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“Appreciate it. If you have the bandwidth…I would love your help in planning it as well–along with Ana and our staff, of course.”
“Oh!” Shock and a volley of other expressions crossed her aunt’s face before she settled into a triumphant grin. “I would love to! I have plenty of experience at events like this.”
Ana could already see the ideas spinning inside her aunt’s head, and she internally groaned. There was nothing else her aunt loved more than event planning, especially an extravagant one like this. It would give her bragging rights with the ladies of Pittsburgh for at least a whole month.
“Ana, let’s have a weekly call set up to start organizing.” She took out her phone and began furiously typing notes. “We have less than two months!”
Oh, joy.
Her aunt was insufferable.
Annoying and over-the-top.
After ranting about Gio not trusting them, Auntie did a total 180 as soon as he delegated the gala to her. In every call, she raved about him and how Ana’s marriage had proved its use at long last. Annoyance hit Ana, along with a raging headache. She always knew her aunt wanted their marriage for its status advantages, but it pained her more than she wanted to admit.
For the last two years, their every conversation had been about Gio–how to please him, how to satisfy him, and constant questions about whether he trusted them.
It had suffocated her. With relief arriving only after the wedding, once Ana had left home and settled into a new life with Gio.
But the old resentment returned swiftly during this gala-planning. After a month of weekly calls with her aunt, Ana was fed up. She knew Gio was trying to be attentive to her suggestions, and that’s why he had roped her into the gala planning with her aunt. But Ana had her own business to attend to. She couldn’t entertain Auntie’s constant fretting any longer.
Gathering her files, she exited her office and headed upstairs to find Gio.
Things were in a stable state with the planning so far. Hopefully, he’d agree to hand off the remaining plans to her aunt. After their fight last month, he had been overly accommodating to Ana's thoughts and suggestions.
Sweet…and such a contrast to the man he was with the Family–strict and unforgiving.
Ana’s footsteps echoed as she slowly clambered up the steps, tired to the bone. Nightfall had descended hours ago, bathing the house in darkness. Only a few lamps lit the hallways.
Most of the staff had also left or retired for the night. But Gio and Ana often worked well past the others, the nature of their jobs requiring it.
Flashes of light and shadow played with each other as she passed each lamp on the stairs. But she barely paid her surroundings any attention, deeply engrossed in replying to emails on her phone. Her body already knew every nook and cranny of this house, leading her sightlessly forward.
So when she reached the top of the stairs and turned toward her husband’s office on the right, she almost missed it–
A long shadow stretching across the shining hardwood floor, shifting to face her.
The phone slipped from her hands, clattering onto the floor as terror gripped her. Halting her in her tracks.
It was difficult to see clearly. A faint light was visible from Gio’s closed office door, barely penetrating the darkness. But there was definitely someone there.
The figure suddenly drew closer, forcing her to retreat frantically back to the steps.
When the lamps by the staircase finally illuminated him, Ana froze, recognizing the uniform.
A black blazer with a lion’s crest embroidered on the breast. The Family insignia and the mandated outfit for every bodyguard.
“Ana?” his voice echoed.
No. It cannot be.
Eyes wide and unseeing, the past collided with blunt force.
Eighteen Months Ago
“Ana?”
She had been so lost in thought, wandering the halls alone after dinner, that she almost passed him. The man lingering outside Grandfather’s office.
