Page 256 of Lethal Obsession

He meets each set of eyes sternly. “Ve vill not fail to make this performance the best, the most transcendental, of any International Music Festival ever held here. Ve vill do this together.”

His eyes cut to me, leaving no doubt as to who, specifically, his comment is directed to.

He nods curtly and stands aside, gesturing to the orchestra to take the stage.

Obediently they file along the narrow purpose-built pathway through the cypress trees.

“Good luck,” Benny whispers as he passes, but I barely hear him.

I glance at Dittorio’s grim, set face. Over the past couple of years, he’s ceased to frighten me. I’ve begun to rely on his exacting methods, his uncompromising search for perfection. The precision his instruction elicits from me is exactly what made Einaudi take the extraordinary step of personally requesting that the festival allow us to perform “Divenire,” his most famous piece, here, in the famous Teatro del Generalife, amid trickling fountains and ethereal gardens, rather than in the austere marble grandeur of the Carlos V palace.

It is the honor of a lifetime—and an opportunity with life-changing potential.

The thought is terrifying.

As if reading my mind, Dittorio puts his hand on my arm as I begin to make my way through the cypress trees.

“Your husband,” he says curtly. “He is here tonight, no?”

I nod, something delicious uncurling in my belly. “He is.”

“Good.” He says the word with his deep, heartfelt German inflection: Gut. “Like this, you play the best.”

I know.

And it has never been more true than it is tonight.

Taking a deep breath, I walk through the trees, passing the sound designer’s station neatly tucked between them, and step onto the stage. The orchestra is already seated in a semicircle either side of the gleaming black Steinway, tuning up beneath the umber lights, Benny’s cello to my left as I take my seat.

Unlike the intimate stone and still water of the Patio de los Arrayanes or the vast acoustic masterpiece of the Carlos V, here the open-air theater is entirely at one with the cosmos and the first night stars. Terrace after terrace of faces hover dimly in the gathering darkness, silent and expectant.

I’m barely aware of Dittorio taking the stage, nor the moment when the lights go down.

But the moment my fingers land in the first of Einaudi’s iconic cyclical patterns, my left hand a grounding bassline while the right spins a fluid, continuous wheel of notes, I am one with both the piece and the natural world around me.

And tonight, it’s more than that.

Tonight, I’m playing the endless, delicious months at sea, the salt breeze flowing through the open doors and Alexei lying on the sofa nearby, silent, still, and reassuring.

The dark, velvet nights of being taken apart with devastating precision, each cell of my body melted and rearranged into something else entirely.

The sunshine and laughter of Lars’s slow recovery, him and Alexei playing chess in a Sicilian courtyard, one hesitant movement at a time until, finally, Lars manages to win.

The tears and quiet joy of watching him and Benny exchange rings in the Bellinis’ orchard, Alexei at his side, Sergei smiling proudly in the front row.

The discovery of a crumbling, sun-drenched two-hectare Moorish ruin just outside Granada, with views of the Alhambra in the distance and ancient architecture just begging for restoration.

The sudden realization that we’d found our home. In a city with music on every street, laughter on every face, and joy in every worn stone.

The acoustically perfect studio Alexei had finished in record time, before work even began on the rest, so I could practice in peace.

His quiet, satisfied smile when he took me to see a discreet swathe of land tucked deep in the surrounding mountains, perfect for the large server center he needs now that Phantom has outgrown Miami—severing his last tie to the legacy that held him so long.

The gradual trickle of invitations for me to play: Vienna, Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, London.

Then finally the extraordinary, groundbreaking invitation to play tonight’s exceptional event.

But none of that is why the music is humming from my every cell and dancing in the air around me like a living thing.