Chapter 11
948 Words
Chapter 11.
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After Dinner, Millicent left the De Angelis brothers, wandering around aimlessly. She had too many thoughts and not enough space to put them. So she decided to wander around, which led her to where she currently was.
The upper corridor, staring at a portrait hung alone on the wall.
In it was a woman. A beautiful woman.
Warm brown hair, dark gentle eyes and a slight curve to her mouth.
Millicent stood there in front of it longer than she intended to. Not just because of the beauty, but because of the mystery behind it.
Who was she? Why did she have a portrait of her hung in Angelo's estate. And moreover… why did she want to know?
That was a question that even she herself couldn't answer. And the more she thought about it, the more she tilted her head, studying the portrait.
"Signora De Angelis?"
She turned, coming face to face with a staff member who stood a few feet away with a polite expression on her face and a stack of folded linens in her arms.
"Can I help you find something?"
She smiled pleasantly. "No, thank you. Just admiring the artwork."
The woman nodded and continued down the corridor.
Millicent took one last look at the portrait, then turned and walked in the opposite direction. Better she didn't know who it was.
After all, ignorance was bliss.
But just as she kept walking, her steps faltered upon hearing Angelo's voice.
She slowed her steps instinctively, approaching the half-open door of a room she hadn't yet identified. But she didn't stop walking.
No. That would cause attention.
She only just slowed enough to give herself plenty of time to listen.
"—not yet. But I'm fine." She heard Angelo pause, his voice becoming soft. "Yes mama. You can come to the estate.”
Then as if sensing her presence, his voice dropped lower. So low that she couldn't hear a single thing anymore.
Resigned, she moved past the door and resumed walking, maintaining her pace and keeping her face entirely neutral while her mind had already snapped the pieces together.
His mother was coming to the Estate.
Millicent turned into the east corridor and kept moving.
Angelo's mother was coming to stay.
She already had a husband to think of, three brothers to be wary of, and staffs that she kept bumping into in non coincidental ways. And now with his mother coming, It meant more people.
It also meant Angelo would be watching her twice as closely as before.
“f*****g hell,” she hissed in frustration, raising her head high enough to realize she had somehow ended up back in the library.
It was slowly becoming a habit that she hadn't realized. She pulled Calvino from the shelf again and settled into the same chair by the window, tucking her feet beneath her.
But she didn't open the book immediately. Rather, she looked through the window, thinking.
Thinking about how much she had to do and just how much of an opportunity was being wasted.
Instead of wasting time in the estate, she should be out finding Luca, but she couldn't leave the estate either. Angelo had been sure to make that clear during breakfast.
And it wasn't like she couldn't sneak past them either. She could. After all, she was a con artist. But even she was smart enough to know that now was not the best time. She'd just settled into his home and could not afford to make any reckless move.
Because the tiniest mistake on her part could mess up the whole thing.
Even the slightest flaw from her end could endanger Luca more than he already was.
She had to think. Had to open her mind to the possibilities. But that was the problem. She had none.
Playing con was out of the equation already.
And while she was good with technology and hacking, she didn't have a single high tech device she could use.
All thanks to Carlo.
“Non so ancora chi sia il più sciocco. Io o lui.” She palmed her head.
Fine. Carlo had kidnapped Luca thereby frightening her.
But what kind of person doesn't carry their main device around with them?
*She. Obviously.*
And she didn't think her family would trap her in their empire till the day of the wedding.
They clearly didn't trust her. But they trusted her enough to get something that could destroy them.
How convenient.
“Argh,” she groaned, sounding more like a sigh. “All these won't take me anywhere.”
The device she had there with her was too small and outdated. Not too outdated, but clearly not good enough for tech. And her main tech device was still in her small apartment in Rome.
No phone, no computer.
The two things that could give her a shot in tracing Luca’s location were hours away from her.
And here in the mansion, she knew Angelo wouldn't even look at her, talk more of letting her leave the estate.
She would just have to deal with that later.
Rising to her feet, she left the library. It was already getting very dark, and she needed to get rest. But even as she kept moving toward her room, her mind wouldn't stop calculating.
She had to find a good device. Or yet still, a computer.
And even though he doesn't live in the estate, Millicent could only think of one person who could have a spare computer in a home that wasn't even his…
Amedeo.
- Writer
