Was I a test?

Isabella’s POV

After taking shower, I wore one of the few clean dresses I owned. It was a simple dark green wrap dress.

Exactly at 8:00 PM, a knock sounded at the door.

It was an older woman in maid uniform. She came in and smiled. "Signorina Moretti? I am Maria. Dinner is served in the formal dining room. Please, follow me." She said in Italian.

I followed her down the stair and reached the dining room. Dante was already there.

He was sitting at the head of a long wooden table. He wore a black shirt with his sleeves rolled up, showing his muscular veiny arms.

When he noticed me, he pointed to the chair opposite of him.

“Sit.”

I did.

Another servant came almost immediately and placed a plate in front of me. Seared salmon, vegetables, and grains.

“You’re not going to eat?” I asked as I noticed his plate only had a small piece of steak and a glass of red wine.

“I already ate.” He said.

Nodding, I picked up my fork. “You haven’t asked me how I ended up working in that café.”

“I don’t care.” Dante said as he stared into my eyes. He meant it.

I should be glad. Somehow, I wasn’t. But I didn't dare to extend this conversation further either.

Finishing dinner, I went back to my bed and collapsed into the expensive bedsheet. My mind kept spinning with his words. “I don’t care.”

He didn't care about my past, or he already knew it was a lie and didn't want to hear the fake version.

The next morning, a soft knock woke me.

“Come in.”

Maria entered. She was carrying a silver tray with sliced mangoes, berries, and a glass of fresh orange juice.

"Buongiorno, Signorina," She greeted with a small smile. "Mr. Galante is waiting for you downstairs in the East Wing.”

I ate quickly and dressed in a pair of dark slacks and a loose silk blouse, trying to look like the professional I used to be.

Maria led me to Dante in a hallway I hadn't seen before. He was dressed in a navy blue suit, looking every bit the cold billionaire.

Spotting me, he simply turned and pressed his hand against a wood-paneled wall.

A hidden door slid open, revealing a private elevator.

I almost gasped. Yes, I had spent years with a billionaire before. But I had never witnessed something like this.

"My personal team works down here." Dante said as the elevator moved down. "They are the best in Europe.”

The doors opened to a room. It looked like a NASA command center. The walls were dark and high, lined with glowing blue consoles.

Five men and women sat at curved workstations. They all stood up the moment Dante walked in.

"This is Alessia." Dante announced. “She has full administrative access to the mainframe. No one questions her. No one gets in her way."

I saw the looks they exchanged. I smelled doubt and resentment. But I ignored them.

Dante led me to a central station, isolated from the others. "The breach occurred at 03:00. Find the entry point and the payload. I have a board meeting. I’ll be back by evening."

Without another word, he turned and left.

I went to work on the "breach."

After thirty minutes, I stopped. I leaned back as a cold realization washed over me.

"This is a joke." I whispered.

The security flaw wasn't a breach. It was an outdated script that even a first-year student could have solved. It wasn't a threat to Inferno Tech at all.

Dante Galante, the man they called L'Oscuro, didn't need a specialist for this. He didn't need to bring me here for a line of code he could have fixed in seconds.

Clearly. He had other reasons.

I leaned back in the chair, staring at the monitors. The blue glow made everything feel unreal. My fingers hovered over the keyboard. If this “breach” was a test, it felt like an insult. If it was a trap… it was way too obvious.

“Too many buttons, huh?”

Hearing the voice from behind, I turned in my chair.

A woman stood by the glass wall. She looked like she had stepped out of a magazine. But the way she looked at me made me feel so tiny.

“I’m Bianca.” She introduced, walking toward me in heels that clicked on the floor. “Dante’s Chief of Operations. His oldest friend.”

She stopped in front of my desk. Her eyes flicked over my loose blouse and rested on my stomach for a second too long.

“So.” She said, leaning on the desk, “You’re the little stray he found yesterday. Huh? Dante usually has better taste in… projects.”

“I am here to work, Signorina,” I said, trying to keep my voice calm. “Not to be a project.”

“Work?” She laughed cruelly before she tapped the screen where the broken script was still blinking. “You think this is work? Dante made this breach himself last night. He didn’t bring you here for your brain.”

Bianca continued, leaning closer. “He feels sorry for you because you are a pregnant woman. Don’t get too comfortable. Dante Galante doesn’t have a heart. Once he sees you aren’t the genius he hoped for, he will hand you back to whatever monster you’re running from.”

She straightened, smoothed her skirt, and turned. “I have seen girls like you come and go for ten years. You all think you can help him. You can’t.”

Her laugh echoed in the room as she left.

She thought she hurt me. She didn't. I had spent years fighting Valentina. She was nothing in front of her. But her last words did bother me.

She said, ‘you all think you can help him’. That was odd. Dante didn't need help. Even if it was about work. And he prepared the breach himself. Again, odd. Why would he?

I spent the rest of the day pretending to work. I forced my fingers to move over the keys while my mind traced every possible reason for my presence here. If it wasn't the code, what was it? Was I a test? A curiosity?