CHAPTER 1
Donato found that girl at the airport and picked her up in his arms without knowing that it was his own daughter.
If destiny knows something and will never pretend to defend something different, it is that you never know the turns that are put together so that, sooner or later, all the loose ends find their viable course like a magnetic field.
Some call it destiny, while others take the care of giving it other names and studies such as “karma” or “matter of science or chance”, but if there is something that cannot be escaped, is that everything we are has its effects.
Now Donato seems to have no idea what one day would mean for his life.
The blue-eyed girl was the most beautiful thing he could have ever known. An immediate crush on his heart and the strongest protective instinct that a man like him could have imagined. An elite criminal like him wasn’t expecting he could feel at some point in time.
Because there is one code that he always had followed, it is that the feelings and the ties that are linked to affections are a danger in life. A real Achilles’ heel that you can provide your enemies with at any time, something you would least expect, you receive the axe blow that knocks you down in a heartbeat.
So the feeling of seeing the little girl in absolute helplessness turned out to be a real risk that he wasn’t sure he wanted to take.
Who would think of doing that? In his life he did horrible things, but it would never cross his mind to abandon a little girl who can barely breathe on her own.
From her amused giggle to her awkward babbling, everything seemed to be made to captivate whoever she could get in front of her.
And on that day, he took a new course that would take his entire life.
First, no one could know that a girl was there. Because she would become a direct target for harm from the enemy sides.
Second, he would have to immediately arrange an option to conclude how to save her life without her own name and her dark life being at stake in relation to her actions.
Third, he would need someone who might have enough knowledge to save the little girl’s life because neither he nor all of his guards would be prepared or in a position to take care of a child full time.
Okay, this could only mean one thing: a lot of work to do!
Chiara
“YOU ARE PREGNANT!”
“What?! No, Lizzie, my God, what are you talking about?”
“Are you a lesbian?”
“Why would I be?” I’ve known you since I was five!
“And you never had a boyfriend.”
“Believe me, if it were, there would be nothing wrong with it, and you’d be the first to know.”
“Hmmm, what then? Because I can’t think of anything else.”
“I tell you that I have something important, and you try to venture an approximate answer yourself.”
“You know how I am, darling.”
As we leave the guard room and go together to the dining room to get our dinner, I walk over to her and say under my breath,“I got it. They accepted my application for Doctors Without Borders!”
It is enough to finish the sentence for her to stop in the middle of the corridor and look at me with an expression, as if her eyes were going to pop out of her sockets.
She blinks and thinks for a long time. Then she seems to get it and she puts her hands to her mouth at the same time that her gaze fills with tears.
“It is not true. It is not true!”
“Yes, Lizzie!”
“Not true, friend! Can not be!”
Then she breaks down in tears and I look in one of the corridors where there is a waiting room. A woman waits and glances my way, she shrugs at me as if she could apologize for the show my friend is putting on right now. I put my hands on her shoulders and try to make my compassionate gesture useful as well, so that I can let her know that we should get on with our business.
“Wow, I’m a horrible friend!” she says as soon as I get her to pull away from there and we continue on our way.
“No Lizzy. You are not.”
“Yes, Chiara. Yes I am. Because I should be happy for this immense achievement that you just reaped and I just feel terrible for not being able to be there for you as you deserve. They are going to take my best friend away from me!”
“It’ll only be a year and I’ll be back.”
“That’s what they always say.”
“How many people do you know who have gone to work on another continent for Doctors Without Borders?”
“You will be the first.”
“Then why do you generalize that they always say that?”
“You know, it’s the story of my life. My father, my ex-boyfriend…
“Oh Lizzy. The situation is not even close. What’s more, let us have something delicious for dinner to celebrate.”
“Do you want to celebrate?” Can’t you see that you leave me shattered?”
“Yes, but it’s cause for celebration for me so let’s go find something nice to eat at the restaurant on the corner, okay?”
“Friend, we’re on duty.”
“It won’t be the first time we’ve done it. Let’s Go.”
“Can’t it all be reversed?”
“You know that I studied pediatrics because it was my dream to help children.”
“You can help them in this hospital.”
