boss who was famous for unprecedented cruelty in extorting revenge. None of these men would blink an eye before pulling the trigger and taking a life at his order. What if that was exactly what Alessandro intended to do with me? What if he somehow knew and all those promises and charming smiles had been nothing but a façade to lure me into a trap?
“Cara, you’re awfully quiet,” Alessandro said, as though he could sense something was amiss. “Is everything okay?”
“Everything is fine,” I lied, capping my drink bottle before I spilled a drop on the expensive interior. “I'm just tired from the trip.”
He smiled warmly and reached for my hand, giving it a light squeeze. “I can imagine. Hang on for a while longer. We're almost there.”
I forced a smile and nodded. It was strange, but his gesture made me feel at ease. He wouldn't hold my hand if he intended on killing me, would he? Besides, I was pregnant with his child. I believed he’d do nothing to harm his own flesh and blood. For as long as he remained living in ignorance of what I had done...
“Well, cara, this is it,” Alessandro informed me after we drove for an additional ten minutes.
“Sanluccio?” I asked, reading the name on the board.
“Sanluccio,” he confirmed, pronouncing the name in his rich accent.
We drove through the quiet narrow streets filled with small stone houses. Each and every one of them had wooden shutters and colorful flowers underneath the windows. The local bakery and a few cafes and restaurants were still opened. The scenery resembled a fairytale. It was breathtakingly beautiful and serene.
“I've never heard of this place,” I admitted, fearing I was about to embarrass myself again.
“You wouldn't have,” Alessandro revealed. “It's just a small village. There are hardly any tourists here. Only the locals know about it.”
“Then how did you manage to find it?” I asked with unhidden curiosity.
He smirked as though I said something witty. “You're really on a roll with all these questions tonight, aren't you, tesoro?”
“I was just curious,” I said quietly, and leaned back in my seat. “You don't have to tell me if you don't want to.”
“Sure I do,” he whispered, caressing my cheek. “It was a recommendation of a good friend.”
“He was a local, then?”
Alessandro smiled sadly. “Yes. He used to be anyway. He passed away recently.”
“I'm sorry for your loss,” I said softly.
“Thank you, cara,” he murmured. “I'm sure he would have liked you if I'd ever gotten the chance to introduce you to him.”
“How do you know that you haven't?” I reminded him of his impending loss of memory.
Something flashed in Alessandro's gaze. “You're right. Perhaps you have met him. Sometimes I forget there are things I don't remember.”
I gasped a smile at his interesting choice of words. “You mean it's like you forget that you have forgotten something?”
“Exactly,” he agreed before taking a swig from his water. “I don't think about the gap in my memory so I just go by what is familiar to me. I guess you can say my mind is still trapped in the past. It feels like I’ve been transferred here by some kind of time machine and now I'm stuck in the mess I’ve no recollection of making...”
“That's a funny way to put it,” I muttered quietly.
“It is, isn't it?” he retorted in an enigmatic tone.
I wanted to ask Alessandro the name of the friend who had told him about this village, but the car suddenly came to a stop and I was distracted by the sight of a huge villa bathed in light in the middle of endless darkness. I gave Alessandro a baffled look.
He smiled with mystery. “Wait here,” he said in a light voice and stepped outside. He then circled the car to my side and opened the door for me. A wide smile twisted his lips as my feet touched the sharp gravel. “Welcome to Villa Marcella, cara,” he whispered, motioning toward the grand imposing structure in front of us. “Our home for the next ten days. What do you think?”
I gazed at the spectacular details of the building that resembled a small castle.
Alessandro's mansion in New York faded in comparison to this magnificent building. It had two floors and was covered in white stones. Every window had those same wooden shutters and flowers underneath like the other houses in the village. It gave the house a rustic touch and made it fit in perfectly with its surroundings. “I think it's