Chapter 5 - A Debt Elena Refused to Accept
By morning, Luca had assigned two men to Elena.
She discovered this when she walked downstairs and found them waiting beside the front entrance.
"No."
Luca, standing across the foyer, didn't even look surprised.
"They're coming with you."
"No."
"Elena."
"I have managed to survive twenty-nine years without two men in black suits following me to the grocery store."
"You weren't being threatened yesterday."
"I don't want bodyguards."
"They aren't optional."
She walked toward him.
"You keep using that word."
"What word?"
"Optional. As if everything around you belongs to you."
Luca's eyes narrowed.
"My concern is keeping you alive."
"My concern is keeping my life mine."
The men near the door stared straight ahead.
Elena suspected this was the best entertainment they'd had all week.
Luca lowered his voice.
"Bellini threatened you."
"Then let the police handle it."
Several nearby people suddenly found the floor extremely interesting.
Luca stared at her.
"The police."
"Yes. Those people with uniforms, badges, and laws."
"You think I'm unfamiliar with the concept?"
"I think you prefer solving things yourself."
He stepped closer.
"And if the police cannot protect you?"
"Then I'll deal with it."
"You?"
"Yes, me."
His frustration became visible.
"You threw yourself in front of a moving car for a child you didn't know."
"Correct."
"And now you're offended that I don't trust your survival instincts?"
Elena stared.
Then, unwillingly, laughed.
Luca blinked.
"That wasn't funny."
"It was a little funny."
His mouth almost moved.
Almost.
Then Matteo appeared at the top of the stairs.
"Elena!"
He ran down.
Luca immediately turned.
"Slowly."
Matteo ignored him.
Elena caught the boy.
"Careful."
"You stayed."
"For breakfast."
His smile vanished.
"Only breakfast?"
Elena glanced at Luca.
This was becoming dangerous in an entirely different way.
She crouched.
"I have my own apartment."
"You can live here."
Luca coughed.
Elena looked at him.
"You taught him subtlety?"
"I assure you I did not."
Matteo continued.
"There's lots of rooms."
"That isn't the problem."
"Papa has lots of money."
Luca closed his eyes briefly.
Elena bit back another laugh.
"Matteo, you can't solve everything with money."
The boy looked genuinely confused.
Then he looked at Luca.
"Papa does."
Elena lost the battle and laughed.
Even one of the guards turned away.
Luca muttered something in Sicilian.
Breakfast almost felt normal.
That frightened Elena.
Because normal could make people forget what wasn't.
Afterward Luca walked her outside.
"Take the guards."
"No."
"One."
"No."
"A driver."
"I can drive myself."
"Your car is thirteen years old."
"It works."
"The left brake light doesn't."
Elena stopped.
"You inspected my car?"
"It was parked outside your apartment."
"You went to my apartment?"
"No."
"Your people did?"
He said nothing.
Elena pressed fingers to her forehead.
"You're impossible."
"I've been told."
"Frequently?"
"Not by anyone who remained employed."
She stared.
Luca's expression stayed serious for three seconds.
Then Elena realized he was joking.
"You do have a sense of humor."
"Occasionally."
"I preferred when I thought you were a robot."
Something softened between them.
Then a black sedan pulled forward.
Elena sighed.
"One driver."
Luca nodded.
"No following me inside anywhere."
"Agreed."
"No reporting what I eat."
Luca paused slightly too long.
Her eyes widened.
"You people report what I eat?"
"For security purposes."
"How is pasta a security concern?"
"Depends who prepared it."
She stared at him.
"One driver."
"One driver."
At the hospital, Elena tried to return to ordinary life.
Impossible.
Every time an elevator opened, she checked who was inside.
Every unfamiliar man became suspicious.
Every phone vibration tightened her shoulders.
Near midnight, an elderly patient called her close.
"Your husband is handsome."
Elena nearly dropped the medication tray.
"My what?"
The woman pointed through the glass doors.
Outside stood Luca Santoro.
Elena closed her eyes.
"He's not my husband."
"Boyfriend?"
"No."
"Then you're wasting time."
Elena laughed despite herself.
She walked into the hallway.
"What are you doing here?"
Luca held a paper bag.
"Bringing dinner."
"Why?"
"You haven't eaten."
"Who told you?"
Luca said nothing.
"The driver?"
"He takes his responsibilities seriously."
"I specifically said—"
"It's arancini."
Elena stopped.
From her favorite place.
Of course.
"You investigated my favorite restaurant too?"
"Matteo asked Signora Russo what you liked."
That changed everything.
"He did?"
"He wanted to send you food."
Elena took the bag.
"Tell him thank you."
"You can tell him tomorrow."
She looked up.
"I work tomorrow."
"He asked if you would come afterward."
Elena hesitated.
This should end.
Every additional visit tightened the connection.
But she pictured Matteo beneath the bed.
"One hour."
Luca nodded.
Then looked at her.
"You don't owe us anything."
"I know."
"Then why keep coming?"
Elena had no answer she liked.
Because Matteo needed her.
Because Luca intrigued her.
Because beneath the wealth and danger was a family that seemed to have forgotten how to be one.
"I'll see you tomorrow."
She turned.
"Elena."
She looked back.
Luca's expression had become serious.
"The debt I mentioned that night."
"What about it?"
"You said you wanted nothing."
"I don't."
"Then consider it paid."
"By what?"
"You came back."
For some reason, that sentence stayed with her for hours.
The next evening Elena arrived at the villa.
Matteo was waiting at the door.
They spent an hour building a wooden model airplane.
Then two.
Luca sat nearby pretending to read.
Every few minutes, Elena caught him looking at them.
Eventually Matteo fell asleep on the sofa.
Elena covered him with a blanket.
"He's different with you," Luca said.
"Children respond to feeling safe."
"He is safe here."
"Physically."
Luca understood.
"You're saying I'm failing him."
"No."
"I'm his father."
"Exactly. Fathers aren't required to be perfect."
Luca's gaze lowered toward Matteo.
"Mine was."
"Perfect?"
"Required perfection."
Elena waited.
Luca didn't elaborate.
Instead he said, "Matteo's mother was named Sofia."
Elena became still.
It was the first time Luca had spoken about her.
"She hated this house."
"Why?"
"Because she believed the walls kept danger out but also kept life out."
Elena looked around.
"She may have been right."
Luca gave a quiet laugh.
"She would have liked you."
The words carried more intimacy than he seemed to realize.
Elena looked away.
Before she could answer, Luca's phone vibrated.
His expression changed as he read the message.
"What?"
He showed her.
A photograph.
Elena leaving the hospital that afternoon.
Taken from across the street.
A second photograph followed.
Elena entering the Santoro villa.
Then another message.
The nurse keeps choosing the wrong family.
Luca immediately stood.
Elena's heart began pounding.
But the worst part wasn't the threat.
It was the realization behind it.
Someone hadn't merely been following her.
They knew exactly when she entered Luca's house.
Which meant either the villa was being watched—
May you like
or someone inside it was reporting every move she made.
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