[Long Chapter Ahead]
ISABELLA’S POV
Xavier’s question hung in the air, and for a moment, I was frozen. I didn’t expect him to ask that… I didn’t even know why. I didn’t know how to react. It was a very simple question – yet its weight pressed down on me, making it hard to breathe.
Our eyes locked, and that’s when I realized that there was something different about him now. He had always been so relentless, so sure of himself in every encounter we’d had these past few days. But now, the fierceness… the tenacity that once ablaze in his orbs was now gone, only replaced by a weariness I had never seen before.
Exhaustion and helplessness flickered across his face, and his voice, that was always sharp and commanding, now carried a softness that took me by surprise. It was as if he was afrai
