Dangerous Love (girl x girl)

Chapter 38

Arielle

The tension at the estate had decreased significantly by morning and I decided to join Isabelle for a meal downstairs for the first time since the confrontation with her father that day. Isabelle was clearly surprised and I felt her staring at me while we ate, as if she was trying to figure out why I had the sudden change of mind.

Mr. Versailles stayed quiet mostly. As we were finishing up our meals, he cleared his throat. "Please be careful today, ma chérie."

"Oui papa, je serai prudente." Isabelle gave a small nod before glancing at me through the side of her eyes.

The two of us had been silently debating about the specifics of the meeting for the last couple of days. I knew that I wouldn't be allowed to attend, yet I couldn't stop myself from wanting to anyways. Despite this, I didn't verbally say anything to Isabelle. I knew she had already pulled a lot of strings in order to be able to do this for me.

We finished our breakfast silently and the servants came to clean up. Isabelle took my arm gently and led me back upstairs. When we arrived in her room, neither of us said a word to each other at first. Then she gently pulled me over to sit down on the bed beside her. "Arielle..." she started in a soft tone. "How are you feeling?"

I looked at her in surprise. "You're about to go into a meeting with a double agent and you're asking me how I'm feeling?"

"I hope that's not sarcasm I'm sensing, Miss Reagan."

My eyes widened and I held up my hands in defence. "No! I just...thank you for caring..." I said softly. The truth was that I had been anxiety-ridden about possibly finding out something that I wasn't ready to accept, but I had pushed it aside as there were much more concerning matters at hand currently.

Isabelle gently pulled me into her lap. "Always, ma chérie." She reached over and gently moved a piece of my hair behind my ear. "It's okay to be nervous. I want you to have faith that I will get you the answers you need. Whatever those answers are, we will get through them together."

I nodded slowly. "I do trust you, Isabelle...it's just...I'm not used to letting others handle my business."

Isabelle's eyes softened again. "You've been carrying too much around for far too long."

Her words hit me harder than I thought they would and I looked the other way for a moment before she reached out to redirect my gaze with a gentle hand on my chin. "I'll tell you everything as soon as we're done, okay? You can wait in the room next to the other office."

I nodded slowly, deciding that was as close as I was going to get to the actual meeting. Originally the meeting was meant to be in Dominic Versailles office, but it would be too complicated to hide all of the confidential documents that were everywhere, so they had moved it to the other side of the estate. Perhaps I would hear something, I thought momentarily before dismissing the thought. Surely the other office was soundproof as well.

"Alright. I know the meeting is still a bit away, but we should go prepare."

"Prepare?" I asked cluelessly. "I thought he was just going to come and you would talk to him in the office?"

Isabelle chuckled in amusement and leaned in to kiss my forehead. "Baby girl, the estate is full of security and staff. I need to make sure the west wing is empty for our meeting. I told him that security wouldn't be there, in exchange for him showing that he is unarmed when he comes."

I nodded slowly. "So you need to clear the area. Do we tell them why?"

"That won't be necessary. The fewer people know, the better. The staff know better than to question me. I've already run the requests by father. We just need to go let them know now. Come on." She stood up and reached out for my hand.