“I am.”
We talked a little bit more. I gave her a few more reasons to stay and then overloaded her with details about Italy, making Luca Condello smile the moment I talked about how delicious Donatella’s cannoli were. But when the call ended, all my strength vanished and the information Olivia just gave me, about the death of Senator Jones being ruled as a suicide, weighed down on me. I couldn’t help but wonder what that meant from now on.
Would they kill me soon?
I handed the phone back to Luca and sighed, sinking into that sofa and covering my eyes with an arm.
Aunt Lizzie was pregnant. Life would go on even after I was gone.
“Are you sure you want to transfer the house into your aunt’s name, Signorina?” Luca’s question took me by surprise.
I uncovered my face and stared at him intently. He was standing next to his sofa, on the other side of the rectangular marble coffee table that separated us, and my phone was already resting in the pocket of his jeans. “Why are you asking that, Luca? You know full well that your boss wants me—”
“Signorina, I beg you, don’t talk about the boss’s plans without him being present. Only the three of us know that information, and no one else can find out,capisci?”
I frowned. “Alright. What I mean is, you know what you know, so why are you surprised that I want to get things settled now? The last thing I want is for my mother or my half-sister to inherit what’s mine, Luca. I have to make sure as soon as possible that my aunt gets the house.”
He cleared his throat and adjusted the gold cross he wore around his neck. “You never know what tomorrow will bring, Signorina. You shouldn’t rush into this.” That aroused the deepest suspicion in me and made me wonder what that man knew, but I chose not to voice what was on my mind. “But, Signorina, if you don’t mind me ask, you don’t get along with yourmammaand yoursorella?”
I inhaled the scent of leather and cedar from the furniture, crossing my arms over my chest and shaking my head very slowly.
“I think I was some kind of mistake in my mother’s life, or an inconvenience. I can’t say. And my sister, well, I don’t think she ever liked me either.” I admitted, focusing on an invisible point in front of me. “Right after my father died, my mother took over my share of the inheritance and forced Aunt Lizzie to sell thehouse so she could get her hands on the money. I never saw a penny. She used it all to start her business and invested the rest in my half-sister. That’s why I want my aunt to keep the house, Luca. It was a stroke of luck that we managed to get it back. It would be unfair for my mother or my sister to take it after I… You know.”
“I’m so sorry you had to go through all that, Signorina.”
I blinked, focusing my vision, and gave Luca a warm smile. “I don’t, you know?” I laughed at my own comment. Every setback in my life had been incredibly difficult to overcome, yet I was somehow glad to have lived through them. They were lessons I carried close to my heart like war medals. “The good times made up for everything.”
Luca nodded, smiling at me sincerely. “And there will be more, Signorina. I have no doubt.”
My lips parted slightly when I heard him say that. Were we on different wavelengths? His boss intended to execute me.Execute me. What didn’t he understand?
Before I could put my confusion into words, he added, “Well, I have business to attend to. If you need me, I’ll be in the video surveillance room.Permesso.” And he dashed off.
My eyebrows furrowed.Crazy Italians.
After that conversation, I didn’t see Luca again for the rest of the day. Or Camillo. My future murderer remained absent, and I didn’t quite understand why that stirred in me both nervousness and a quiet anger.
As night fell, I decided I wasn’t going to wait for his return, nor for his permission. I put on a tracksuit that, fortunately, they added to my closet and dashed down the hill from the villa. Retracing the route from that morning, I followed the asphalt away from the village and it didn’t take long to find a dirt path again, carved between steep rocks, leading up to a mountain range.
I ran up the path just as I used to run at the Silver River gym. Toward an imaginary goal.
The clear night kept me company, along with crickets and fireflies. There was no sign of people or cars. It was just me, my labored breathing, and the picturesque landscape.
I slowed my pace a little, wanting to take in the nature around me, both for its beauty and to memorize the path. Wherever I looked, bathed in the silver moonlight, there were hillsides dotted with rocks and olive trees, others covered in dense groves of immense cactus laden with prickly pears. I paused at a high point, resting my hands on my hips and observing the scenery that lay behind me.
Castello dell’Fiero was now a distant image. Its orange and yellow lights outlined the shapes of the houses and cut through the night shadows that covered everything in that rural area. I took a deep breath, inhaling the warm air that smelled of dust and dry grass. Being there, under that starry sky, utterly alone in that unknown land, was a kind of freedom I had never tasted before, and it made me forget the real reasons that brought me to Italy.
I started running again, pushing my body’s muscles to the limit and letting exhaustion break me. I spent hours there, alone in those mountains, among the animals, with only the stars as witnesses. In that place, there was no memory of nurses or doctors. The debilitating fear didn’t gnaw at my bones. The past didn’t haunt me. And that was exactly what I needed. Existential solitude.
I returned to the villa just after four in the morning. I noticed that Camillo’s car was already parked there, but there were no lights on inside the house, so I assumed he was asleep. I went to the housekeeper’s little house and slipped into the shower, washing the sweat from my skin while the muscles in my body throbbed with exhaustion.
As I collapsed onto the bed, wearing only the T-shirt I’d stolen from my kidnapper, I wrapped myself in the duvet and let exhaustion get the better of me. Before my eyes closed, I thought I saw someone standing in the room, but I convinced myself it was just my imagination.
Chapter 28
Camillo Vicari
July, 2025
