Chapter 32

Matteo’s POV

The arguments with her shouldn’t have followed me to the office. But it did. Her voice replayed in my head like a scratched record.

The way she had said. “You don’t get to control me. I don’t belong to you.”

The way she’d looked at me angry, defiant, and unafraid. Plus I hated that it affected me. I hated more than I admired it.

“Signore?” Luca’s voice pulled me back in an instant and I blinked.

I was standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window of my office, the streets ahead buzzing with people, but I hadn’t been seeing any of it.

“Yes.”

“The board from Milan University confirmed the meeting for noon.”

I turned slowly. “Today?”

“Yes. Regarding the expansion wing you funded.”

Of course. The new science and technology building. Public image. Clean money. Strategic visibility. It had been a calculated investment.

“What time did you say?” I asked again.

“Noon.”

I checked my watch.

11:05.

“Prepare the car.”

*********************************

The drive to the university took thirty minutes.!I hadn’t been there in years.

Milan University was polished stone, ambition, and expensive futures. The kind of place parents sent their children to polish reputations and secure alliances.

The kind of place Zara attended. Wait Zara attended Milan!. Fuck!!. Why didn't I ever think about this?

I hadn’t even thought about that when agreeing to the funding. Or maybe I had, subconsciously.

I pushed that thought aside immediately the car rolled past the gates. Students lingered across the courtyard, moving in clusters, laughter carrying in the air.

I stepped out of the car, adjusting my jackets and noticed the conversations that shifted the moment I entered the courtyard.

Eyes followed. And Luca walked beside me and said “Boardroom is in the administration building.”

I nodded. But my eyes moved before I could even stop them. Scanning for Her.

Inside, the dean greeted me with a wide smile and outstretched hands as the others did the same.

“Mr. Ferraro! What an honor.”

“Dean Moretti,” I replied evenly, shaking his hand with a forced smile.

“The new wing is progressing beautifully thanks to your generous contribution.”

“I expect excellence,” I said calmly.

“You will have it.”

We moved toward the conference room. Several board members stood as I entered and in an instant, the room was filled with smiles. Respectful nods.

And then I took my seat at the head of the table. In a couple of minutes, they began discussing architectural updates, enrollment projections, media coverage.

As they went on and on, they listened. Spoke when necessary. But beneath the surface, something else moved.

Awareness of the fact that she was somewhere in this building. In one of these halls. Possibly a few floors below.

That thought in my head shouldn’t have mattered. But annoyingly It did.

“And with your continued support,” the dean was saying, “we hope to attract international partnerships—”

My gaze shifted briefly towards him once again.

“Send the revised financial projections to my office,” I said. “I want transparency.”

“Of course.”

The meeting wrapped up forty minutes later, alongside more handshakes. And as we exited the boardroom, the dean gestured toward the campus.

“Would you like a brief tour of the new laboratories?”

“Yes,” I said, surprisingly trying to buy myself more time at her university. Fuck! Luca glanced at me briefly but said nothing.

We walked through polished corridors lined with framed achievements and donor plaques and just then my name gleamed on one of them in gold.

And then— There at the far end of the hallway near the courtyard doors I finally saw her.

Zara.

She stood with another girl, one I remembered holding books against her chest one time. And for the first time, Zara was laughing. Actually laughing. Not the tight, guarded expression she wore around me.

She hadn’t seen me yet. I slowed without meaning and Luca noticed. But my eyes refused to move.

She wore simple jeans and a fitted cream blouse. Her hair fell loose today, brushing her shoulders. Sunlight from the glass doors behind her caught in it, turning the strands almost bronze.

She tilted her head slightly while listening to her friend. And then she smiled. God. I had never seen her smile like that.

Something tight formed in my chest, not because she wasn't mine but because she was under my roof. Under my protection. Yet surrounded by men who were not me.

A group of boys passed too closely. One of them looked at her longer than necessary and my jaw tightened.

I took a step forward before stopping myself, making sure I was under control.

‘You are here for business. Nothing more.’ I chant to myself.

As if sensing something was wrong, she turned her head and then suddenly our eyes met. Across the hallway, over the noise. Across the distance.

And then her smile disappeared instantly as her posture stiffened. And for a split second, I saw it—The irritation.

Then that familiar wall she built whenever I entered her space. She leaned toward her friend, saying something quickly.

Her friend followed her gaze and visibly straightened too when she saw me. Almost instantly, students around started noticing. Probably recognizing my face from the video circulating. But I didn’t care about them.

I only cared that she was staring back at me like I was an intrusion. Which I was anyway. In her world, I was the villain. The jailer. The cold guardian she never asked for.

The dean continued speaking beside me about laboratory equipment, but his voice faded into the background noise.

But she caught my attention again, shifted her weight slightly. Crossed her arms, defensively. Even from across the hall, she challenged me.

And I felt it between us. The heat and the memory. The night she had looked up at me with that same stubborn fire before melting beneath my touch.

I inhaled slowly and then she broke eye contact first, turned, and walked toward the courtyard doors with her friend.

Only then did I realize my hand had curled into a fist.

“Mr. Ferraro?” the dean prompted.

“Yes.”

“The engineering labs—”

“Send the remaining details to my office,” I said abruptly cuttinghim off. “I have another engagement.”

Luca’s brow lifted slightly but he masked it quickly.

“Of course,” the dean said, slightly flustered. “We appreciate your time.”

But I didn’t respond and instead I was already walking away. Back through the corridor. Past the students who stepped aside instinctively.

Out into the courtyard, where I saw her once again.

“Luca, let's head back to the office!” I say adjusting my shirt as I turned away from her direction.