11 days left • Philadelphia, PA •"Tell him or I will.""Don't.""Today.""Whatever. Just—" Veronica let out a groan and shut her eyes, anxious and feeling indecisive as ever. The short vacation she'd planned wasn't shaping up to be an enjoyable one. "Don't tell him; I'll talk to him," she muttered, getting more annoyed.A dead serious expression now on his face, Mick got to his feet. "Tuh-day," he repeated with widened eyelids and a raised finger, as though warning her. He started backtracking to the door. His fingers stayed enclosed around the glossy doorknob while he glowered at her and murmured, "I'm not kidding."Veronica reclined in the armchair, sighed, and raked her fingers through her ponytailed hair. The throbbing in the back of her head was starting to worsen. "Just...tell Mom I'll be down in a minute," she croaked, giving him the stink eye.A while after exchanging grimaces with her, Mick yanked the door open, making way for Floofie, who had been perching in the doorway fo

• Piazza di Valtieri, Roma  •Making sure the listening device he just  installed under Hugo's desk was working and a hundred percent functioning took him another five minutes or so. Théo double-checked if the device had successfully linked to his phone.He accessed the audio feed after entering a two-factor authentication code sent by the agency's server. Cloaked by a VPN of course. Or a few. Never hurt to be extra sure.To avoid detection, he then deleted the messages with the authentication codes sent to his phone and accessed the secure app that let him browse through and listen to the audio feeds. It was  disguised as a puzzle game on his apps list. The agency's tech guys had been pretty imaginative lately.Opting to move along his task list with caution, he had only installed two listening devices in the mansion: one in the living room and one in Hugo's office slash study room.

9 days left• Rome, Italy • It was another pleasant weekday morning. The sun was up, the sky was clear, traffic wasn't bad, and the ambiance in the small restaurant wasn't much worse than the inviting weather outside.Théo would prefer to stay in the Valtieri estate all day to do more spying but since Anastasia wasn't at all comfortable being cooped up in her parents' mansion for days on end, he suggested they get breakfast alone outside to ease her recent anxieties somewhat.He didn't know exactly what were her triggers but he had a few ideas.  Being stuck indoors with her own family didn't provide her enough relaxation and security.  He had noticed it after the first few days he was invited and allowed to live with the Valtieris.Although, most days, it was only her mother who stayed in their mansion most of the time becaus

9 days left • Piazza di Valtieri, Roma • Time to get to the bottom of the issue.   Théo proceeded to the bathroom with his phone in his pants pocket, eager to find out more about the Valtieris.  He would have checked the recorded audio feeds an hour ago the same time when he and Anastasia arrived back here in the estate, but he had to act like the dutiful boyfriend and listen to her rants about her parents for a good half hour or so. Nothing new, but, this time, Anastasia seemed profoundly indignant she practically burst into tears.  He had to console her, of course, until she'd fallen asleep on her bed five minutes ago after all the crying. Now that he was alone in the bathroom again, Théo locked the d

• Rome, Italy •