"Is this place okay? The castle forest is famous for these boulders with odd shapes scattered around, they're the best seat to eat a picnic basket."
"Whatever you prefer, Stella." I flop down on the rock wearily while my assistant takes a tablecloth from the basket along with plates, glasses, bread, fruit, several types of cheese... a banquet in the shade of the trees in a spring day overlooking a renaissance castle. I should be happy here but I'm exhausted, physically and mentally... I barely slept last night with my back always to my companion while thinking about our kiss, Cassandra's betrayal, what I'm going to do with my life now... everything I thought was real starts to fall away. Why should I bother to keep playing this stupid game? My wife didn't impose any kind of conditions for me in her will, I could take the money and go to live in Japan far away from everything and everybody. But I promised her I'd help Stella to adjust to life out of prison and this beautiful tattooed woman isn't to blame for Cassie's lies... I can't leave her alone. Somehow, the former inmate has got under my skin and has sunk her fingernails in my heart... I wonder if my wife knew that this would happen, that Stella would be as perfect for me as I'm for her.
"Here, try this..." she hands me a small glass filled with pink liquor that smells deliciously of sweet poppies. My assistant insisted on buying a watercolour box before leaving Paris and stopping by a chocolate shop in Fontainebleu village in order to buy her candies, along with the liquor and a small jar of jam that she's spreading on bread slices right now. For some reason that I don't understand, Stella seems happy to be here and her smile is getting on my nerves in this moment when I wish Cassandra were alive so I can strangle her with my own hand. Not even my refusal to visit the inside of the castle has managed to ruin her good mood and she seemed delighted when we wandered around the gardens, sat on a bench and opened her watercolour box in order to paint some botanical drawings. Her care when holding the paint brush and her meticulous attention to detail is extraordinary and I forgot everything for a few minutes while looking at her working entranced. "Isn't it delicious?"
"Yes, it's good..." The liquor, the sweet jam with cheese and bread, deer strolling around without fear, a castle that's a treasure of French history, a sunny day of spring, a beautiful girl... I should be happy but I'm just sad... and more and more furious. But she's not: Stella bites her slice of bread with satisfaction and her moan sends a shiver down my spine annoying the hell out of me. "What's wrong with you?" Deer raise their heads scared but they don't run away luckily so I decide to speak whispering angrily. "Cassandra played with us like we were puppets, why aren't you pissed off?"
