Dora continued to stay there for a long time—well into the evening—when Rossi, her stepbrother, finally arrived, whose presence she truly couldn't stand.
Getting something to eat was easy, but taking a nap was harder since she was confined to a chair and unable to get up.
By the time she finally had enough, her bones creaked even as she got up to leave so that Rossi could have a chair to sit on.
"You don't have to come back," Maria told her, even as she turned around to leave. But Luca, her father, gave her a look that said her stepmother didn't mean a word she said—even though they both knew she meant every single one.
Dora didn't speak, impatient to leave and head straight to the estate—which was safe and somewhere she actually enjoyed being.
She headed out of the hospital, making her way back with Ettore, who had been standing in front of the door, and they both returned to the car.
