Chapter 44: Chapter 44

I lay very calmly in the strong arms of this beautiful man, whose scent gave me a kind of relaxation, only allowing me to dreamily listen to the rain outside and gently stroke his side again and again. The memories of the first time I saw him came flooding back to me and despite the fact that somehow nothing in my life was settled, I had to smile to myself at the thought.

"Why?" I asked at some point, absorbed by my thoughts, and looked up at him questioningly, which made him return my gaze immediately. "Why are you letting me get so close to you?"

This question has been on my mind since we were here and I just had to know.

"I don't know, Ludovica," he breathed quietly and then gave me a tender kiss on my forehead. "With you I just feel like it's the right thing to do and I have a constant strong need to want to be close to you. Those are feelings that I can't explain in words."

While I just stared at him thoughtfully, he pulled the thin white blanket over my now calm body and smiled and closed his eyes, taking deep breaths to enjoy the closeness between us, which I then did without asking any more questions while his Hands tenderly explored every corner of my body.

The rain stopped. The night passed. and as the first rays of sun broke through the thin curtains, I reluctantly got out of his so comforting embrace and stood up carefully, grabbing my bra and to gather the coat while I glanced at Dario, who was probably still asleep.

Of course, the chaos in my head started again as soon as I got into the bathroom and put my bra on. This chaos, which at least for such a breathtaking night had left me completely alone. Looking at myself in the mirror, I brushed my fingertips lightly over my lips, on which I could still feel his lips even now, hours later.

"Good morning," Dario softly snapped me out of my stillness, standing close behind me to face me in the mirror while gently placing his hands on my hips and resting his head on my shoulder.

"Good morning," I breathed back, briefly closing my eyes to anchor this moment deep within me before we headed back to the villa and presumably everything would spin like a merry-go-round again.

. because no matter how loving, intense and full of feelings this night was here. Gino was still a part of me.

"I'll get dressed, then we can go," Dario whispered in my ear and just as he broke away from me and was about to leave the bathroom, I opened my eyes and grabbed his arm, which made him eye me with concern .

"I can't do this," I whispered, and the mere thought of breaking one of their hearts gave me so much pain throughout my body that it brought tears to my eyes.

"Ludovica," Dario breathed, hugging me tightly to try to calm me down. "No matter what you will do, I will accept it because I love you and your well-being is more important to me than anything else. Gino certainly sees it the same way," he said calmly and when I broke away from him, I knew that Gino was the last to react calmly to all of this.

I could already see the bullets from his pistol flying in front of me.

"Let's drive, okay?"

"Okay," I replied to Dario, but it wasn't okay for me because I knew that if I met Gino's eyes after tonight, I'd hurt myself.

When Dario finally got dressed, I slipped on Enzo's coat and followed him outside, where the bright sun immediately blinded me so much that I wanted to flee back into the room.

"Wait by the car. I'll bring the keys back," Dario instructed and I cupped a hand over my eyes to realize I had absolutely no idea which car was his.

Then, however, I saw a black Porsche and just got up close to it to suddenly notice that a man was sitting in it and smirking at me.

"Shit," I cursed under my breath, blushing bright red since I was only wearing a short coat and must have looked like a prostitute with my messy hair.

"Ludovica?" Dario called after me and stood with an amused expression on his face at a dark Mercedes, which I immediately steered towards in embarrassment.

"Please just shut up," I whispered to him, annoyed at myself, and quickly strode past him to open the passenger door and drop onto the warm leather.

"They should get you a collar," he suddenly said as he got in next to me and when I suddenly remembered that Gino had said exactly the same thing to me when we were shopping back then, my stomach felt queasy.

"Then I'd like a red one with rhinestones," I breathed so quietly that Dario couldn't hear me because of the engine and the music on the radio before we drove off.

I watched the houses around me, as always when I was overwhelmed, and after a while I saw the villa, which on the one hand made me feel at home, but on the other hand gave me a queasy feeling.

Inwardly, I just hoped that Gino wasn't here yet and that I would have a moment of peace, but how much longer should one delay confessing to someone that one loved someone else and that it wasn't just a short, insignificant affair .

Dario slowly drove up the driveway as if he were also bumming time, but when the car was parked we both got out at the same time and nervously I followed him into the house where, to my relief, only Nicolo and Enzo were in the living room .

"You're fine!" Enzo beamed and immediately got up from the large table to happily walk towards me and put his arms around me. "My god, girl. I was so worried."

