The Woman In His War

Chapter Fifteen: The Devastated Ex

By six in the morning, the compound had three televisions on.

Serena had never seen that before. She fell asleep immediately after Dante left last night. Everybody in the compound had resumed their official post very early in the morning. None of them had the chance to sit in front of the screen to check the news. There was one in the operations room. One in the main corridor. One in the upper sitting room where she had spent the night. All of them displayed the same image, headline, and photograph. She stood in the corridor barefoot, a glass of water untouched in her hand and watched the nearest screen like it might correct itself if she stared long enough.

BREAKING NEWS:

—sources close to the Savino family maintain this is a kidnapping situation, however public response to the photograph has been…

— others arguing the body language is inconsistent with coercion, pointing specifically to…

—Moretti has not yet issued a statement but our correspondent outside his registered business address in…

Dante had been in the operations room since he left the room last night. Making calls. Checking different sources. He had not stepped out of the room until eight in the morning. Luca entered and stood in the room for forty five minutes, waiting for instructions from him.

“I need a car and a new suit.” He said to Luca finally. “Tell Marco to be at the building on Via Condotti.”

He came down at eight fifty in a suit. The suit had changed everything and nothing. Charcoal. Tailored but not rigid. And expensive in the way that tried not to look like it knew it was expensive. Serena watched him from her room as he crossed the compound. Hoping she would know what happened when he gets back. That's if he decides to say something about it. This version of him was built for cameras. Marco opened the car door for him immediately he sighted him coming. Then he got into the car. The door closed carefully and the compound exhaled slightly after him. He had made instructions that none of them should follow him today. They all stayed at home waiting.

The press conference began at ten forty-five, outside a building in the financial district that Dante's legitimate cover used as its registered address. Serena watched it alone in the upper sitting room while Luca had brought coffee. She hadn’t asked but he left it anyway. A news segment took over the television, the bold headline replacing the footage that had been airing moments earlier. And then Dante appeared.

“I have known Serena Savino for longer than the public is aware… “ His voice didn’t change when he said her name. Camera flashes somewhere in the imagined distance of the press conference. He continued, “What you saw in that photograph was a private moment between two people with a complicated history…It was not what has been reported. The only crime here is that she is gone… and I– I don’t know where she is.”

The moment those words landed, Serena pressed her fingers hard against the cup and listened to him devastate himself. The coffee had already gone cold. She watched him construct every layer of the last twenty-four hours piece by piece like a man who understood that narrative was just another form of architecture. On the screen, the press erupted into questions and Dante was answering them patiently, deflecting the kidnapping allegations with perfect composure. This was his first time doing something like this, yet he delivered perfectly. Everybody in the conference pitied him instantly.

Somewhere in the city, Viktor's study was very quiet at eleven fifteen. He had watched the entire thing alone while he told Ricci to leave the room before it began. He sat in his chair with his glass and the screen like a man who needed to see something without anyone watching him see it. He watched Dante Moretti stand in front of cameras and perform heartbreak. Even the press would believe him at this point. They already believed him. When it ended, Viktor didn’t move immediately. He just stared at the empty space where Dante had stood through the screen. Then smiled coldly. The realisation that he had built a narrative and Dante did not destroy it but he had rewritten the rules of it.

“He is smarter than I thought,” he said to the space between him and the screen.

Ricci," he called.

Ricci appeared immediately in front of him. He knew that something had happened when he left but he won't say anything unless Viktor commands. He finally summoned the courage to ask Viktor.

“Sir, do you want me to call the press?” Luca said.

Viktor looked at him first.

"No, get me my phone. I want to speak to my daughter.”