CHAPTER 398: CHAPTER 398 TERRIFIED

He planted one palm against the wall beside him, his shoulders rising and falling like he was trying to breathe through a storm raging inside him. The other hand curled into a fist so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

He was terrified.

Not of what he had done.

He had always been capable of darkness.

He was terrified of her reaction.

Her silence.

Her trembling.

Her wide, shocked eyes.

He was terrified she would hate him.

"Don’t say anything now," he murmured, still facing away. "I know what I looked like down there. I know what you saw." His breathing hitched. "I’m not ready to hear it. Not if it means losing you."

Bella took a small step closer.

Her voice wavered softly, like a hand reaching in the dark.

"Leo... look at me."

He didn’t.

His jaw clenched harder.

"Please," she whispered.

Slowly, painfully slowly, he turned his head.

His eyes were darker than she had ever seen them, filled with raw fear and a fragile desperation that twisted her heart. He looked like a man bracing to be shattered.

"Say anything you want," he breathed, voice trembling. "Just... don’t walk away from me."

"Leo... I know you’re mafia. I know what kind of work you do. Do you think I don’t know?" Bella’s voice cracked and sounded emotional as she said it.

His whole body stiffened.

"Bella..." His throat worked as he swallowed. "I’m sorry. I wasn’t ready for this conversation."

And before she could even take a step closer, he turned away, opened the door of their bedroom, and walked out.

Bella stared, stunned for two seconds, then anger and disbelief shot through her like lightning.

What is wrong with him? Why is he running? If anyone should have run away in terror, it should have been her. But she wasn’t terrified. She wasn’t disgusted.

She was angry he didn’t even let her speak.

"Leo!" she yelled, already chasing after him, her feet hitting the stairs with quick, desperate steps.

Her cheeks were flushed with exhaustion, her hair a mess from sleeping and running. Her breath trembled from the cold air in the upper floors.

And her cheek still had a faint smear of her uncle’s blood.

She didn’t even notice it.

She didn’t care.

Her uncle deserved everything. She hated violence, but she hated him more.

She knew Leo’s world was dark. She had known since she married him. She never mentioned it because she knew he didn’t hurt innocent people, and his main mafia work was mostly related to weapons. She knew being in the mafia world was dangerous, and if you couldn’t become ruthless, someone would become ruthless on you. She had already accepted it. She had already accepted him.

But Leo didn’t know that.

He thought she would hate him. Run from him.

Break apart at the truth as if she didn’t know he was mafia.

She was speechless.

"Leo, stop!" she shouted again, breathless.

She reached the fourth floor, a place she had never explored before. It was quiet, dimly lit, shadows pooling between the long corridor pillars like silent ghosts.

And there, halfway down the hall...

Leo stood frozen.

His back rigid. His head lowered. His breath visible in the cold air.

Bella walked to him, her chest rising and falling with emotion, her footsteps echoing softly. When she finally stepped in front of him, she saw his face clearly under the dim golden wall light.

He looked terrified.

Not of what he had done.

Terrified of her.

His eyes searched her face with dread, waiting to see disgust there. Waiting for rejection. Waiting for her to run.

But Bella stepped closer, her heart heavy with hurt.

"Leo," she whispered first, soft, trembling, pleading.

Then her voice broke open, full of emotion he refused to hear before.

"Please listen to me. I said I don’t mind, okay? I don’t mind." Her chest rose sharply. "You didn’t even let me talk. Why would I be scared? Why would I run? You didn’t even... Leo, you didn’t even look at me before running away."

Leo’s jaw clenched.

His hands shook at his sides.

Bella lifted her hand and held his cheek gently, forcing him to meet her eyes.

"I know what you are," she whispered. "I know. And if I was afraid, don’t you think I would have been the one running down the stairs? You fool... I ran toward you."

His breath hitched, his eyes widening the moment her trembling fingers touched his skin.

"And I don’t mind," she repeated, softer now, her voice thick with emotion. "I don’t mind the world you live in. I don’t mind the things you do. I only mind when you run away from me like I’m a stranger."

Leo’s lips parted, his breath shattered, and a deep, painful sigh escaped his chest, one he had been holding since the basement.

"Bella..." he whispered, as if her name itself was his lifeline.

"Yes, Leo... please don’t run. Please don’t run from me," Bella whispered, her voice trembling in the dim corridor.

The words hung between them like a fragile thread.

Leo looked at her and something in his expression shifted, as if the ground beneath him had tilted. Those were the words he had always imagined saying to her. He was the one who feared losing her, the one terrified she would slip away the moment she saw the real him.

But she was standing here, breathless and flushed, chasing him instead of fleeing.

His throat tightened.

"Are you sure?" he asked quietly.

His voice had dropped back into its natural depth. The sound wrapped around her, dark and magnetic.

"Yes," Bella breathed, stepping closer so he could hear the sincerity in her voice. "Do you know... we are already so close to that divorce month you always talked about. I never mentioned it. I made all the money needed to repay you long ago. But I didn’t pay it back." Her eyes filled with tears. "Do you know why?"

Leo didn’t breathe.

"Because I didn’t want to go," she whispered. "I always wanted my own home, but I was hesitating... because I was choosing you, Leo."

Silence.

His eyes darkened immediately, slow, heavy, intense, like a storm rolling in across a quiet sea. The dangerous aura that always slept quietly around him came alive, spreading through the corridor in thick, heated waves.

He stepped toward her.

A slow, predatory stride.

Bella’s heart jumped, and she instinctively stepped back, her spine brushing the wall behind her. Her breath caught in her throat as his shadow fell over her, the dim light grazing the sharp line of his jaw, the tension in his shoulders, the hunger in his eyes.

She could feel the heat of him even before he reached her.

"Bella..." he said softly, but his voice carried an edge that made her shiver. "Do you even know... what you’re saying to me right now?"