"I'm sorry," I breathed over his shoulder and looked at Nicolo, who also got up at that moment.

"I wanted to follow you, but I was too slow," he admitted apologetically and then also approached me.

"It's all good," I explained reassuringly, breaking away from Enzo, who straightened his suit and then glanced at Nicolo.

"Unfortunately, we urgently need an appointment, but we'll be back around noon, then we'll talk about everything. Please do me a favor and don't leave the house today!" he turned to Dario, who nodded in agreement. "Giovanna will certainly not let it go. So, stay here and keep calm."

I also nodded in agreement and after Nicolo and Enzo left the villa behind us, Dario and I took a seat at the table, on which there were still some rolls and coffee to be found.

"You should eat something," Dario said, handing me a roll that I accepted gratefully and just stared at in a daze. Somehow I wasn't hungry at all, but when my eyes fell on Dario again and he tapped his watch with a grin, I bit into the bun and then took a questioning look at him.

"Are you serious?" I asked and he happily took a few sips of his coffee.

"Apparently there's no other way to get you to eat, so yes," he replied and just as I was about to smile, the front door slammed loudly behind me and my whole body tensed up.

I nervously swiveled in my chair and looked straight into the eyes of Gino, whose light-colored jeans were covered in blood, causing me to take a deep breath and get up immediately.

Dario got up too and when I looked at Gino wide-eyed, there was an expression I had never seen on anyone before. He didn't seem mad, blank, angry. It was as if he was in shock and yet very clear.

He stopped right in front of me, looking over at Dario, to whom he seemed to say so much through his facial expressions alone, without moving his mouth, that my shocked look fell on Dario, who suddenly drew his pistol at that moment and ran past us into the hallway.

"What is-"

"Shhhh, anatra," Gino interrupted me calmly and with a racing heart I glanced after Dario, who disappeared outside while Gino grabbed my hips and urged me to sit back down on the chair.

Frightened of the unknown, I watched him crouch in front of me and gently cup my trembling hands in his until he looked up and lost himself deep in my eyes.

"My mother got a duck from my father at the time," he suddenly began to talk very calmly, gently stroking my hands while he looked at me dreamily and I, completely confused about all this, realized that tears were in his such beautiful dark eyes.

"She loved these animals so much and when Dario and I were little she raised these creatures in the garden. I hated it because it banned me from everything. I wasn't allowed to play football or take friends outside. It was checky and I-"

When I suddenly heard shots outside, I jumped up trembling, looked through the hallway to the front door with wide eyes and felt my heart beating in my throat. But Gino got up as well and put his hands on my cheeks, forcing me to look him straight in the eyes again.

"I didn't understand why she loved these animals so much, but one day I saw a duck among them that was somehow different. She was beautiful and yet completely alone," he continued and the more tears suddenly ran down his cheeks, the more faster also collected in my eyes which. But when shots rang out again, I quickly wiped away the tears and tried to free myself from Gino's grip.

"Gino! We have to -"

All of a sudden, and without me even being able to react, Gino drew his gun and aimed right past my head at the window front. I screamed, covered my ears, and fled into his arms while he held me tight and fired a few more shots.

"One day I woke up in the night and heard noises outside. I was little, thought it might be monsters or ghosts, but I felt like I just had to check," he whispered in my ear, turning me around to that we stood on the side between the hallway and the window front to fix me again with his wistful gaze.

"Then I saw this huge dog that had just killed quite a few ducks. but my little duck was still out there in the dark. I had-"

"Gino!" Dario interrupted us, who had just stormed in the front door and reloaded his gun after slamming the door. "We have to get out of here immediately!"

Dario came towards us, aimed past us again and when my fearful gaze fell to the other side of the window front, I saw several masked men who were shot by Dario one after the other.

"Come!" Dario yelled at us and ran ahead of us to the door that led to the guard room, but Gino turned me around again and looked at me with a smile while he gently stroked my cheek and I felt everything through his touch faded out around me.

"I was scared to death, I was a little shit, but I didn't leave my duck alone and went outside to pick it up and save it. To this day I still have several scars on my hip from that vicious dog, but I would have them never let them die, I would have died sooner."

"Gino!", Dario shouted again and I also heard that these strangers were about to open the front door, which probably didn't go unnoticed by Gino either.

He pulled away from me in a flash, held his gun to the side of the front door, and fired off a few shots while I cried out as I watched as he, too, took a bullet in the shoulder.

