Little Game

Chapter 54

"Your kingdom will crumble soon, and you will all turn against one another. I'll be the first to watch if that occurs. This is just the beginning of the game."

**

Isabella had to stare at the audacity presented in front of her.

She found it hard to believe they would consider such a thing. Even now, after leaving her so damaged, she couldn't believe they would think she was capable of such a wrong crime.

It made her feel even more broken.

Her emotions had her in a bind. Since everything she did seemed bad, she was unable to accomplish anything. She had the impression that anything she performed would be of little service to her family. Isabella had to learn that what she did and will continue to do in life would tire out her family.

In contrast to the stinging sensation on her cheek, the torment she experienced from them was worse.

After they left, everyday was another day of torture. Everyday was just another day of living in a nightmare.

And gradually, the vibrant life she had been seeing become dreary and gray. Everything was chilly. Inside, she was bitterly cold. It seems as though the warmth she once had had been imprisoned. Everything she did and said suddenly became so exhausting that she had to think to herself, "What am I doing?"

What's the point?

What's the point of running after them? They left her.  That was it. They made a choice. And she realized that she wasn't a priority for them. She wasn't...

She wasn't enough.

To Nicolai, she couldn't be enough. Also, perhaps, she was a bad friend. Perhaps she was at fault. She might not be the companion he was looking for. Surely he wouldn't have left if she had made an effort to do better—if she had genuinely tried to be someone he could be satisfied with. He might have continued to be her friend.

It's the same for her family. Maybe she would have been accepted into the family if she had been helpful to them. They might not have slipped away if she had been more clever or better.

In her own thoughts, Isabella lost herself in it. imagining the possibilities that may have occurred if she had been enough.

If she could even be enough.

"Stop." Dante exclaimed and Lucius grabbed his youngest brother by the collar to pull him back. Elois was obviously seething with anger.

Elois screamed, giving her a withering glare, "all we worked for is crumbling because of her," he said, "all those fucking families that we befriended simply to keep this empire we made from crumbling suddenly vanished."

"Elois." Anthony warned but he looked slightly concerned, as though what Eli would say would be bad.

And it was.

"If we hadn't focused on her so much then we would have seen it. We could have fixed it." Elois said as Isabella's eyes widened, she held her breath, waiting for what he would say. "If she..." Elois was burning with anger that he didn't care what he says. He was mad.

They were losing everything.

And during those time, they were with Isabella. They focused on Isabella, unaware that everything they worked so hard for, everything that literally took years was suddenly crumbling.

"That's enough, buddy." Lucius whispered to his brother, grabbing Elois by the arm to pull him away from Isabella.

Elois looked at Lucius desperately. "It's true."