CHAPTER 20

A week, a bloody week of being locked up, of being the prisoner of someone who thinks he has a right over me, who thinks I'm a toy that he can pull and pick up as he pleases. I am the one who, above all, considers so insignificant that she is not even capable of putting up a guard to watch over me, although my escape attempt has been painful, it deserves some respect.

If that man is trying to end my pride as a prisoner with an escape plan, he is succeeding. A few hours after my attack of hysteria the door was unlocked again, even at night, and that is to date.

I have walked the house, or rather the huge mansion from head to toe. So much so, that I can give any visitor a tour. The residence has three floors with two wings on each of them. On the first floor, in the central part, you have a huge banquet room next to the well-stocked kitchen. It has a tea room and a huge hall next to the stairs that lead to the three floors. In the south wing are the workers' rooms, and it should be added that they are well furnished and comfortable. Also, it has enough food stores to feed a regiment.

In the north wing the offices of the guards and the camera room. Yes, cameras, because they have the place more guarded than the sultans' vault. Also a huge office, all that towards the end, because at the beginning of the wing, covering almost more than half, it is occupied by a party room. On the second floor towards the south wing there are six bedrooms including mine. In the north wing, eight guest rooms, of course, all of them with their own bathrooms. In the center is the family dining room and a smaller kitchen that is where the kitchen employees work, apparently, regularly.

The truth is that the one on the first floor is not used much, apparently only for parties and therefore, each one of its windows and doors is more than protected. The house is a fort from end to end. I've spent the week poking around and looking for break points in their security, and nothing. Not a single failure, not a single mistake, no one leaves their post without a relief, they hardly even breathe without a relief.

The third floor is another story, I could not go there. I have only seen the employees go up and from what they told me when catching me red-handed: Access is prohibited without Mikael's authorization.

Curiosity kills me more every day. What can be up there that he does not allow anyone to enter, what does Mikael Bernardi Laurentiis hide behind those walls.

I have to find a way to find out.

__ If you keep thinking you will go bald __. The brunette enters with the pot in hand without looking up from him, her fingers typing at full speed on the device.

__ That's why you have abundant hair __ I return expecting his arched eyebrow followed by a:

__ Very funny __. Then comes his typical cynical smile.

__ They haven't taught you to knock on the door __ I point out by way of complaint, but that doesn't matter to him.

__ Your permission is worth my dick __. He shrugs like it's no big deal.

__ I hope you wash your mouth before kissing your family.

__ For them I always have it very dirty __. He puts one hand on his hip pointing to me with the other that he is holding the infernal apparatus.

How can someone spend the day glued to that screen, writing to all the strange people they meet. A girl her age should be reading, doing something to further her knowledge. Gabriella does not value those things in life, for her it is more important to read the gossip in that thing that she calls social networks. What I would give for a good book, leaving Korkmaz mansion, I also left my most valuable belongings.

Gabriella walks over to the bed and places her head on my lap, flops down on the mattress with an exasperated snort.

__ I'm tired of all this, you know? I already want to go back to Italy, at least there I can go to school as God intended __. I tangle my fingers in her hair by running it through the strands.

These days the girl has gotten very close to me. I know I have to move her away, with my escape plans the best thing is not to get attached, taking her with me as she asked is impossible. There, Mikael will not stop looking for me even under the stones. As much as I promise myself every day to push her away, I can't. She is as lonely as I am. We are two souls wandering in a confinement, surrounded by luxuries and abundances with everything at our fingertips, everything, except what we most desire. Freedom.

__ Why doesn't your brother let you go out? __ That is one of the thousands of questions that are tormenting me.

__ The family business is one of them ...

__ Yes, the one we are talking about __. His gaze moves away from the ceiling until it meets mine and he frowns, raising one of his bushy eyebrows.

__ Is seriously? __ She looks at me half incredulous and half exasperated, it is rather in a funny way that has a way of reprimanding.

__ What do you want, I had to try __. As much as I have asked, the girl has not released a pledge, not even when I promised to take her to the blessed Caribbean and get her a Cuban.

The secret of the family business has become the cause of my insomnia, no one has wanted to pity my curious soul. Mikael gave the express order not to tell me anything after seeing me whispering back and forth with the employees.

Damned!

I roll my eyes resigned to his absolute silence and ignore his sinic laugh of knowing something that I also want to know __. It continues ...

__ Well, as I was saying. The family business is one of them, the other is that a year ago I ran away from school to go to a party __. Why something like this does not surprise me coming from her, is a mystery __. The night was going great, the music was super, the quality alcohol ran like blood in the veins and the handsome boys were left over as if they had been chosen upon entering, forbidding entry to those who did not meet the beauty requirements ... You know, good body, full tattoos and devilish smile.

__ Dear God, tell me that you are not the future of the world __. I raise my hands to the sky as a plea, earning a pinch on the arm. Little sorra, so small and so viper, if she even bites __. Hey __ I complain rubbing my arm.

__ Can I continue now? __ She looks at me innocently as if she had not finished pinching me, whoever does not know her could mistake her for a saint.

__ Witch __. I turn my face to what the brunette takes as an approval.

__ Well, the point is that everything got out of hand, someone recognized me, warned some not very nice people. The shots started and… bodies were falling everywhere. People screamed running trying to find somewhere to shelter from the bullets. She was terrified, she was crawling on the ground trying to find shelter, only there was no place to hide.

__ Some men grabbed my hair and in a second they had me immobilized on the way to the black truck that they had parked. All that was going through my mind was that I was not going to free her, I knew that I would not make it out alive. Suddenly the man lets go of me and he falls to the ground, blood coming out of his mouth as he opened and closed it as if he couldn't breathe. Mikael came out of nowhere along with his men ... You can imagine the rest.

__ He ​​saved you __ I conclude.

__ Do not forget to add that after that he locked me up and since then he has dragged me from one place to another with him as his prisoner.

The truth is, in her place I would have done the same and even worse, something like tying her around my waist just in case. Of course after gagging her or I would go deaf. But that's something I'm never going to admit. I will never say that that man and I have agreed on something.

Before dead!

__ It's not the first time I've done it, it saved me another time. But that was many years ago.

__ How long ago? __ I hesitated to ask, but curiosity killed me. Gabriella no longer smiles, she even has the sinic look on her face. It is as if her mind is dragging her to a distant place, perhaps to that place from so long ago. His hazel eyes are sad and crystallized. That makes my heart ache.

__ You don't have to tell me __. I try to make her mind go back, but she just smiles. A sad, gray smile, devoid of all warmth or expression. Like an absolute and latent emptiness, a child should never smile like that __. We can talk about something else if you ...

__ No ... if you don't mind, I want to tell you __. I just nod, I stay quiet giving her time to compose herself.