The next day, Isabella woke up in the morning with a huge smile on her face, "I don't mind being trapped here forever if it means I get to always see Niko and be around him," she thought to herself.
For the first time ever, being in Rafael's foyer didn't seem like much of a curse anymore.
In fact, she was now quietly and silently happy to be there, she still hated Rafael with everything in her being and she still hoped to one day kill him but for now she just wanted to enjoy every passing moment that she had, to just be a girl who was massively in love with a guy she'd only just met but felt like she'd known forever...Niko
she kept thinking about and replaying that kiss over and over and over, wishing that it could happen again.
That morning, there was no one in the foyer.
Rafael and Niko had gone to the office and she was home alone, she felt a bit scared because she wondered if Anastasia might return but her fear didn't last long, because she knew that one way or another, Niko would come to her rescue.
She turned on some music and began to dance around the foyer, she left the basement, played some games in the arcade and went up to the first floor to make something nice to eat.
She was frying eggs and quietly humming to herself in a cute way.
Once she dished the food and sat at the dining table to eat, she heard a ding at the door, she immediately went to open it and on opening, saw Rafael standing outside with his face dull and a little drained of life.
She wondered why he rang the bell, It was his house, normally he would just walk in no?
"Can I come in?" Rafael asked.
She paused for a moment and was instantly irritated
"Why are you being weird? It is your house, isn't it? Do whatever you want, I don't care," she said as she began to walk away from the door and back to the table to eat her omelette.
Back at the office, Niko unintentionally looked into the system that showed the cameras for the foyer, his eyes grew cold with fear and he was in absolute shock.
"Brother!" he called out to Rafael, who was standing by the photocopier "If you're here, then who the hell is that at the house?" he added, panic rising in his voice.
Rafael ran over to the system and saw the doppelgänger of himself standing by the entrance of his manor.
"Oh no… a mystic," he muttered under his breath, he quickly grabbed the phone and called home.
"Pick up, pick up, pick up," he kept uttering while watching her and hoping she would answer.
Isabella heard the phone ring and began to walk over to the table to answer it, she grabbed the receiver "Hello?"
Rafael immediately shouted, "Don't let him i—"
Before he could finish, she said, "Please hold on." She held the phone down and called out to Rafael by the door, annoyed. "Can you come inside already? The air is so dry and it's cooling my food!"
The doppelgänger moved with unnatural speed, grabbed the phone from Isabella's hand, smirked and said, "Bye bye."
Niko's eyes went dead with fear and Rafael's whole body burned with fury, they both rushed out.
Isabella immediately knew something was wrong when the doppelgänger grabbed her, his hold was cold, lifeless and eerie.
Her heart slammed against her ribs as panic clawed up her throat.
"Today, you—die," the doppelgänger said with a smirk, transforming into a middle-aged woman with grey-colored hair.
Isabella froze.
She tried to run, tried to escape into the basement but there was a barrier around her, she couldn't move beyond the circle the woman had created.
The mystic trapped her in the circle and began chanting an incantation in an unknown language. A white-red ball formed in her palm and she threw it at Isabella in a bid to kill her but the moment it hit the circle barrier and was about to strike, it blurred out, reversed and slammed back into the mystic instead.
The mystic's eyes went wide in shock, this has never happened before...confused, Isabella just stood there, frozen, trembling and barely breathing.
Right then, Niko and Rafael sped into the house; Rafael grabbed the mystic and slammed her into the wall as per usual, the barrier on Isabella fell instantly, Niko ran to her, caught her and helped her sit on the couch while he and Rafael stood ready to take on the mystic.
The mystic stood slowly as a sure smirk played on her lips; her gaze locked on Isabella.
"You are with child."
Rafael's face went still, while Niko's heart sank and Isabella just sat there, frozen with blood draining from her face.
"His child," the mystic added, pointing at Rafael.
The room fell silent.