Gio handed the gun to one of his men before walking in my direction. He paused briefly when he faced Elliot.
“Why did you bring her here?” Gio asked in a stern and chilling tone.
“She wanted to know where you were,” Elliot replied casually.
Gio walked directly toward me. He grasped my arm and pulled me out. He closed the door behind us, cutting off my view of the people they were tormenting. I looked at him and was met with the cold gaze of his eyes.
It had been a while since he had looked at me this way, and seeing it again now made me feel uneasy.
“Go home, Millie. I’ll have someone take you back,” he said.
“No,” I regained my composure when I heard Gio’s voice. His manner of looking at me hadn’t changed. “I haven’t seen you at home. I’m not even sure if you’re still coming home. That’s why I went to Elliot to find out where you were. Who are the men inside? What are you doing to them?”
Gio hesitated, clearly restraining himself from saying something. Eventually, he closed his eyes and looked at me with a cold stare.
“None of your business, Millie. Go home,” he said.
One of his men approached us. He gave me one more cold look before re-entering the room.
I slumped my shoulders. It felt like Gio was pulling away again.
“Ma’am, are we going home now?” Elliot asked.
I left the place without paying any attention to the guards, who immediately followed me wherever I was headed. I took an elevator, and they followed suit. I remembered where Gio had taken me before, and that’s the floor I went to.
I found the building’s hotel-like facility, and there was also a restaurant, so I decided to head there. I preferred to spend some time here, knowing that Gio would also be around.
The guards allowed me to be on my own, especially after I told them to leave me alone. After all, this was a Locatelli facility, so nothing untoward would happen to me. During moments like these, I couldn’t help but think of Dario. I wished Mariana were here, but she was still recovering. If Mariana were here, she and I might have discussed Dario. Aside from her physical wounds, Mariana now had emotional scars to heal as well.
“Hmm, Millie?”
I snapped out of my thoughts about Sienna and Dario when I heard the familiar voice of Gio’s cousin. I turned to see Taddeo.
He looked around and raised an eyebrow when he noticed that Gio wasn’t with me.
“Gio?” he inquired.
“He’s in the basement. He offered to take me home, but I didn’t want to go, so I came here.”
“Oh, so you know about the basement, huh?”
At first, I thought Taddeo would leave and let me be on my own, but I was surprised when he pulled up a chair in front of me and sat down. I watched him, still puzzled by his presence.
I noticed the folders and envelopes he was carrying, so I asked him what he had.
“What are you carrying?”
He glanced at the folders and envelopes he had. Taddeo didn’t immediately speak, but just stared at me.
“You sure you want to know my answer to that?” He said it with a hint of sarcasm, and his dark eyes remained unaltered.
I nodded in response.
He placed the documents close to me, so I looked at them. “The autopsy report of your sister and also, the DNA test. The DNA matched your sister, and the autopsy reports say that she died due to brain damage and gunshots.”
I found it hard to swallow. I almost wished I hadn’t asked to know.
“Dario’s body is still missing, but we’re concluding that he’s dead. We’re still searching for the body.”
My hands were trembling as I looked at the documents. When I saw my sister’s name, I quickly closed my eyes and stopped looking at it.
Taddeo took a deep breath. For a moment, I thought he was done talking to me, but it seemed that he wasn’t.
“I’ve wanted to talk to you for a long time, but I couldn’t find the right opportunity because I’ve been busy with my own life.” Taddeo crossed his legs and looked at me seriously. I wouldn’t be surprised why he and Gio were close. Their personalities weren’t that different, and maybe they understood each other better. It’s just that, compared to Gio, Taddeo was more outspoken about things.
“Why do you want to talk to me?” I asked, feeling nervous. The last time a relative of Gio, Gianna, wanted to talk to me, she made it clear that she didn’t like me. I managed to prove myself to her, but… it just dawned on me that I didn’t know what Gio’s other cousins thought of me.
“There have been noticeable changes in Gio ever since he started opening up to you. I can see it, and it’s not hard to notice, especially since we both grew up together,” he took a deep breath, “but I don’t mind. For me, those changes in Gio’s behavior might actually be helping him. He kept his emotions bottled up for a long time, refraining from feeling anything. I guess showing his feelings isn’t that threatening.”
I swallowed hard. I still wasn’t sure where this conversation with Taddeo was headed.
“But that’s not what our enemies think. When you came into Gio’s life, his adversaries saw you as his weakness. It’s pretty obvious, considering everything you’ve been through and all that has happened to you. You’ve been the primary target for abduction just to manipulate Gio.”
I contemplated whether I should speak, but I chose to remain silent and let Taddeo continue.
“The latest incident was ugly. Your sister died, and Dario too.”
I gasped. It felt like my mouth was filled with acid, making it hard to swallow.
“Gio is probably blaming himself. He feels responsible for what has happened, and I don’t even want to think about that. To be honest, Gio hasn’t been himself in the past few weeks. I’m not complaining, but it seems like ever since your ex-fiance, Marion, appeared, Gio has become more tender. He’s been using his heart more than his head. Do you remember that? In the past, Gio would rely on his rationality more than his emotions. That’s why we depended on him for planning, from Valerio’s issues to Raffaele’s, and even mine. He solved all our problems. So, it’s puzzling that now, when it’s you who has a problem, my cousin seems to be losing his edge. It’s because he’s more focused on you. He’s thinking about coming home to see you, and his time and attention are solely on you, Millie. To the point that he forgets his own position.”
Taddeo’s words left me even more speechless.