*Isla*

“No.”

I stand there, staring at Maddox, unable to comprehend what he’d just said to me. I have to repeat the word out loud before it fully sinks into my mind. “No?” I ask him.

“That’s right, Isla. There’s no way in hell that I’m letting you go to Maatua. Not now. Not ever.” He is standing in front of me with his hands folded across his chest, looking down at me, as if his word is final.

Technically, his word is final. After all, he is the ...