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“But you had to miss out.”
She shrugged. “Someone had to be with Mom.”
“How is your mother now?”
Amy looked away, trying not to let herself get too upset. It was still hard to talk about this to people outside the family. “She died two years ago,” she said quietly.
Adriano paused for a moment. “I’m so sorry,” he said. “I lost my parents too. I know how hard it is.”
“Thank you. I’m sorry too.”
They stood still for a while, looking up at the cathedral and saying nothing.
“Do you want to go inside?” Adriano asked.
“It’s not open to the public.” She pointed out the chain stretched across the doorway.
“Not the general public, no. I could get us in, though.”
In spite of herself, Amy was curious. “How are you going to do that?”
In response, he took her arm and led her to the door. A burly-looking guard stood there, clearly intent on keeping people out.
“We’d like to go in and take a quick look around,” Adriano said, as though it was a given that he was going to get what he wanted.
Amy fully expected the guard to tell Adriano to go to hell, but he didn’t. Instead, he stepped to one side and waved them in.
Her eyes widened as they crossed the threshold. “How did you do that?” she breathed.
“I own that security company,” Adriano explained.
“You—I’m sorry,what?”
He smiled. “I should have told you, I guess. I’m pretty diversified. My primary interest is in my fitness empire, of course, but I’m a major shareholder in a lot of other companies. I bought out that security company a few years ago so I could rely on always having top-of-the-line guards for my facilities. That guard back there—” he nodded toward the door— “will have seen my photo dozens of times. He knows who I am, so I knew he’d let us inside.” He glanced at Amy. “Do you object?”
“How can I object if it works?”
“You don’t like it when I get whatever I want,” he said.
Amy had to laugh. “Okay,” she agreed. “You’re right. I’m not so crazy about that. But…I don’t know. This is really nice. I’m sure not many people get to see this—or at any rate, they weren’t letting the public in today, so I wouldn’t have gotten to. Maybe it’s shady, but I appreciate you getting me this opportunity.”
“So you don’t necessarily mind it when my money opens a few doors here and there.”
“As long as it’s not taking things away from other people who need them—no, I guess I don’t mind,” she admitted.
“Then I have one more place I’d like to show you.”
They got back in the car and drove to the other side of town. Things were newer here—the buildings were shinier, largely high-rise and commercial-looking.
The car came to a stop in front of a building of stainless steel and glass, and Adriano got out. Amy followed his lead, feeling a little confused.
“Where are we?” she asked.
“Welcome to Romano Labs,” he said warmly. “This is the facility that’s going to be handling the medical research.”
“This place? What about the options I gave you?”
“They’re all in the U.S., and I want somewhere close to me. I don’t want to have to worry about shipping things overseas in the event a cure is found.”
