. Where are you from if not here?" she asked, glancing out the window. "You have such fondness for the island."
"Ibiza is the closest thing to a home city I have, but I don't spend a great deal of time here anymore," I admitted. "I live on a nearby island, but it's much more isolated. My in-person business dealings always happen here out of necessity because the island is..." I paused, trying to think of a word that wouldn't convey just how isolated the island was.
Nothing said wealth like a private island, and nothing was quite as inescapable for Isa.
"More remote?" she asked.
"Yes. It's less urban. There are no hotels or places to stay on the island. Only the people who live there. But because I don't come to Ibiza as often anymore, business associates who want my time can be voracious. I apologize it has interrupted our time together," I said again, pulling up to the boutique hotel that I'd booked for Isa and her friends. It had killed me to put her in a three-star facility even for a few hours, but Alejandro insisted it was far more believable lodging for a program. Even if the program in and of itself was a charitable operation.
It would continue after Isa came home with me. Well, so long as it wasn't defunded due to her disappearance.
That would be most unfortunate.
With no valet parking, I pulled into one of the front parking spots and hurried out to help Isa from the car. She wound her way through the hotel, looking far more at ease with the lack of luxury than she ever did in the suite. I had to convince myself that was something that would remedy with time as she adjusted to being a very wealthy woman.
When she was my wife, she'd want for nothing.
She guided me into the elevator, turning to me to lean up and press a kiss to my cheek. "You don't need to worry about leaving me with my friends while you deal with your business. I'm capable of being without you for a few hours." She laughed, and the sound grated on my nerves.
I needed her to want to spend all her waking moments with me. Even if it wasn't practical to actually happen, she needed to want it as much as I did.
When the elevator emerged on her floor, she stepped out with a flounce and took my hand in hers to pull me behind her. Their room was at the back of the hotel, as far from the foot traffic of the elevator as I'd been able to manage. She knocked on the door despite having her own key to the room she was meant to share with Chloe.
Her friend swung open the door, all blond haired and blue eyed as she smiled at Isa excitedly. Isa stepped into the room, hugging her friend without ever releasing my hand, and taking me with her. Hugo stood from his seat, his posture going from relaxed to on edge the moment our eyes connected. "This is Rafe," Isa said, as she pulled back from Chloe's clinging embrace. "Rafe, these are my friends. Chloe and Hugo," she said, letting go of my hand to step into Hugo's chest for a hug. He wrapped his arms around her, enclosing her in an embrace that clearly felt uncomfortable to him with me watching with a clenched jaw.
"It's nice to meet you both," I said through clenched teeth.
I wanted nobody to ever lay a hand on my princesa, but that didn't mean I could make that happen. Not until she knew the truth of my identity, anyway.
Hugo rested his chin on her head, then pulled back to stare down at her as I might have expected if the friendship had been genuine. The expression on his face left little doubt that, no matter how it had begun, he did care for Isa much like Joaquin. "You good?" he asked as she smiled up at him.
She nodded, biting her lip. Given the way girls spoke to one another, I knew Hugo would know about the pregnancy scare by the time I returned from dealing with Pavel. "I should go, Princesa," I said carefully. She turned to me as I approached, tilting her head up to accept my kiss. "Call me if you need anything or if you aren't feeling well," I said vaguely, trying to convey the message that if her side effects became too much, I would step in to help her through them.
Or call a doctor to help her with the discomfort.
She sighed against me. "Okay, Rafael," she said, clinging to my suit. It was the only physical sign she gave of her unhappiness with my leaving her, and I took it for what it was. Isa wasn't a verbal communicator, and she probably never would be.
But her body told me no lies, only ever showing me the truth of her feelings for me.
"I'll be back as soon as I can," I told her, running my nose up the side of hers.
"You promise?" she asked, and the weakness to her voice almost compelled me to stay.
