Chapter 322: Changing

CHAPTER 323

CHIARA POV

I stiffened the moment I saw him.

The movement was almost instinctive, my spine straightening before my brain had even caught up with what my eyes were seeing.

Don Romeo. He was walking toward us.

The afternoon breeze drifted lazily through the gardens, stirring the roses and carrying the scent of freshly watered earth, but somehow the peaceful atmosphere seemed to disappear with every measured step he took along the gravel path.

He wasn’t walking quickly. He never seemed to. Everything about him was deliberate.

Controlled. As though the entire world naturally slowed to accommodate him.

I swallowed quietly.

No matter how many years I’d spent living at the estate, I still hadn’t gotten used to him.

Nonna was family. That wasn’t an exaggeration. She treated me like I belonged here, even though I constantly reminded myself that I technically didn’t.

She remembered my favorite desserts, complained whenever I skipped breakfast, and forbade me from calling her madam. She was the grandmother I’d never really had.

But Don Romeo… That was different. Very different. Everyone in the villa respected him. Some admired him. Most feared him.

I belonged firmly in the last category. Not because he’d ever threatened me.

Actually…

He’d barely spoken to me more than a handful of times since I was here, although he had never visted since he left years ago.

There were people who yelled when they were angry. There were people who smiled while insulting you. And then there were people like Don Romeo.

People you could never read. People whose silence somehow carried more weight than most people’s shouting.

Those kinds of people terrified the shit out of me.

Beside me, I felt the smallest movement.

Katya. Without seeming to realize it, she’d straightened almost imperceptibly. Not enough that someone else would’ve noticed.

But I had.

I’d spent enough time around her over these past months to recognize the tiny changes other people missed.

The way her shoulders unconsciously squared whenever she was nervous.The way her fingers curled slightly into her sleeves when she felt cornered.

The almost invisible pause in her breathing whenever Romeo entered the same room.

She was doing it now. Trying to look composed. Trying not to react. I pretended not to notice.

Because if I noticed… Then she definitely knew she was reacting too.

A quiet sigh escaped me. Poor Katya. She’d told me everything.

Well… Almost everything. Enough for me to understand why she still looked over her shoulder whenever someone raised their voice unexpectedly.

Enough for me to understand why loud noises sometimes made her flinch before she could stop herself.

Enough for me to understand why the sight of blood drained every bit of color from her face.

She’d lived through things no one our age should ever have to survive.

And unfortunately… Many of those memories had one person in common.

Don Romeo. Not all of them. But enough. When she’d first arrived in Italy, she’d been…

Broken. There really wasn’t another word for it.

She’d smiled because she thought she was supposed to. She apologized constantly. She startled at everything.

Sometimes she’d wake in the middle of the night from nightmares and pretend she’d simply been thirsty whenever I asked if she was alright.

She’d gotten so much better. It was honestly incredible. She laughed more now. She argued. She rolled her eyes. She complained about my fashion choices.

She’d become… Katya. The version of herself she probably should’ve been all along.

And yet… Around him… Sometimes I caught brief glimpses of the frightened girl she’d once been. Not always. Not nearly as often anymore.

But enough that I noticed.

Which was why… Watching everything that had happened over the last twenty-four hours confused me almost as much as it confused her.

He’d covered for us. He’d lied to Nonna. He’d apologized. None of that fit the image Katya had painted for me over the months.

None of it. It should’ve made me feel relieved.

Istead..It somehow made me more nervous. Because I didn’t understand his reasons.

And people whose motives I couldn’t understand made me uncomfortable. Especially men powerful enough to make entire conversations change direction simply by entering them.

Don Romeo reached the bench.

Only then did I realize something else. He hadn’t looked at me once. Not while walking toward us.

Not now. Not even accidentally. His attention rested entirely on Katya. It wasn’t obvious enough that most people would’ve found it strange.

If anything, it looked almost casual. But I’d noticed the pattern since he had unexpectedly arrived Italy.

Whenever Katya was around… Everyone else simply ceased to exist. It wasn’t that he disliked people.

He just… Didn’t acknowledge them. Last night had been exactly the same.

When we’d stood outside that nightclub, terrified and exhausted, he’d unlocked the car without looking at me once.

Not because he was trying to be rude. I genuinely didn’t think it occurred to him. His attention had been fixed completely on Katya.

Everything else had simply… Faded into the background. Oddly enough… I wasn’t offended.

In fact… I considered it something of a blessing. Being invisible to Don Romeo sounded infinitely safer than attracting his attention.

I had absolutely no desire to end up on whatever invisible blacklist existed inside that frighteningly calm head of his.

Remaining unnoticed suited me perfectly.

Katya…

Unfortunately… Didn’t seem to have that luxury. And lately… I’d started noticing something that worried me even more.

She thought about him. Far too much. She probably didn’t realize she was doing it. But I did.

Every conversation somehow wandered back toward him. Every unanswered question somehow involved him. Every confusing situation somehow ended with—

“Why would Romeo do that?”

“Why did Romeo say that?”

“What was Romeo thinking?”

It wasn’t admiration.

Definitely not. If anything, it sounded like frustration. Confusion. Suspicion. But still…

He occupied far more space inside her thoughts than I thought was healthy.

And somehow… I suspected he knew it. That possibility made me shiver. He stopped in front of us. Silence settled immediately. The breeze continued rustling the roses behind us.

Somewhere across the garden, a gardener clipped hedges without paying the slightest attention to us.

The entire world carried on normally. Except this tiny corner of it. I stood automatically.

Years of habit took over before conscious thought had a chance.

“Good afternoon, Don Romeo.” My voice sounded surprisingly steady. At least I hadn’t embarrassed myself.

He didn’t answer me, Ouch. Grey and golden eyes clashed. The air between them shifted.

I couldn’t explain it. Nothing visible happened.

No one spoke. No expressions changed.

I looked discreetly between them.

Katya hadn’t moved.

Neither had he.

If someone unfamiliar with them happened to walk past right now, they’d probably think nothing was happening.

I knew better.

Katya’s fingers had tightened ever so slightly around the sleeve of her hoodie.

Don Romeo’s expression remained perfectly unreadable behind the black mask.

Neither of them broke eye contact. I had absolutely no idea what was going on.

But one thing had become painfully obvious over the last day.

Whatever existed between Katya and Don Romeo…

It was changing.

Slowly.

Quietly.

In ways neither of them seemed ready to acknowledge. And for reasons I couldn’t quite explain…

well someone had to acknowledge their tension.