جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 120

The villa had finally grown quiet although not completely quiet. That never happened anymore, especially not with Matteo living under the same roof. Somewhere down the hallway, Lorenzo could still hear the faint sound of a cartoon playing from a tablet that had supposedly been confiscated an hour ago. Every few minutes, Matteo's laughter drifted through the house, followed by Andre's patient voice trying and failing to make him understand that bedtime was for his own good. For Lorenzo, all of that felt strangely comforting because all his life, silence had been Lorenzo's companion. He had lived in it, worked with it and had hidden inside it. But now the house was filled with voices and footsteps, arguments over breakfast, and toys that appeared in impossible places. And somehow, he preferred it that way. Now he stood alone in Dante's old study that was dimly lit by the fireplace. staring out at the dark gardens beyond the window. The room still carried traces of its former owner, f

The map became the most talked-about subject in the villa although not openly for the next coming days, it lingered in the background of every conversation all the same. Even Lorenzo still found himself thinking about it at the strangest moments, while reviewing reports in his office and walking through the gardens, the realization refused to leave him because for years, he had believed Lucia's absence was a simple thing. He had built the foundation of his entire childhood, believing this and now that foundation was cracking. The thought unsettled him more than he wanted to admit because sincerely, he no longer knew what was going on. And that morning, as if seeking relief from the raging thoughts in his head, he wandered outside the villa. Outside, the weather was unusually pleasant as if it was trying to take a break from the incessant downpour of the last few days. Sunlight spilled into the vineyards, turning the rolling fields into waves of gold and green. Somewhere in the dist

Early the next morning, on Marco's orders, security footage was pulled up and reviewed. Marco, now certain that there was definitely something going on, approached the task with the same relentless determination he brought to every problem because if Lucia had truly been near the estate for as long as Matteo seemed to believe, then there had to be evidence and he was going to find it.The villa's security cameras covered far more ground than most people realized. From between the main gates, the perimeter roads, the vineyards and the wooded areas surrounding the property, years of recordings had accumulated within the security system.And this made what was meant to be a simple search turn into something far more tedious. For hours on end, the monitors displayed nothing of importance. Employees came and went. Delivery trucks arrived at the gates. Rain swept across the vineyards. Gardeners worked among the hedges. Birds landed on fences. Entire afternoons passed without a single discov

The conversation from the previous evening lingered long after everyone, even Andre, had gone to bed. Lorenzo found himself thinking about it the following morning while standing on the terrace with a cup of hot coffee in his hand. The vineyards stretched across the landscape beneath a pale sky, still carrying traces of dawn. Somewhere beyond those rows of vines were the places Lucia had stood. The thought returned to him repeatedly, refusing to leave. She had come back again and again. Not once. Not twice. Dozens of times. And each time she had turned away, that realization made it difficult to hold on to all the old certainties he already has. For years Lorenzo had built explanations around her absence because they were easier than questions. Anger was easier than uncertainty. Resentment was even way easier than wondering whether someone had been suffering just as much as he had. Now those explanations were beginning to crack. When he entered the dining room later that morning,

The photograph remained on the dining room table as several people including the household staff couldn't help but steal side glances at it. Marco tried to identify the building in the background. Andre studied Lucia's handwriting while Isabella spent nearly an hour turning the photograph over in her hands, repeatedly reading the message written on the back. In the end, nobody could determine exactly what place Lucia had been referring to and the mystery lingered into the night.And by the following morning, the photograph had reignited everyone's curiosity. All through the past weeks, the family had been trying to piece together fragments of Lucia's life but it felt like every conversation seemed to reveal something new and every memory exposed another part of a story that none of them fully understood.Now that the photograph popped up, it felt like another missing piece and that meant that if one forgotten item had survived all these years, then there was a chance that others ha