With All My Love And More

It's going to make me fade away

I didn't see Giovanni the next morning and when afternoon rolled in, I figured I wouldn't be seeing him at all. The guards were waiting for me outside when I finally decided to leave. They all seemed to be on high alert. I guess they don't want to be slapped in the face like Alessandro was. I probably should apologize to him for what happened. I never thought Gino would hit his men in the face. It's so cliche, isn't it? An Italian slapping another Italian in the face.

"Lady Chance."

I looked behind me to see an unfamiliar guard standing there with an envelope in his hand. The gorgeous, delicate details along the almost sheer envelope wasn't something I could easily forget. I knew exactly who this was from.

"A letter from his majesty."

I took it, eagerly, while being ushered into the awaiting car. I opened it, carefully, making sure not to tear the exquisite packaging. I could feel how excited I was, my cheeks burning with excitement. As I managed to open the envelope, there was a moment of silence, as if my driver and guard was waiting to hear my reaction. I pulled the paper out and unfolded the silk sheet only to be met with a single line: I cannot come to you today, forgive me, fiore.

That was it. There was nothing else. Not even the usual small message in the bottom right corner written backwards. It was so cold. It was so unlike Gino. Why did he bother to send me one? I looked out the window with a sigh of defeat. I was almost tempted to throw the letter and envelope out the window, instead of putting it away with my thirty other letters from him I had been collecting. I knew all that would do was make me feel even worse. I was better than that. Better than some child throwing a tantrum. I just couldn't wrap my head around Gino thinking this letter was worth the manpower to be brought to me.

Is he insane?

"Chance, where would you like to go?" I looked back out the window, avoiding looking at my driver or guard who were craning her necks to gauge my reaction.

Somewhere far away.

I want to go somewhere far from here.

Obviously, a plane is out of the question.

And not to mention a bit overdramatic.

I mean...this letter was shit, but not shit enough for me to fly out of the country.

"Pisa?"

From the way both reacted, I knew this was a difficult request, but since I didn't get an immediate no, it was obviously not an impossible request, which was exactly what I wanted. Something to catch Gino's attention. I watched as one of my guards got on the phone, he was speaking in hushed Italian. He wasn't one of my normal guards, in fact, from what I saw, most of them weren't. Gino must have switched them out. Clearly, he was still incredibly angry with what happened yesterday.

"How was Gino this morning?"

The drivers went silent, even the one on the phone. They looked at each other, before one was about to speak, but was stopped by the voice on the phone. The man who was holding the phone spoke into the phone in short words before passing the phone to me, "Salvatore would like to speak to you, Lady Chance."

I nodded my head, taking the phone from him. I brought it to my ear, I could here there was a lot of voices wherever Salvatore was. "Lady Chance."

"Salvatore."

He sighed, "He is not angry with you."

"Then why didn't he show," I whispered, biting my bottom lip, already feeling the tears coming. My voice was cracked a bit, and the guards ahead were now shifting uncomfortably, clearly aware of what had happened yesterday. "He doesn't want to see me, that's it, isn't it?"