The Golden Bond

Chapter 37

"Sofia, for God's sake, are you all right?" he asked.

Meanwhile I just watched the puzzled stream of his thoughts. Fabrizio had already defended a few women who'd spent too much time behind bars and it didn't do them any good, but it occurred to him that I was in a catastrophic state already after only a week. I was either being treated so terribly badly or I was, according to him, completely emotionally unstable and even a nasty look could make me cry. "They're treating me so badly, Fabrizio," I said with confidence, knowing that it would make him feel shocked. Since I'd held his hand for the first time, the Gift automatically made it possible for me to access his thoughts.

The lawyer raised his eyebrows in surprise and for a moment, he instinctively stepped back – as if he felt a threat from me.

I gave him a disarming smile and he understood that I didn't have any bad intentions.

He could see my terribly swollen eyes which now looked like narrow slits with a few bags around them. Since William had gone, I couldn't stop crying. I simply needed to get all the bad things out that had managed to attach themselves to me over the past few weeks. Not even my positive memories were helping, the only consolation I had left were my tear ducts. Paradoxically, all the crying helped me, although it probably didn't show on my face, which was no longer fit for the cover of Elle Magazine. I had no idea how it was possible, but the longer I stayed there, the more filled with extraordinary peace I became. So unusual, as if my mood really was so... dark? It was enveloping everything, immersing me in sweet indifference. The golden bond was gone and I had no reason to think about the man who had left me there. At this moment, it became my priority to get out, no matter what it took.

"Well? What's new, Mr. Leone?" I asked curiously.

Fabrizio smiled and pulled some folders out of his shiny designer briefcase. He put one of them on the desk and pushed it in front of me. "Your toxicology results, madam." He still had a smile on his face which was probably a good sign.

I opened the folder and looked at a bunch of technical terms and numbers that I had no clue what they meant – and it wasn't just because they were in Italian. I raised my eyebrows inquisitively and Fabrizio understood that he'd better start explaining.

"My assumptions have been proved right. You were drugged, Sofia. Someone injected you with ketamine, which is legitimately used as an anaesthetic for horses and infamous as a date rape drug. Its residues called norketamine have been found in your urine as well as in your blood. It's possible to detect it for up to 7 to 14 days after the attack. I told you that if the aggressor was stupid enough, we'd get him!"

I didn't want to spoil Fabrizio's enthusiasm, but if there was one thing that Adam definitely wasn't, it was stupid. I didn't believe anything any more and I was sure that this move must have been planned in advance as another trump card in his sick game. I didn't know when he would want to use it, but I knew it would be soon. There was no way Adam would get caught voluntarily. When I didn't say anything for some time, Fabrizio asked me again whether I was all right. I nodded, happy with his good news. "Well? What does that mean for me now? Will you get me out of here?" I probably sounded impatient because the lawyer just shook his head as a teacher would – as if I wanted to call out the result of an equation before he'd even dictated the assignment to me.

"No, Sofia, we have to wait for the results of the expert examination on your fingerprints. I should have them the day after tomorrow. If my suspicion is proved correct there, too, I'm almost 100% certain that the prosecutor will have to release you at least under house arrest. Wherever you'd be, you'd surely be able to breathe more easily there than at this station, am I right?"

You are, Fabrizio, of course you are, I thought and nodded in silence.

The advocate rummaged through his folders for a while and then he brought up the final item he wanted to go through with me that day. He sighed unhappily and I already knew who the subject of our discussion was going to be. I wasn't happy at all because I didn't want to think about him. "Madam, we have to decide what we'll do about those forged documents of yours and about William Jacobs, who should officially be your husband but suddenly is nowhere to be found."