"Dario!" I cried through tears, but as I was about to turn to him for help, I saw that he was in the process of stopping some men at the front window from getting inside.

"Anatra," Gino whispered, taking my chin to plant a gentle kiss on my lips as he shoved me backwards toward the guard room door. "Do you know what I did after that horrible night?" he breathed, asking after our kiss and turned his gaze to Dario to give him a short nod.

"No! What is it?" I asked tearfully and felt a hand on mine, which wasn't Gino's, while I let my gaze wander briefly over his bleeding wound and then back through my tears into his eyes see.

"I set her free, by a beautiful lake, because I realized I couldn't protect her the way she deserved and I loved her far too much for that."

My tears were now running down my cheeks incessantly, while I felt how Dario pulled me backwards and Gino gained more and more distance from me.

In a panic I snatched my hand from Dario and jumped into Gino's arms, who held me tight even though he was in pain and for a brief, fleeting moment everything around us was completely still.

"Ti amo, anatra," he whispered softly in my ear and then gave me a tender kiss on my cheek while my whole body trembled against him. "Please never forget that."

"Gino," I whispered, crying, and suddenly I felt Dario tear me away from him and Gino gave me a loving smile one last time, until he slammed the door right in front of me and I only heard him lock it from the outside.

"No!!" I yelled and pounded on the door with all my might, trying to pull the handle at the same time, but nothing happened and I felt like I was dying, my heart was beating so painfully against my ribs that it took away my feeling to get oxygen at all.

"Gino!", I yelled desperately and wanted to keep banging on the door, but Dario tried to pull me with him, which I managed to prevent. I freed myself from his grip and suddenly heard several shots from behind the door that froze everything inside me. I got so cold that I got goosebumps all over my body and at the same time so hot that I threatened to burn.

"Gino!" I yelled again and then hit the door so hard that my hands started to bleed slightly and there was boundless pain in my abdomen, the force of which made me turn to Dario, who was frightened staring at my legs with big eyes.

"Oh God," he breathed, and when I looked down afterwards, I realized that blood was running down my thighs from under the coat, but it wasn't caused by a gunshot. "Ludovica. We have to get out of here. Over there at the end of the tunnel-"

"I'm not going without him," I sobbed, turning painfully toward the door one last time. "I so seldom ask you for anything, you bastard!", I said with a trembling voice, but my eyes suddenly became so dizzy and black that I only noticed how Dario picked me up in his arms and down the stairs with me disappeared down.

I hardly noticed anything around me.

I was alive and being carried through a dark tunnel by Dario, but inside I felt like there was nothing left.

"Everything will be fine," I kept hearing Dario's voice, to which I looked up lost and who was the only thing that kept me alive at that moment.

If it weren't for him, I would certainly rather have died with Gino than go on living the way I feel now.

"What's wrong with her?" I suddenly heard another voice, all muffled, and turned my face slightly to the side, where I spotted Nunzio, who was sizing me up with huge eyes before running ahead of us with a pistol, apparently giving us cover.

But what else to protect from. A part of me died in this mansion anyway.

"You see! Nunzio is there too!", Dario encouraged me and I just closed my eyes while I heard shots and screams and surrendered to the darkness with extreme pain in my whole body..

-

Very slowly and exhausted, I opened my eyes and immediately recognized the white blanket above me. My abdomen ached immediately and moaning from this unbearable pulling, I raised my weak upper body and looked directly at the window, irritated.

It was pitch black outside and I couldn't really process it all.I didn't want to either.

"Hey," I heard Dario whisper and turned my head slightly to the side where he was sitting on one of the red chairs and immediately got up to cautiously approach me.

"Please tell me it was all just a dream," I breathed pleadingly, looking at him with tears in my eyes, but he didn't agree. On the contrary. He looked just as exhausted as I did and his expression, covered with sadness, was enough for the certainty that all of this had really happened. "Oh god," I sobbed and immediately he sat down next to me on the hospital bed to hold me tightly in his arms.

"I'm so sorry about all this," he whispered apologetically, but it didn't bring me any comfort. Only him and my love for him kept me from just jumping out the window and ending it all quickly.

"Was I. Did I." I stuttered at the end and guided his hand to my abdomen while I pulled away from him slightly to look deep into his blue eyes.

When he nodded silently and apparently had to hold himself back from bursting into tears, I let myself fall into his arms again and cried so bitterly that I immediately felt Dario's body cramp with pain.

