For an hour, Luca sat in the silent car, watching the single lit window on the third floor of Melissa's apartment building.
It was a humble square of warm yellow in the dark brick facade.
Marco's silence from the driver's seat was a heavy, judgmental thing.
Luca knew what he was thinking: this was a weakness, a target painted in neon.
Cynthia's words echoed. *"Windows can be opened, but they can also be broken."*
Inside that window, she spotted Melissa's studying. He could see the faint silhouette of her hunched over a textbook, a hand occasionally pushing through her hair.
It was a scene of such ordinary perseverance it ached.
This was her world: quiet, strained, real.
His was a gilded cage of whispers, threats, and dinners with enemies who smiled with knives.
He saw her rise, stretch, and walk to the window. She peered out into the night, as if sensing a presence.
Luca held his breath, sinking back into the shadows of the car.
For a fleeting second, her gaze seemed to sweep over his parked vehicle before she turned away, drawn the curtain closed.
The light went out shortly after, he cursed himself for hiding like a 10 years boy playing hide and seek.
He got out of car *"I need to make sure she's okay"* he told himself and stand near the second floor window of Melissa's apartment,
"Melissa?"he yelled, no reply, he grabbed a near by small stone and threw on her closed window.
Melissa opened her curtains "Was that necessary?"
"Sorry 'bout that.... let's talk...we need to talk" his voice steady, and unreadable expression on his face, Melissa scoffs. "At this hour?.... I'm busy"
"I won't bother you after this, please let's talk"Luca said, she closed her curtains without a word, Luca let the heavy sigh of disappointment before turning back, walking back to his car.
"I thought you said you wanted to talk"Luca's hand freeze on his car door, it was Melissa, his lips slightly form a smile before he quickly covered.
"I thought you wouldn't come out"He turned to face Melissa. "Well I'm here"her face is unsreading and challenging tone could be heard, he walked towards her, leave a gap between them.
"Are you okay?"he asked firmly but the worry seeing on his face."Why wouldn't I?"she crossed her arms over her chest clearly unimpressed with his concern.
"You know.....the world is dangerous, I just want to make sure you're okay... Incase you see anything not normal/suspicious, don't excitate telling me "he continued,his two steps now closed the gap between two of them.
"Just do me a favor....stay out of my life, the only *NOT NORMAL* thing I see is you, please leave"she hissed, Luca step back, before turning around and walk straight inside of back seat his car.
"Home, sir?" Marco finally asked, his voice neutral.
"Yes," Luca said, the word tasting like ash.
#NEXT DAY
The encounter with Melissa festered.
Luca couldn't focus on the contracts before him, Her words repeating in his head like a diary, and the Cynthia's threat wasn't just to him; it was a blueprint,She would go through Melissa to get to him.
The thought ignited a cold fury. He summoned Marco to his study.
"I need you to do something. Discreetly."
"Sir?"
"Melissa Vance....I need to know she's safe, not intrusive surveillance. Just… situational awareness...her routine, any new faces around her, her mother's condition... Report anything unusual directly to me."
Marco's expression was granite. "This complicates your security sir....It creates a second front."
"It's not a request, Marco."
The bodyguard gave a stiff nod. "Understood."
#MELISSA'S COLLEGE CAMPUS
Meanwhile, at the university, Melissa felt a strange prickle on the back of her neck, a sense of being watched that she dismissed as fatigue.
Her mother had a bad night, and the medical bills were piling up.
Luca Valerio felt like a dream from another life, one that had ended with the slamming of a car door.
Her friends noticed her distraction. "Earth to Melissa," said Sophie, nudging her at their library table.
"You've been reading the same page for twenty minutes...Is it About the hot mystery guy?"
"He's not a 'hot guy,'" Melissa sighed, closing her book."He's a… complication. And it's over."Melissa added.
"The way you say 'over' sounds like it's just beginning," her another friend, Chloe observed wisely while scrolling on her phone,Melissa didn't know how right she was.
That evening, as she left evening at the library, she saw a familiar black sedan parked a block away.
It wasn't Luca's ostentatious car or was it?, but it had the same silent, imposing quality.
As she was thinking, suddenly she saw a stranger man on the other corner, never saw him before but his presence sending chills down her spine.
with the quick steps she walked faster, her heart hammering. *Who's the guy?* Questioned herself inwardly.
From the sedan, Marco watched her hurried pace and made a note. *Subject is alert, possibly anxious.* He then saw a man in a nondescript suit leaning against a building farther down, pretending to talk on a phone but clearly observing Melissa's path.
Marco didn't recognize him as one of Luca or Luca's grandfather shadows (men), he started the car and pulled forward slowly, interposing the vehicle between Melissa and the stranger.
By the time Melissa glanced back, the strange man was gone, and the black sedan was turning a corner, disappearing from view.
She was left alone on the street, the feeling of being watched replaced by a profound and unsettling loneliness.
Who was he? What did he want from me?"Melissa keep questioning herself.