Chapter three.

A week later, I am sitting across from my cousin at her marble table in the apartment facing Piazza Santa Croce. Chiara has lived here for three years. She wanted to move away from the company and get something much quieter, so with the help of some clients who work in the home sales and rental branch, she got this apartment in Florence.

To be honest, it is a beautiful place to live. Everything here is much quieter, more historical, which can be simply compared to being at home.

The department is big. Too big, much bigger than mine.

It has a terrace at the back of the living room that lets in all the sunlight and the windows in it are covered by white silk curtains and an old pink. Where the table is where we are sitting there is a large wood-like furniture that covers a high-inch television at the top, while around there are some books and in others, there are ornaments.

It is a fairly spacious apartment, since it has about three rooms, but my cousin still does not live with anyone so for her alone, it is grotesque, in my opinion. All around is white with different little shades of nudes. Everything is well organized and everything is set in minimalist style, to the point that it looks like a movie house.

I look back at Chiara who is still looking at her tablet.

"Got it!", She says she then her, with a victorious smile and giving small applause.

I shake my head. We've been two damn hours trying to get an apartment for me in New York. It was hard work as all of them were either too small or too expensive.

Who pays fifteen hundred dollars for a monkey environment?

The redhead gives me the tablet to see. I take it between my hands and take a look.

It seems quite comfortable. He doesn't have a room so the bed is in the living room too, but that's not something that bothers me. My apartment here is the same.

It has a small room where you can store your clothes, the kitchen is quite spacious and apparently it is renovated and it has a large terrace where if you wanted a small table with chairs; I like it.

"I like it," I admit, putting the device down on the table.

"The search has been worth it. Also, it is located about two blocks from the company so you will not have transportation and there the schedules are much more flexible. At six in the afternoon you will be home again."

Seat.

"It will be difficult for me to adapt."

Chiara looks at me through her rueful glasses and takes my hand on the table.

"You know if I could leave everything here for you, I would. There is no greater desire than wanting to be with you and not leave you alone," she admits.

"You don't have to leave your life here for me, Chia," I say and shake my head. "I'm sure I'll end up loving the city at some point. But in the meantime, I'm going to try to be okay ..."

She nods.

"You can call me anytime you want. I want your safety, Sam and if that's getting away from here, then I'll agree even if I can't fuck your ovaries every morning anymore," she points out with amusement. I laugh with her. She continues: "No, but seriously. It will be different without you here."

"It will be there too without you. Promise me that if something is wrong, you will let me know."

I can feel my eyes fill with water but I blink a few times to force them to stay there. This is new for me. I had never done it, much less, I imagined that at some point it was going to happen. Getting away from my family is totally unexpected. Something that I do not want but must do, for the good of all.

Although I hope they don't suffer the consequences. I don't want something to happen to them because of me.

Chiara takes a deep breath. We have tried not to discuss this issue after my attack in the office. To which I apologized every day after, as I feel sorry for it. It wasn't in me and that's not right either. Is not correct.

She has opened the doors for me so that she can work there and doing that, without feeling a hint of remorse, is not worthy of me.

"Nothing is going to happen here, I promise you. Once you are gone, I will be able to deal with it more easily. They will no longer know where you went and it is better this way for the moment. Or at least, until we can find them," he explains with determination.

"Okay," I agree in a whisper. I decide to change the subject. "How well do you know this guy, Max?"

She gets up from the chair and while she walks to the kitchen, to put the water to heat up on the stove, she answers:

"Several years ago he and I met through a hard time that Max was going through. He urgently needed a lawyer who could give him security, and Loan's father, Federico Miller, just told him about me," she explains with her back turned to me. I follow her with my gaze as she takes two cups from the cupboard. "At that time I was much less expert, just a year ago I had finished my degree and although I was good and I won trials, it was a challenge for me."

I take a hair tie and tie it into a messy bun.

"Was it a complicated case?"

"A little," he admits coming up to me and leaving a steaming cup of coffee in front of me. He sits down again. "His father was in trouble ... Pretty screwed up. And all the lawyers he already knew didn't want to take it; apparently William Well is the most screwed up guy in town."

He raised an eyebrow, pursing his lips, remembering the moment with the blond guy.

"Such a stick, such a splinter," he blurted out. My cousin laughs and shakes her head.

"Max isn't like that," I look at her in disbelief. "I know. I know that with you he has behaved like an egocentric idiot, but he is not what he seems. You will see when you can get to know him even more thoroughly. He is nothing like his father, on the contrary, he has done things for his family that never made any and has taken humiliations from William that he could bear. There are more secrets in the Well family than you can imagine."

I huff, causing the few locks sticking out of my already long bangs to move to the sides. I remove my glasses by putting them in the case.

"I can only say one thing about it: people can really disguise the shit that they really are."

Chiara laughs out loud and shakes her head, while she searches for a cigar in the center of her table. She gets up, and when I turn it on, she dislodges my bun. I roll my eyes. Damn vermin ... You know that bothers me.

"Something tells me that you will come back as new from there."