Chapter 4

Israel didn't wait for a reply. He followed the ambulance to the hospital, his mind a storm of grief and rage. He had to tell her in person. He had to see her face.

He drove straight from the hospital to the headquarters of Stone Industries. The security guard tried to stop him, but Israel brushed past, his face a grim mask. He knew where her private office was.

He pushed the door open without knocking.

And there they were.

Isabella was curled up on the sofa, her head resting in Buddie Spencer' s lap. Buddie was stroking her hair, whispering something to her. They looked comfortable, intimate. A perfect picture of betrayal.

They both looked up, startled. Isabella' s eyes widened in shock, and she quickly sat up, smoothing down her clothes.

"Israel! What are you doing here?" she asked, a flush of guilt on her face.

"Your mother," Israel said, his voice unnaturally calm. "She's at St. Mary's. She had a heart attack."

Isabella stared at him, her expression shifting from guilt to suspicion. "Is this a trick? Are you trying to get me to leave Buddie?"

The accusation was so cruel, so detached from the reality of the situation, that something inside Israel snapped.

"A trick?" he repeated, his voice dangerously low. "I've spent six years taking care of your mother, every single day. While you were building your empire. While you were with him. And you think I would lie about this?"

Her face paled. She knew he was telling the truth. "Oh my god," she whispered, scrambling to her feet. "I have to go."

But Buddie put a hand on her arm, stopping her. "Bella, wait. You can't just run off. Think about your condition. You need to rest."

He looked at Israel, his eyes full of possessive warning. Then he glanced down at Isabella' s stomach.

It was a small, subtle gesture, but it hit Israel like a lightning bolt.

Pregnant. She was pregnant.

The room tilted. He felt the air leave his lungs. He remembered all the conversations they'd had. Her telling him she wasn't ready for kids, that her career was too important. That their life was too complicated with Harriet' s care.

Lies. All of it, lies. It wasn't that she didn't want a child. She just didn't want a child with him.

"I have to go," Israel said, his voice a choked whisper. He turned, needing to get out, to breathe.

"Izzy, wait!" Isabella cried, reaching for him. "It's not what you think!"

"Don't go anywhere, Bella," Buddie said firmly, pulling her back. "You need to stay here with me."

Isabella hesitated, torn for a moment between the past and the present. She looked from Israel' s shattered face to Buddie' s demanding one.

She chose Buddie. She let her hand drop and stepped back towards him.

That single, simple action broke the last remaining thread of hope in Israel' s heart.

He stopped at the door and looked back at her, his eyes empty. "You're going to regret this, Isabella. You're going to regret this for the rest of your life."

He walked away without another word, not hearing her cry out his name. As he strode down the hallway, he could hear Buddie' s soothing voice behind him. "It's okay, baby. He's not worth it. We have each other. We have our little family."

Israel took a deep, shuddering breath, fighting back the tears that burned his eyes. It was gone. The love he had poured his entire soul into was dead.

He drove back to the hospital in a daze. He walked through the automatic doors of the emergency room, his feet feeling like lead. A doctor with a tired, compassionate face approached him.

"Mr. Clark? I'm so sorry. We did everything we could."

The words didn't fully register at first.

"Harriet... she passed away a few minutes ago. Her heart just gave out. It was peaceful."

Israel stared at the doctor, hearing the words but not processing them. He felt nothing. Just a vast, cold emptiness. He had lost his wife and his mother-in-law, the only family he'd ever known, on the same day.

He pulled out his phone, his fingers moving with a chilling precision. He opened his text conversation with his lawyer.

"Change the terms," he typed. "She gets nothing. Not a penny. And add a clause that she is to have no part in her mother' s funeral arrangements. Send the revised agreement to her right now."

He then opened a new text to Isabella. He attached the PDF of the divorce agreement.

His message was short.

"You're free."