"I can't do it. I can't do it," I sobbed again and again and my heart hurt so much that I thought I didn't have to jump out of the window, but just got everything in me from it dying in pain.

Dario didn't say a word, probably because he knew there wasn't anything he could have said at the moment and we just sat there, clutching each other, for hours while he rubbed my back and I listened to his steady heartbeat. At least something that still seemed to calm me down.

And then, just before the sun came up outside, I fell asleep exhausted in his arms and for the first time in my life dreamed of a little duck, which enchanted even me with its beautiful sight.

-

The days passed slowly, but I had completely lost my sense of space and time anyway. Just like my baby, whose father I didn't even know who would have been, but that didn't matter either.

I loved both men equally and yet I no longer felt complete without Gino.

"Do you need anything else from downstairs?" Dario asked and shaking my head I looked at the door, from which he disappeared after a fleeting smile.

Today was my last day in the hospital and I was actually glad that the villa was uninhabitable at the moment. I certainly wouldn't have lasted a second there, just like Enzo, who hasn't been the same since that day.

He had bought a small, really cozy house for all of us and although it looked like a normal family home, it had more security guards than the huge mansion. At least that's what Nunzio told me, who visited me several times a day.

He also told me what had happened that night and how this situation came about in the first place.

I guess Giovanna thought it would be a good idea to go to Gino's club to urge him to break up me and Dario. After he had assured her several times that he would not harm me or his brother, she threatened to do it herself and then received a clean headshot from Gino right between the eyes. then one thing led to another.

Kind of a happy ending for her.

"Ludovica Grasso", someone suddenly greeted me, tearing me out of my thoughts and without expression I looked into the eyes of the doctor who had treated me before.

"Hello," I breathed softly, stuffing the rest of my clothes into my bag while he seemed to study me thoughtfully.

Woe would he come to me now with the saying that I should eat more.

"Your fiancé was Gino Mancini. right?" he suddenly wanted to know and just hearing his name sent an uncomfortable shiver down my spine.

"Right," I stuttered almost inaudibly, and he got a look on his face that somehow didn't bode well.

"I can't get through to him on the phone. He came to see me for an exam a few weeks ago. Please tell him to get in touch and-"

"Stop!" I yelled, suddenly startled at myself and grabbed my bag to quickly walk past him into the hallway. I didn't want to hear anything. his name or anything else and just awkwardly ran to the elevators to punch the buttons like a madman.

Heart racing, I waited impatiently and when the elevator finally opened Dario was standing in it, cell phone in one hand and a coffee in the other.

Without looking back, I leaned against his chest for protection and looked up at him briefly while he ended the call and tucked his phone into his jacket to pull me tight.

"I would have carried the bag," he said thoughtfully and I smiled gratefully at him.

"I know, but I had to get out of there urgently," I let him know, and then when the elevator got to the ground floor, we traded, he taking my bag and I the fragrant coffee.

"Did you know anything about the fact that Gino had an examination?" I asked then, lost in thought, turning to Dario and taking his hand in mine at the same time. His touch calmed me and when he thought for a moment and shook his head almost imperceptibly, I just left this topic behind me in the hospital.

-

After a good hour we finally arrived at our new home, but I couldn't even get out of the Maserati and enjoy the sun in peace, when suddenly two police officers approached us, one of whom was dressed in civilian clothes.

"Dario Mancini?" he addressed my friend and I looked over at him, irritated, as he slowly walked around the car to stop right next to me and in front of the policeman.

"We have some questions about the raid on your villa," he said and Dario immediately looked at me worried.

"Please wait inside," he pleaded, but I immediately shook my head violently.

"I want to hear it too," I whispered, knowing that they had finally identified all the bodies and would break my heart at any moment.

I stood close to Dario's side, clasped my hand as tightly as I could with his and looked at the police officer, who first wanted to know from Dario roughly what had happened and who the decisive point was.

Then, when the name Giovanni came up, I winced slightly, and then when they confirmed his death, I couldn't help but feel absolute relief.

"And your brother, Giuliano Mancini, do you happen to know where he is?"

"What!?" I breathed, looking at the cop like I'd gone mad. "What do you mean, where is he staying?"

"He wasn't among the victims. We could only find a lot of his blood, that's all there was in the villa."

I stared up at Dario in disbelief and could hardly breathe, but he immediately pulled me inside protectively and didn't let the whole thing continue to destroy me, because there was even the slightest chance that Gino would still lived, Enzo's private detective would have found him by now.

Or not?