The drive was long or maybe it just felt long because Elena was hyperaware of every second that passed and every street they turned down, mentally mapping the route the way her father had taught her to do in unfamiliar situations, always know your exits he used to say, always know how to get yourself home.
She was starting to think that advice had not been designed for a situation quite like this one. Luckily for her, she wasn't blindfolded.
Alessandro hadn't spoken since the semantics comment and neither had she, which meant the car was quiet except for the low sound of the engine and the occasional murmur from the driver's radio, something classical, which felt deeply ironic given the circumstances.
She snuck a glance at him.
He was still looking out the window, his expression completely flat, one hand resting on his knee and the other against the door. He had loosened his tie at some point, just slightly, and for some reason that small detail bothered her more than everything else, the fact that he was comfortable enough to loosen his tie, the fact that this was just another night for him while her entire world had been picked up and shaken like a snow globe.
She faced forward again.
The car turned onto a street she didn't recognize and then through a gate that opened automatically and pulled into a courtyard before stopping. Elena looked out the window at the building in front of her and was greatly surprised.
It was… beautiful.
She hadn't expected that. She didn't know what she had expected exactly, maybe something that looked like it belonged to a man like him, all steel and sharp edges and security cameras everywhere. But this was old Milan, the kind of building that had been standing for a long time, stone and iron and tall windows that reflected the moonlight, the kind of place that had history soaked into its walls.
She hated that her first thought was that it was beautiful.
The driver opened her door and she stepped out into the cool night air as she stood there for a moment just looking up at it before she remembered that she was supposed to be resistant and upset, which she was, she absolutely was, the building being beautiful did not change that at all.
Alessandro came around the car and walked toward the entrance without waiting for her, one of his men gestured for her to follow which, fine, she followed, because what else was she going to do, stand in the courtyard forever?
Inside was worse than the outside.
High ceilings, dark wood paneling, art on the walls that probably had names she would have recognized if she had paid more attention in her art history classes in Florence. It was warm inside, actually warm, not just temperature warm but the kind of warm that came from a place being genuinely lived in, which somehow made it worse, she didn't want Alessandro DeLuca to live somewhere that felt like a home, she wanted it to feel like a villain's lair, she wanted something to push against.
An older woman appeared from a side hallway, petite and sharp-eyed with the posture of someone who had worked in houses like this her entire life and had seen enough not to be surprised by anything. She looked at Elena the way you looked at the weather, just noted her, took her in and moved on which was surprising. Elena was used to being respected and almost worshipped by servants but this was surprising.
"Sera" Alessandro said, "the guest room."
Sera nodded and looked at Elena "this way please."
Elena looked at Alessandro "that's it?"
He had already started walking in the other direction "you need to sleep" he said without turning around, "we'll talk in the morning."
"I don't want to sleep, I want to talk now—"
"Elena." He stopped and turned around and looked at her from across the entrance hall and the way he said her name made her close her mouth before she finished the sentence. "I said In the morning" he said sternly.
Then he disappeared down the hallway and around a corner and he was just gone, like a switch had been flipped, like she was something he could just set down and pick back up when it was convenient for him.
She stood there for a moment feeling furious, exhausted and slightly ridiculous in her party dress in the entrance of a stranger's house at midnight.
Sera was watching her with that same neutral expression "the guest room" she said again, gently.
Elena exhaled "fine" she said, "lead the way."
The room was at a long hallway on the second floor and it was, predictably, beautiful, because apparently everything in this horrible man's house was beautiful and the universe had a sense of humor.
Big bed with dark sheets, soft lighting, a window that looked out over the courtyard. Sera opened a door on the far side to reveal a bathroom and Elena could see from the doorway that it was stocked with things still in their packaging, toothbrush, cleanser, everything neatly arranged like a hotel that had been expecting her.
She looked at Sera "he prepared this."
Sera said nothing.
"Before tonight. He had this ready before tonight" Elena turned to look at her properly "didn't he? Oh wait… it's a guest room so it's obviously always stocked… I'm being delusional." She murmured to herself.
Sera's expression didn't move "is there anything else you need?" she said.
Elena looked at her for a long moment and then laughed, short and humorless, mostly because the alternative was crying and she was not going to cry, not tonight, not here "no" she said, "thank you."
Sera nodded and left pulling the door softly shut behind her.
Elena stood alone in the middle of the room.
She tried the door first, old habits, it opened easily, meaning she wasn't locked in. Then she went to the window and looked down at the courtyard below, at the iron gate at the far end and at the two men she could just make out standing near the entrance in the dark.
Not locked in her room but locked in the house.
She sat on the edge of the bed and pressed her fingers to her temples.
Her phone buzzed and she already knew who it was before she looked.
Sofia. "okay I need you to tell me you're okay because you were acting so strange tonight and I've been thinking about it since you left and something was off, I know you, don't tell me nothing was wrong."
Elena stared at the message for a long time.
Then she typed back, "I'm fine. Go to sleep. I'll call you tomorrow. I'm about to go to sleep too."
The three dots appeared immediately, disappeared, appeared again, and then her message finally came: "Elena Rossi I swear if you're lying to me—"
She put the phone face down on the bed before laying back and staring at the ceiling.
The house was quiet around her, the estate was not close to the streets at all and the walls were thick so it made it hard to hear anything outside the house. She could hear nothing except for her own breathing and somewhere distant what sounded like a door closing.
All she could think about right now was the man who had been on his knees in her garden and the way his voice had cracked when he begged and how Alessandro's hadn't when he answered.
She thought about the fact that she was lying in a stranger's house in the night's dress with no idea what tomorrow looked like.
Sleep felt impossible.
She closed her eyes anyway.