Isabelle’s POV
I stared at the message on my phone, the cold words burning into my mind.
“You’re running out of time. Leave, or face the consequences.”
Walter.
I didn’t need proof. His fingerprints were all over this. The sudden sabotage of my contracts, the threatening text—it was his way of reminding me that I was nothing to him. That I was a problem he needed to erase.
But the part that rattled me most wasn’t the threat itself.
It was the fact that Walter knew I wouldn’t leave.
Not this time.
I set my phone down, inhaling deeply, fighting to steady my pulse. I wouldn’t be bullied. I wouldn’t let this man, or anyone else, push me out of my life. I had built everything from scratch. My business. My reputation. My home.
But as I sat there, staring into the dimly lit living room, t
