His innocent wife is a dangerous hacker.-Chapter 540

"There," he breathed, his voice still a scrape, but now laced with warmth that filled the space between them. "Now I can see you properly."

Bella’s cheeks flushed a soft pink. "Shh," she whispered, her thumb gently stroking his hand. "You need to rest. No talking."

His eyes, heavy but intent, held hers. He swallowed with effort, his voice a threadbare whisper. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

"Kiss."

Bella’s breath caught. He was too weak for anything, yet his entire being seemed focused on that one quiet request. She hesitated for only a second, her heart swelling with a fierce, protective love.

Slowly, she leaned in. She brushed her lips against his forehead, a touch as light as a breath, lingering there for a moment to feel the warmth of his skin. When she pulled back, his eyes were closed, a faint trace of peace smoothing the lines of pain from his face.

"Rest now," she murmured, her own lips still tingling from the contact.

A barely there nod was his only reply before sleep claimed him once more, his hand still resting securely in hers.

Two days later, Leo was finally a bit better. The constant, sharp agony had receded to a deep, bearable ache, and he could stay awake for longer stretches. Bella had just stepped out to speak with the doctor in his office.

Jay, seizing the moment, pulled a chair close to the bed.

"We need to talk about what happened while you were out," Jay began, his tone losing its usual lightness.

He told him everything. The leads, the basement, the extraction. And Bella’s role in it.

"Dad took Bella?" Leo’s voice was low, but the anger in it was instant and scalding. His jaw clenched, the muscles in his neck standing out starkly against his pale skin.

"Yes," Jay said, a note of reluctant admiration in his voice. "And, bro... you should have seen her. She was... good. Unnervingly good."

Leo’s face did not soften. It hardened further, his eyes turning to chips of frost. "I don’t want her dragged deeper into this mess." The possessiveness and protectiveness in his voice were venomous. Bella was kindness. She was peace. She was the one clean part of his life. The thought of Alessandro exposing her to that world, of her having to handle it, sent a cold, nauseating stress through his battered body. How could she possibly have endured it?

"You won’t believe it until you see it," Jay insisted, undeterred. He pulled out his phone, opened a file, and hit play before Leo could protest.

The video was grainy, shot from a security feed. It showed the basement. It showed Bella, standing small yet impossibly still in the center of the grim scene. It showed her kneeling in front of the man with the dragon tattoo. Her face, usually so warm and open, was a mask of serene, chilling detachment. Her voice, when it came through the tinny speaker, was sweet and cold as poisoned honey.

Leo watched, his own breath stilling in his lungs.

He saw her extract the truth without raising a hand.

His heart did not just sink. It trembled. A violent, shuddering recoil deep in his core.

This was not his Bella. This was someone else. Someone with her face, her voice, but eyes that were utterly soulless. It was the most frightening thing he had ever seen, because it lived inside the woman he loved.

His voice was a low rasp, stripped of all its earlier anger, leaving only hollow disbelief. "...You’re not lying, right?"

"Not lying, bro," Jay said, his own voice softening with a mix of awe and pity. "Bella’s been like this the whole time you were out. It’s like... seeing you like that broke something in her. She went into a kind of shock. A cold shock. And then she just... changed. She wanted revenge. For you."

Jay leaned forward, his expression earnest. "She loves you so much it scared her into becoming someone else. You know her. In her normal life, she wouldn’t even think this way. Not in her wildest dreams. But for you... she did. You’re lucky, Leo. You accidentally got yourself a guardian angel with a spine of absolute steel."

Leo said nothing. He stared at the paused video on Jay’s phone, the image of Bella’s cold, resolved face burning into his mind. The protective fury he had felt moments ago was gone, replaced by a vast, aching wave of something else. A profound, devastating gratitude, and a sorrow so deep it threatened to drown him. She had walked into the darkest part of his world, not because she belonged there. And she had done it without flinching.

He finally closed his eyes.

"She pulled every connection she had," Jay confirmed, his own voice hardening with shared indignation. "Called in favors we didn’t even know she had access to, to get you transferred and seen by the best trauma surgeon on this coast. Because those two, Tristan and Arya, were playing with your life. Tristan didn’t even suture your back properly. And Arya... she stole your phone. Answered it. Hung up on anyone who called, including business contacts. I heard when Bella reached there, she even fought with her and shouted at her."

Leo’s gaze was fixed on the middle distance, but he was not seeing the hospital wall. He was seeing the negligence that could have killed him. He was hearing the voice of a foolish woman shouting at his wife while he lay dying.

His hand, which had been lying limp on the sheet, slowly curled into a fist, the knuckles bleaching white. The monitor beside him registered the sudden, controlled spike in his heart rate.

"Where are they?" he asked, the question devoid of all emotion.

"Held. In the old storage level. Security has them," Jay replied, watching his brother’s face. The man in the bed was gone. The Boss was back.

Leo let out a slow, deliberate breath, uncurling his fist. The decision was made in the space between heartbeats.

"Tell the guards to keep them comfortable," he said, his voice flat and neutral. "I’ll deal with them myself. When I can stand."