Again, all was quiet on the Romano estate.
Too quiet.
For most men, silence meant peace.
For Leonardo Romano, it was strangulation.
He sat in his office-a half-lit room with the smell of smoke, gun oil, and fury. A single bulb flickered above him, sending his face into sharp shadows-those hazel-gray eyes fixed on nothing, jaw locked tight. His black shirt sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, veins cutting through his forearms as he flipped through another file.
"Empty.... Again."
He slammed it down, the sound echoing off the marble walls.
"Still nothing?" he asked, his voice low and quiet-the type of quiet that made men shake.
Alex stood at the door, not stepping farther in. "No trace, Leo. We checked all the cameras, all the car plates, every name from that street. It's as if she doesn't exist."
Leonardo's teeth clenched. "She exists.she is real." he said flatly. "You just haven't looked deep enough."
"Maybe.she is a tourist.but we have got the data of all the flights and people who came here but couldn't find the girl you described." Alex sighed. "Brother why is she so important? Why are you trying to find her?"
Leo didn't respond to that question because he remained silent, as he too was in search of an answer to that.
--------
Days passed. Then weeks.
Every face started to blend into all the others-every woman with brown hair, every voice that laughed in a crowd, every reflection that moved in glass.
It wasn't love.
It was something colder, hungrier.
He remembered her laughter — the way it remained. The way her eyes had caught the light, almost golden. The sound of the anklet.
He didn't want her smile-he wanted to own it.
So that it wouldn't echo in his head.
Sleep was already a luxury for him; now, it was even more so because he could not sleep at all, thinking about her.
The mansion lights never went out. His guards whispered about how the boss has been acting strange, suddenly smiling, looking at the wall and mirror, talking to himself, and how he is taking every artist to man a sketch.
In his office, sketches were scattered everywhere, half-finished, torn, burned. He'd tried once to describe her face to an artist, but the result was wrong. All wrong.
"Not her," he said.
"Not even close."
He crushed the paper in his fist and threw it into the fire.
"Too sharp.I told you....she was....it was like a look that melts you down." The man that was doing the sketching was now trembling from Leonardo's rejection and angry words.
Alex found him there the next night, with a cigarette between his lips, staring into the flames like he wanted to burn the memory out of his skull.
"You look like hell," Alex muttered.
Leonardo didn't budge. "Hell looks better than this."
"This?"
"This, he said slowly, turning his head, is what happens when something dares to disappear from me?"
Alex swallowed hard. "You don't even know who she is, bro.what's wrong with you?"
Leonardo's eyes flicked up. That quiet, expressionless look froze the air between them.
"I....I don't know.....it's like.....I am possessed....I see her everywhere....her laughter rings in my head.....even if I close my eyes I see her...I am getting crazy...i can't control this.....and this feels like shit."
---
That night, the rain came, sharp and relentless.
Leonardo stood on the balcony, shirt half-open, skin inked with black tattoos shining under lightning. The sound of thunder mixed with the faint echo of bells-not real, but there nonetheless, in his mind.
He rubbed his temples. He could almost hear her laughter again, mocking him.
"Just who are you?" The door opened behind him. "Leo," Alex said carefully, holding a little velvet pouch. "You may want to see this." Inside was a delicate, silver anklet that chimed softly with every movement.
"Our men found it in that boutique shop you told us you saw her going.the boutique sales person told it might be hers."Alex handed him the pouch.
Leo turned the anklet in his hand, the cold metal gleaming against his skin. The bells made the faintest sound—chim, chim—a whisper of her. That sound crawled under his skin. It wasn't gentle; it was maddening.
"This is her's." one hearing of that chim and he knew it was her. It was that much that he remembered every detail of her.
"I am gonna find you soon Bellissimo" Leo said, turning toward the balcony again and seeing her anklet.