Three years after getting her heart broken by the only man she'd loved, Gianna Ricci is well on her way to success. With a job as a criminal lawyer in one of the top law firms in London, she feels like she has her life together. Until she doesn't. A...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Sighing for what felt like the hundredth time that night, I watched the sky darken outside as I waited for Sergio to come back. The door to the balcony was open as a slight breeze drifted inside causing goosebumps to form on my arms. I had whiled away the past couple of hours by snooping around in the kitchen, hoping to find something interesting - well, as interesting as it could get in a kitchen - but all I'd found was several boxes of Earl Grey tea and other random food items. A stupid part of me held onto the hope that Sergio had kept the kitchen stocked for me, but the moment that thought entered my mind, I brushed it off, knowing that Sergio couldn't have predicted me coming to his apartment and spending time here.
The door slowly creaked open as Alessandro's head peeked in.
"Everything alright, Miss Ricci?"
"Yes, everything's fine, Alessandro. You don't have to babysit me, for fuck's sake."
He shrugged his shoulders as if to say that it wasn't his choice. Fair enough. A hesitant look crossed his face as he stayed in the doorway for a second longer.
"Spit it out, Alessandro. I'm not Sergio."
"I haven't apologised for the way I treated you when you were with us in Italy. I-I'm sorry for saying all those things to you."
Surprise took over me as I didn't know how to respond to his sincere apology.
"It's alright, I guess. But I appreciate it all the same. No hard feelings." I smiled as the memory of him saying all those thighs resurfaced, although it stung a bit less this time. I was aware that all of his men thought of me as their boss' new, shiny plaything that he would get rid of soon, at that time. They had been proved right later on, of course.
Bitterness surged through me as I tried to tamp down the anger that had faded in Sergio's company over the past day.
"For what it's worth, I know that you meant something to the boss. You were not his plaything based on the way he was after you left."
He didn't let me respond as he smiled weakly at me before shutting the door again and resuming his stance of being my babysitter for the night. What was that supposed to mean? Huffing out an impatient breath, I decided not to read too much into that as I got up and headed towards the balcony.
The cool wind whipped at my hair as I inhaled the slightly polluted London air. A slight smile pulled at my lips at the thought of the differences between the quaint town in Palermo and the bustling city that I called my home. I leaned my forearms on the railing as I took a good look down, feeling my head spin. Well, that probably wasn't such a good idea.
My eyes tracked over the darkening skyline as tiny figures bustled across the streets, no doubt in a worry to get home. I pictured busy office goers hurrying to get home to their kids, their partner greeting them with some hot homemade dinner after a long day at work. They'd all sit at the dinner table, each of them taking turns talking about their day rather than sitting on the floor and eating from a take out box while their mother looked at them with eyes full of pain and agony. I blinked the tears from my eyes as I tried not to lose myself to memories from the past. It didn't matter anymore. I was here now, making a career for myself and hopefully becoming one of the most reputed criminal lawyers out there someday.
