“He has my phone number, and I think he’s been in my apartment today.” The words flew out of my mouth before I could consider the consequences. “He’s still sending me flowers, and he’s shown up at the hospital twice without security knowing.”
There was a heavy silence as I held my breath.
“I’m coming over,”Papigrowled, his voice full of barely restrained rage. “And I’m bringing thepoliziawith me.” He hung up the phone, and I stared at the screen, my heart pounding.
I’d done the right thing, hadn’t I? It was time to stop burying my head in the sand and expecting a different outcome. My father was right. Santino Buccini would not leave me alone until he had enough to blackmail my father. And I didn’t trust myself to be put in another situation where I was alone with the man. I needed someone to keep him away from me because the horrifying truth was too absurd to comprehend.
I’d looked forward to his flower deliveries and the handwritten notes. I searched for him in the corridors at work, hoping he might appear and press me up against a dark corner. He’d somehow gotten so far beneath my skin that he didn’t even leave my mind when my eyes closed. I’d dream of him. Of the filthy things he’d do to me. The dirty words that had me writhing in my sleep. And sometimes, the worst of all, I’d dream we were actually together and ridiculously in love. Picking flowers on walks, eating breakfast together, and doing normal, revolting ‘couply’ things. Those were terrifying. And it all had tostop.
Within half an hour, I was sitting on the sofa opposite my father and the police commissioner, giving a statement. I started from the beginning, explaining the massage but leaving out the happy ending because just no. With mypapi’sburning glare on me, I might have downplayed the balcony too, saying we simply talked, and I also omitted the whole steamy humping against the bathroom wall in the hospital until we both came. There were just some things a father should never hear about his daughter.
Commissioner Marrone listened carefully, taking notes while he also recorded our conversation. When I finished explaining today’s events, he looked up with a frown.
“And have you noticed anything missing?”
I shook my head. “No.”
“So, you believeSignorBuccini entered your property without permission, filled your fridge with food, organised your laundry, and ran you a bath.”
I exhaled, realising how ridiculous it sounded. “Si. He said he was taking care of his woman.”
“And you have the text messages to prove this?”
I nodded, pulling out my phone to open the message thread, but they weren’t there. My forehead creased as I frantically scrolled through my phone trying to find them, but the entire conversation had vanished.
“I don’t understand,” I mumbled. “They’re gone.”
“Gone?” Mypapistood up, strolling over to me and grabbing my phone out of my hands. “That’s impossible. Only you could delete them.”
Commissioner Marrone sighed.“SignorinaCaruso, if you don’t mind, I need to ask you some questions to make things a little clearer.”
I agreed, but my fingers still trembled as I took the phone back from mypapi.How the hell did Santino erase our entire conversation from my phone? As far as I was aware, you could only delete messages from an actual device itself, and I’d had mine with me ever since he drove away.
“HasSignorBuccini threatened you?”
I opened my mouth and then closed it, slowly shaking my head.
“Has he ever physically harmed you?”
“No.”
“Has he damaged any of your property?”
I swallowed, glancing around the apartment. “No, but—”
“Hebroke in!” My father interrupted.
“We will be checking the property’s surveillance footage, Mayor Caruso, but until then, there is no sign of forced entry or evidence that he has been on the premises.”
My father started pacing behind the sofa, frustration crawling up his skin, making him too restless to stay still.
“SignorinaCaruso, do I have it correct that there have been five physical meetings between you andSignorBuccini?”
I quickly counted them in my head. “Si. The spa, the fundraiser, he’s shown up at my work twice, and then today outside my apartment. But there could have been more that I’m not aware of .”
“He’s been driving past her apartment every morning this week. My security has reported it.”
“I have spoken with security, but they said that the motorcycles have been different each morning. How are they able to identify that it is, in fact,SignorBuccini?”
