Chapter 5 - She forgot me

The dark security room on the second floor was only accessible to him.

Only the camera screens gave light.

Alessandro sat alone in front of them, one hand against his mouth, his eyes fixed on the middle screen.

His prize, Mira.

She stood near the window of her room, holding her old teddy bear firmly against her chest, as if she thought someone would come and take it from her again.

She looked too soft for the kind of world he lived in.

Too innocent for him but his, to ruin.

Alessandro leaned back slowly in his chair.

“She doesn’t seem to remember me,” he said quietly.

His words felt like they were tormenting him.

Standing behind him is Angelo, his best friend and right-hand man. Calm as always, relaxed. The kind of man who looked friendly even when danger stood beside him.

“She was drunk that night,” Angelo said.

“You told me yourself.”

Alessandro did not look away from the screen.

“But she should have remembered my watch, I wore it on that night and she liked it”

A small silence followed.

“At the club.”

Angelo lifted a brow slightly.

Alessandro finally looked away from the monitor. He frowned.

“She looked at it for almost a minute,” he said quietly. “Like part of her almost remembered.”

“Almost,” Angelo replied. “But not enough.”

“You should stop staring at those cameras every minute,”

Angelo said lightly. “This is becoming unhealthy and creepy.”

Alessandro said nothing. Because the word unhealthy does not exist when Mira is involved.

Alessandro barely heard what he was saying. His mind had already gone somewhere else.

Back two years.

Back to his club in Milan. Fear followed Alessandro everywhere back then.

Men lowered their eyes around him. Women admired him from a distance but never stayed too close once they learned his name.

Except her. Mira.

He remembered seeing her on the dance floor for the first time from his VIP table.

She was dancing freely and one of her friends whispered something to her and she laughed.

Alessandro had watched her longer than he planned to.

Then suddenly,

She looked straight at him.

Right through the crowd.

Right through the smoke and flashing lights and people avoiding his Vip, as it belonged to death itself.

Their eyes met.

Most people looked away quickly after that.

Mira didn’t.

Instead, she smiled.

Then she staggered towards him.

She reached his table.

Looked at him once.

Then climbed directly into his lap like she had known him forever.

One smooth movement.

Mira rested one arm lightly around his shoulder and leaned close enough for him to smell vanilla and alcohol on her skin.

“You look bored,” she said over the music.

“You don’t know me,” he told her.

Her lips curved slightly.

“I know enough.”

Then she took a sip from his drink which was still in his hands without taking it.

Then, did the unexpected.

She kissed him.

Like it belonged to her already.

Alessandro could still remember the feeling that hit him at that moment.

The urge to eat her up.

“She was gone by morning,” he said quietly.

“After, sleeping with me”

His voice sounded flat. Empty. Like a wound he had carried too long to still react to.

Angelo stepped away from the door.

“And you searched for her.”

“For two years.”

“Alessandro!”

“Universities. Apartments. Phone records.”

Alessandro’s eyes stayed on the screen. “I paid people to search in three countries.”

He paused.

“And then you found her,” Angelo said.

“Yes.”

“And then her chronic gambler stepfather walked into your casino”

Alessandro’s eyes darkened slightly.

“Yes.”

“And you acted immediately.”

“Yes.”

Angelo studied him for a moment.

“You should tell her the truth now,” he said carefully.

A cold smile touched Alessandro’s mouth for barely a second.

“Which truth?”

“That you knew her. That you searched for her.” Angelo paused. “That you loved her.”

The room became still.

Alessandro did not answer. Did not deny it either. He only looked back at Mira sleeping on the screen upstairs.

“She mattered, and mine to ruin, ”

Alessandro said finally.

Angelo gave a short laugh.

“That sounds worse than love.”

“She walked into my life for one night,” he said quietly. “Then disappeared like she was never there.” His eyes stayed fixed on the screen.

“I spent two years trying to prove to myself she was real.”

“And now she’s here,” Angelo said. “Inside your room, you rebuilt for her. Holding a teddy bear you searched half of Italy to find.”

“And she’s terrified of you.”

“I know.”

“Does that not bother you?”

“I know, Angelo.”

His voice ended the conversation immediately.

On the screen, Mira slowly fell asleep against the headboard. Her fingers still held tightly onto the bear even in sleep.

Alessandro watched her quietly.

“You know the worst part?” Alessandro asked softly.

Angelo stayed silent.

Alessandro’s eyes never left Mira.

“I searched for her for two years.”

His voice dropped lower.

“And she still looks at me like I’m a stranger and a monster”, he smiled “but I'm her monster.”

Angelo pushed himself away from the desk.

“Get some sleep,” he said softly. Even though he knew, Alessandro would still be in his room till morning watching her like a creep.

He walked toward the door.

“Alessandro.”

“Mm.”

“Don’t rush her.” A pause. “Patience. Remember?”

Alessandro did not answer.

Angelo left.

The door closed softly behind him.

Alessandro continued staring at the screen.

On screen, Mira slept peacefully for the first time since arriving.

Her grip on the bear had loosened slightly.

The tension in her shoulders was finally gone.

She looked younger while sleeping.

Softer.

Alessandro watched her for a long time.

Then he slowly switches off the screen and switches to his phone to watch her.

On his way out, Angelo turned one corner and checked behind him once.

Then he pulled out his phone.

The message was short.

“She is here. He is already weakening. Do not move yet.”

Angelo sent it.

Slipped the phone back into his pocket.

And kept walking as if nothing had happened at all.