Chapter 10

Take me one last time to see those places that silenced the din of my dark thoughts.

- BASS! POLICEMAN OF MY BALLS! I screamed as Ivan and his men dragged me out of the car. NEVER AGAIN WILL I BUY YOUR UGLY CALENDAR!

On Ivan's usually impassive face I saw the hint of a smile.

I was still swearing at that traitor when the car pulled into the freeway.

- You're driving me to hell, I guess, I whispered, looking out the window.

- No the orders have changed

- How so ? I asked turning my bewildered face to him.

- You escaped the Russian mafia for almost a week, the boss wants to meet the young girl who managed to play his men for so long.

I tried to understand his words, a succession of words that I no longer even expected, while the northern landscape scrolled through the tinted window.

Maybe miracles did finally exist?

When the car slowed down in front of a huge grid, I realized that I might have spoken too quickly.

Because when those metal monsters closed behind me, I knew I hadn't just regained my freedom but lost what little I had left.

We walked through the great post-habitation domain, it was a huge park dotted with trees and cut by the path on which we were driving. I had never seen anything so beautiful.

At least until I see the house itself.

In front of me stood a huge mansion painted white, the front, a small sunken space, had two large columns which, it seemed, held up the entire dwelling.

I got out of the car and ran to the little fountain opposite the entrance to the little palace.

I stared at the sky-blue water and I smiled in the face of so much beauty. It reminded me of my family vacation, every year we went to the same luxurious hotel and every evening I had to go and look at the reflection of the moon in the fountain in front of the hotel. It was a tradition in the Rosefield family to go to this hotel. But even the traditions could not resist the disappearance of my sister.

I never saw the reflection of the moon in this hot water again, but the memory is intact.

- Ready to discover your princess castle, Ivan whispers to me before passing me.

Suddenly I noticed the men guarding the entrance, those whom Ivan greeted, and my paradise fell into nothingness. I was not a princess, I was a prisoner, I was not facing a palace but facing the hell, and inside did not expect my prince but the devil himself.

It is now uncomfortable that I resumed my journey and followed in Ivan's footsteps.

The interior was in no way disappointing, quite the contrary. It was as sumptuous as the exterior.

Maids were running to the right, to the left like the ghosts of the place. Ivan didn't even seem to see them, nor them, nor the guards posted at the four corners of the house, and I wondered what it was like to be as invisible as I was. 'useful.

It must be awful.

Suddenly one of the ghosts was challenged by my captor. A small, plump and chubby lady, with full cheeks and sparkling eyes came forward.

- Olga, can you take our guest to the room reserved for her? She should wash, change and make up before meeting him, don't you think?

The good lady nodded and asked me to follow her. She trotted along the way, even on the stairs I had the impression that she trotted like this.

Maybe it was a tic due to his demanding job? Or a remnant of a child who did not stay in place?

She stopped in front of a huge double door and waved me in first.