Dangerous Love (girl x girl)

Chapter 38

Arielle

In light of the conversation that I had had with Isabelle's father the previous night, I decided to join Isabelle for a meal downstairs for the first time since the confrontation 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. I wasn't sure that I wanted to tell her about the conversation yet.

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 discussing 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 arrange this meeting.

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 Black Phoenix member and you're asking me how I'm feeling?"

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

My eyes widened instinctively at her tone. "No! I just...thank you for caring..." I said softly. Despite my impatience for this day to come, I had been anxiety-ridden about possibly finding out something that I wasn't ready to accept. However, I had pushed it aside so to not cause any issues in our plans.

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 may be, we will get through this together."

I nodded slowly. "I do trust you, Isabelle...it's just...I'm not used to accepting help..."

Isabelle's eyes softened again. "You've been carrying too much 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 for security reasons, but it would be too complicated to relocate all of the documents that were currently scattered everywhere, so they had arranged for it to be at 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 gave him my word 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 less 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.