Chapter 439

Chapter 439:

It was a commercial. A perfect, high-definition advertisement for the happy family Isolde had never been allowed to have.

Isolde didn’t move. She just watched.

The air shifted. The temperature in the room seemed to drop ten degrees.

Belle looked up first. Her smile didn’t fade — it curdled into something sharp and victorious.

“Well,” Belle said, her voice carrying over the cartoon explosions. “Look who the cat dragged in. I thought the doorman had stricter instructions about trash disposal p>

Grayson’s head snapped up.

When he saw Isolde, he scrambled to his feet, the motion clumsy because of his cast. He positioned himself between Isolde and Kaiden — a subtle, instinctive shift of his body weight. Blocking. Protecting.

Isolde felt a phantom pain in her chest. He was looking at her as if she were the intruder. As if she were the danger.

“I’m here for my things,” Isolde said, her voice devoid of inflection. “Three boxes in the study. Then I disappear p>

𝗕𝗲 𝘁𝗁𝗲 𝖿𝗶r𝘴𝘁 t𝘰 𝘳𝗲𝖺𝖽 𝗼𝘯

Kaiden peeked out from behind Grayson’s legs, his face sticky with something sugary.

“Bad lady!” Kaiden shrieked, sticking out his tongue. “Go away! This is my ship p>

Isolde’s eyes dropped to the Lego construction on the floor. It was a replica of the Phoenix-X7 — the jet she had designed. The jet Grayson had taken from her.

“It’s a Phoenix,” Isolde said coldly. “And you put the canards on backward, kid. It would stall and crash before it broke the sound barrier p>

Kaiden blinked, thrown by the technical critique.

Isolde didn’t wait for a response. She walked past them and headed straight for the double doors of the study.

“Isolde, wait,” Grayson called out, taking a step to follow her.

Belle’s hand shot out and grabbed the sleeve of his good arm.

“Gray, don’t,” Belle warned, her voice low. “Let her take her junk. We need to clear out the negative energy anyway p>

Grayson looked at Belle’s hand on his arm, then at Isolde’s retreating back. He pulled his arm free — not violently, but firmly — and limped after her.

The study was dark. Isolde flipped the switch, illuminating the shelves she had spent five years filling. Most of it was already gone. Just three cardboard boxes remained on the desk, heavy with engineering journals, hand-drawn schematics, and textbooks that predated her marriage. The weight of her real life.

She began sealing the first box with packing tape. The sharp rip of the tape was loud in the quiet room.

“You look…” Grayson started, leaning against the doorframe. He looked exhausted, the pain lines around his eyes deep. “You look better p>

Isolde didn’t look up. She smoothed the tape down with the heel of her hand.

“Better than what?” she asked. “Better than the woman you watched bleed out emotionally for five years p>

“I didn’t mean that,” Grayson said. He gestured vaguely toward the living room. “The Legos. It was Kaiden’s birthday gift. I was just… fulfilling an obligation p>

Isolde stacked the second box on top of the first.