Chapter 339: Chaira car.

CHAPTER 340

KATYA POV

The taxi ride back to the villa was painfully quiet. Neither Chiara nor I seemed to know what to say.

Not because there wasn’t anything to talk about. There was too much. The city drifted past the windows in a blur of sunlit buildings, narrow streets, and people going about their ordinary afternoons, completely unaware that my entire world had somehow become even more confusing than it already was.

Chiara sat beside me, unusually silent.

For once, she wasn’t rambling. She wasn’t panicking anymore nor was she complaining.She simply stared out of her window with her arms folded tightly across her chest, as though she was still trying to process everything that had happened inside the police station.

I couldn’t blame her. I was doing exactly the same thing. My fingers twisted absentmindedly in my lap. The conversation with Inspector Ricci replayed itself over and over inside my head and none of it made sense.

Yesterday, the police had insisted Chiara and I report to the station. They had spoken with certainty. Inspector Ricci herself had made it sound as though our statements were important.

But today nothing. No questioning. No paperwork. No interview. Not even five minutes inside the building before we were politely sent home.

I slowly leaned my head against the cool glass of the window.

How? The question refused to leave me alone. My thoughts wandered somewhere they had been trying very hard not to go.

Romeo. His face surfaced in my mind with frustrating ease. Gray eyes. That unreadable expression.

His hand resting lightly against my cheek. “Don’t be scared. Nothing is going to happen tomorrow. I give you my word.”

I shut my eyes. No. It couldn’t be because of him.

…Could it? My stomach tightened. Every logical part of me wanted to dismiss the idea. People couldn’t simply…

What? Make the police change their minds overnight? That sounded ridiculous.

Impossible. Didn’t it?

Yet… Inspector Ricci’s behavior today… The sudden change in the investigation. The timing… Everything pointed in one direction.

Toward him. Toward Romeo. I opened my eyes again, staring blankly at the passing traffic. Had he really kept his word? The thought unsettled me more than it comforted me.

If he truly had… Then just how much influence did Romeo Salvatore actually possess?

A strange feeling settled heavily in my chest.

Part disbelief. Part unease. Part something else I couldn’t quite identify. Another thought crept quietly into my mind.

Should I have told Chiara? I frowned. Last night When Romeo had promised me that nothing would happen today… Should I have trusted him enough to tell her?

Should we have simply stayed at the villa instead of making the trip? My fingers tightened together.

No. I couldn’t have. Because what if he’d been wrong? What if he’d made a promise he couldn’t keep? I would have convinced Chiara not to go.

The police might have interpreted our absence as deliberate avoidance. Things could have become infinitely worse.

No… Coming to the station had still been the right decision. Even if we’d walked away more confused than when we’d arrived.

I released a slow breath.

Still… No matter how many excuses I came up with… The truth lingered stubbornly at the edge of my thoughts.

Deep down I already knew. Romeo had done something. I didn’t know what. I didn’t know how.

But somehow He’d kept his promise. And for reasons I couldn’t explain I didn’t want to believe it.

Because believing it meant believing he’d helped me. Why? The question echoed endlessly inside my head. Why would he?

Six months ago, he’d gone out of his way to make my life miserable.

He’d frightened me. Threatened me. Made me feel like I was nothing. That Romeo… The Romeo I knew… Didn’t make problems disappear for people like me.

So why now? Had I misunderstood him all along? The thought immediately irritated me.

No. Absolutely not. One promise didn’t erase the past. One good deed didn’t undo months of fear.

People didn’t change overnight. Neither did monsters.

“…Miss?” The driver’s voice cut cleanly through my thoughts. I blinked.

“We’re here.” I looked up. The towering black gates of the Salvatore estate stood directly ahead of us.

Somehow… The entire drive had disappeared without me noticing. I quickly reached for the folded cash still tucked safely inside my pocket and handed the driver the fare.

“Thank you.” Chiara climbed out first. I followed a second later, closing the taxi door behind me as He offered a polite nod before driving away.

The familiar gates stretched before us.

Home. Or at least… As close to one as I had never had. We had barely taken two steps toward the entrance when the low rumble of approaching engines reached us.

Chiara stopped walking. I instinctively looked over my shoulder. Two black vehicles rounded the bend in the road leading toward the estate. They were moving far too quickly for us to remain where we were.

“Move.” Chiara grabbed my sleeve. Together we hurried toward the side of the road just as the first vehicle swept past us. The guards stationed at the gate reacted almost immediately.

The enormous wrought-iron gates began sliding open before either car had fully stopped, as though whoever was inside didn’t need to announce their arrival.

The first vehicle rolled through. The second followed close behind. Suddenly, Chiara’s eyes widened. She pointed toward the SUV at the back.

“…That’s my car.” I looked at her.

“What?”

“My car.” She stared after it in disbelief.

“…That’s the one I drove the night of the fire.” My head snapped towards Chiara who suddenly grabbed my wrist.

“Come on.” She didn’t wait for me to recover as she was already pulling me toward the gates. The guards had barely finished opening them for the arriving vehicles when we hurried inside, weaving past one of the security men with quick apologies that neither of us slowed down long enough to let him respond to.

The driveway stretched ahead, curving gently toward the front of the villa where the parking area overlooked the gardens. The two vehicles continued forward before gradually slowing.

“They’re stopping,” Chiara breathed. Her grip tightened around my wrist. We almost broke into a run.

Questions tumbled over one another inside my head.

How had her car gotten here? We literally had no idea how we were going to retrieve the car from the club.

Chiara didn’t have a spare key and our belongings must have burnt off to ash in that club. So how the hell was it here?

Had someone recovered it?

Had the police found it and is returning it to us? Was it the evidence they had? No. I don’t think so because I didn’t see the car at the police station, but well I didn’t even try to see anything else but the door.

Or…..No. My thoughts stopped before they could wander back toward Romeo again. Not everything had to lead back to him.

Surely not. The vehicles rolled into the parking area and came to a smooth stop. The engines fell silent.

Chiara and I instinctively slowed our pace. We were only a few yards away now. Close enough to see every detail.

It really was her car. Even from here I recognized the tiny scratch across the rear bumper from when Chiara had misjudged the garage wall weeks ago.

“Oh my God…” She whispered it more to herself than to me. “It really is.” The driver’s door of the first black SUV opened.

My footsteps faltered. A polished black shoe touched the ground. Then another.

Romeo stepped out. He straightened without the slightest hint of hurry, adjusting the cuff of his dark suit before casually buttoning his jacket.

He looked exactly as he always did. Composed and Untouchable. My feet stopped moving altogether. Every thought inside my head disappeared.

The promise he had made less than twenty-four hours ago echoed without permission.

My heartbeat stumbled. Before I could process the sight of him, another car door opened. This time it came from behind.

Chiara let out a small gasp. “No way…” I tore my eyes away from Romeo.

The driver’s door of Chiara’s SUV swung open.

James climbed out as though driving someone else’s missing vehicle into the Salvatore estate was the most ordinary thing in the world. He shut the door with one easy push before absentmindedly pocketing the carkey..

I couldn’t seem to stop looking between the two men.