“It is my dream to go there and you know that…”
“I thought they only accepted intelligent people there.”
“Lizzy”
“Well, I didn’t think they’d pick you.”
“Me…” she trailed off.
“Just kidding, friend! You’re the best! And that’s why I should have filed a false complaint with the medical college so they wouldn’t accept you but it’s already too late!”
I giggle, dismissing that as funny, when a large part of me has severe suspicions that she’s telling me the truth.
We move forward and while I listen to her wail endlessly, over and over again with a “my friend, my friend, they’re taking her...” we pass by the main reception where there are people waiting to be attended by the secretaries on night duty.
However, my eyes meet those of a man standing, about to be served. He is tall and the color of his eyes is a pearl gray that leaves me amazed at how much they radiate. In addition to the fact that he is dressed in a formal suit, he is very tall, almost two meters for sure and that look is accompanied by his hand that closes in my arm.
I looked at him suspiciously, almost as if a part of me was intoxicated by his perfume, almost wanting to thank him for holding my arm. Until Lizzie takes it upon herself to pull me out of the hypnotic state he’s wrapped me up in.
“Listen! Don’t touch the doctor like that!”
“Doctor…” he looks directly at me.
“S-sir,” I murmur, swallowing hard and trying to remember what two plus two is. His hair is short but a bit messy and longer on top, he’s apparently had a long night.
“I don’t speak much…French.” His accent is clearly Italian.
“I’m not sorry, sir. I don’t speak Italian—I confirm.”
“It does not matter. But I want you to listen to me. Please.” I open my eyes in amazement.
“I… Sir, please, you must register first and a doctor will attend to you.”
“You don’t understand, I NEED you to attend to me.”
“That’s enough, I’ll call the police,” Lizzie announces.
“Stop,” I tell her. Knowing that my most impulsive and sensual version would be eager to want this man to pass through my guard.
“Sir… I belong to the pediatric ward. But there is another adult doctor who can see you right now if you sign up.”
“No,” he denies determinedly. “It’s about my…daughter.”
For some reason, the accent seems to fail him on the last word. For a moment my heart sinks when I find out that he has a daughter. I wonder if he will also have a wife, but I find it very sweet that it is a father who decides to come to consult about his little girl. Wait a minute, where is she?
“Bring her,” I tell him. “And I will take care of her.”
“First I must ask you questions about my child.”
“Questions?”
“About symptoms”.
“Oh, but I must see her.”
“Doctor,” he insists, this time moving closer to me.” I want to talk to you first. Please.”
Lizzie walks over to me and asks me, in the middle of the hypnotism session, that this mysterious man has just mounted inside me.
“Can I go get the police now?”
I turn to my friend and announce, “I got this.”
Give me a moment, please find me something nice for dinner.
“Friend, it’s not okay,” she says in my ear, although her tone soon changes to mischief. “But I’m not judging you, I’d do the same for that hottie. See you later, I’ll buy you something delicious because then both of you will be hungry, for sure.”
“Yaaa,” I mumble the word as she tries to elbow it out.
She finally leaves, so I turn to the man and announce,
“Please come with me here.”
I point out the route and announce to the receptionist that her daughter will come later so they can write her down at the entrance.
She nods and also looks at me mischievously. Is it that nobody here has a clean mind and they only think about dirty things? I will only attend to this good Italian man who seems to have come out of a soap opera heartthrob magazine cover.
Once we’re past reception and into the hallway, he stops at the elevator door and presses the button.
I also stop next to him and warn him,
“Listen, at the end is my office where we can go so you can ask me questions about your daughter’s symptoms.”
He insists on pressing the button so that it goes down at once. The floors continue to descend until he reaches the ground floor.
“Sir!” I insist, this time doubting whether he really isn’t a psychiatric patient.
Once the doors open, he grips my arm again tightly and I feel with lightning speed that the barrel of a gun is planted in my ribs. He suddenly abandons all his difficulties with the language and keeping his native Italian accent, whispers in my ear,
“You will be the one to accompany me right now, doctor. Have you been kidnapped before? Because it fascinates me to always be the first.”
