I touched her cheek where she got slapped. “I’m sorry. That was my fault.”
Her lips lifted in a faint smile. “That was nothing. You neededsleep. Here, take this pill to help with the headache. I’ll prepare some breakfast for you.”
Her kindness didn’t belong in this house. My throat tightened as I reached for the glass. “I’m sorry again.”
“Don’t worry,” she murmured.
“What time is it?” I asked.
“Almost midday,” she said softly.
My breath caught. “Then don’t bother with breakfast. If she sees you preparing it now, she’ll find another reason to start.”
“Oh, don’t worry. She just left,” Savina said. “She got an emergency call when she was leaving your room. Something must have come up.”
Relief loosened my chest. I swallowed the pill and glanced at the roses again. “Where did the flowers come from?”
“I’m not sure,” she said. “They arrived this morning.”
Confusion prickled at the back of my mind. “Is Vincenzo home?”
“No. He never returned.”
“Okay. I’ll go take a shower and maybe do something useful to avoid getting us in trouble.”
Savina laughed lightly and began straightening the bed.
I moved toward the bathroom door. Before stepping in, I glanced back at her. She stood by the bed, holding her phone and tapping the screen fast.
“Savina.”
She snapped to me, slipping the phone into her pocket like I had just startled her. “Yes, miss?”
I studied her for a moment. The phone brought a memory of a dream to mind. I tried to let it settle, but only fragments remained. Alcohol always scattered my memories, yet my talk with Rodion felt too real. His voice still echoed close to my ear, his presence lingering in the room where I had slept. Remembering it gave me a strange peace.
“Thanks for being nice to me,” I said to Savina. She had been kind in ways I didn’t expect here.
She waved her hand, almost dismissively. “That’s okay. Go take a shower.”
I nodded and stepped inside. I couldn’t risk getting her in trouble again. She hadn’t deserved that slap, and I had never wished for someone to vanish the way I wanted that aunt to.
At first, it seemed that life was moving on normally. The first couple of days passed without incident, and the house returned to its routine. But then something strange happened. Vincenzo’s aunt never returned after she left to deal with some emergency. She vanished. As the days slipped into a week and the wedding day finally arrived, relatives began whispering about her absence.
The murmurs spread fast. Some claimed she was dealing with problems with her family. Others speculated she had lost interest in the wedding altogether. But then came a rumor that chilled me to my core. They said a woman had been found dead under a bridge, her face burned with acid, and some suspected it was her.
The thought alone sent shivers down my spine. Why would anyone kill her? And who could it have been?
I tried not to dwell on it, because the weight of my wedding pressed heavier on me. The rain slicked the windows, the gray sky painting everything bleak, yet the event pushed forward. Vincenzo had returned and picked up the plans as if nothing had happened. He didn’t speak to me about the argument, but he treated me like a bride in front of his relatives. It was almost as bad as open resentment.
Savina sat beside me as the car pulled away from the beach house, trailed by a line of other vehicles. More relatives had poured in yesterday, as if the walls of the house had been hiding them all along.
I couldn’t tell if the air inside the car was too thin to breathe or if it was just me, suffocating on nerves and dread. My stomach was knotted tight. Either the plan worked, or I would sign that certificate and become legally bound to Vincenzo.
Dmitri promised, and it was now or never.
“Do you need some water?” Savina whispered. Her voice carried just enough for Francesca to hear. Francesca, another relative who had taken over the wedding plans, sat in the passenger seat. A shopping bag holding the gown sat on her lap.
“Yes, please,” I murmured. Savina pulled a bottle from her bag and passed it to me. “Thank you.” She also drew a small pack of candies, and I gave a nervous chuckle.