Chapter 5 - Isabella’s Bitter Poison
While Vincent prepared his departure, a figure stood in the shadows of the Bellagio parking structure, shivering in a cheap trench coat that reeked of damp cigarette smoke.
Isabella had lost everything. Her penthouse had been repossessed within forty-eight hours of Vincent's decree. Her bank accounts were frozen under suspicion of conspiracy to commit financial fraud, and every luxury boutique on the Strip had banned her from entering the premises. The society friends who once fought for an invitation to her brunches now crossed the street when they saw her coming.
She was living in a run-down motel off Tropicana Avenue, running out of cash, fueled only by a toxic, festering hatred.
She clutched a cheap prepaid phone, scrolling through social media forums where local private security contractors gossiped. Her former driver—a man she had once tipped generously with Vincent’s money—had answered her call twenty minutes ago in exchange for the last Cartier bracelet she possessed.
Vincent just fueled the jet for Minnesota, the driver had texted. He found her.
Isabella’s teeth ground together so hard she felt the enamel crack.
"She ruins my life, and he runs across the country to beg for her?" Isabella hissed into the empty air, her eyes wide with unhinged fury. "After everything I gave up for him?"
She had spent years poisoning Vincent’s mind against Claire. She had subtly pointed out every tiny flaw—how Claire was too quiet, how Claire didn't fit into the high-rolling Vegas lifestyle, how Claire was too clingy. She had staged that midnight trip to Red Rock specifically to break Claire’s spirit.
And now, even in her disappearance, Claire held Vincent’s soul in a vice grip.
Isabella pulled a small silver snub-nosed revolver from her purse—a weapon she had purchased off a pawn broker on Fremont Street three days prior.
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"If I can't have the Moretti empire," she whispered, her voice trembling with mania, "neither will you, Claire."
She hailed an unlicensed cab, directing the driver straight toward the commercial airport. She had just enough cash left for a one-way ticket to Minneapolis.
