Chapter 4 - A Small Town StormThe revelation hung in the quiet garage like smoke. Mason’s jaw tightened, his knuckles turning white against his arms.
“Your family is still trying to tear down my life?” Mason asked, his voice dangerously quiet.
“No! That’s why I came here myself,” Isabella insisted, standing up and walking toward him. “I tried to block the sale in New York, but my chief counsel bypassed my authority. I drove down here personally to halt the eviction notice before it reached you.”
Mason let out a harsh laugh. “Ten years ago, your father bought your silence to keep you away from a poor mechanic. And now his board wants to take the only thing I have left to support my daughter?”
“I didn’t leave because I wanted to, Mason!” Isabella blurted out, tears suddenly spilling over her lashes.
The raw confession caught Mason off guard.
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“My father found out about us back then,” she whispered, her voice breaking. “He threatened to frame your uncle for fraud and bankrupt your entire family if I didn’t leave for Europe that night. I didn’t leave to abandon you, Mason. I left to protect you.”
Mason stared at her, the dark anger in his chest suddenly colliding with a decade’s worth of misunderstood grief. The rain slammed against the metal roof of the garage, framing a silence far heavier than the storm outside.
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