"Whose necessity?"
"Mine."
"I need more time to think this through," she says finally. “This is a lot to handle.”
"You have until morning. Dangerous decisions can’t be left to linger long."
"To decide what?"
"Whether you can accept the reality of who I am and what I do. Whether you can live with the knowledge you now possess. Whether you trust me enough to believe I would never allow anything to happen to you. I will always keep you safe here."
"And if my answer is no?"
"Then we'll discuss alternatives."
"What kind of alternatives?"
I lean down to kiss her forehead, feeling her go very still. “The kind where you disappear from Monte Vento and never speak of what you've learned here."
"Or?"
"Or you stay, and we continue what we started, but with complete honesty between us. About who I am. What I do. What it means to be connected to someone like me."
She pulls away from my touch, but not quickly. "I can't think straight with you naked in my bed," she says. “I need time.”
"Then I'll go." I slip out of bed and dress quickly. "Madison?" I say, as I head out.
"What?"
"Whatever you decide, know that keeping you here was never about the debt. The debt was just an excuse for keeping something I didn't want to lose."
Chapter 27: Maddie
He leaves and now I’m all alone.
Then the enormity of everything that happened hits me all at once.
He's been watching me. Listening to my private conversations. Tracking my every movement. The house I thought I owned, the car I thought I rented, the independence I thought I'd built are all carefully constructed illusions.
And when I discovered the truth, his response wasn't remorse or explanation.
It was an ultimatum.
How many cameras are hidden inside these renovated walls? How many listening devices did Franco install while I was grateful for the improvements?
I try to process the scope of what Enzo has revealed. He didn't just watch me make choices; he engineered the circumstances that led to those choices in the first place.
The romantic dinners where he listened so intently to my stories. Was he cataloging information for future use? The business partnership that made me feel valued and capable. Was that real, or another tool to keep me compliant?
I think about Sarah's words at the wine bar: "You look like someone who's been performing so long you've forgotten who you really are."
She was right. But it's worse than performing. I've been living in a completely fabricated reality, making decisions based on false information, believing I was independent while being guided every step of the way.
And the most terrifying part is how good he was at it.
If he hadn't slipped tonight, if he hadn't quoted Sarah's exact words, would I ever have figured it out? How long was he planning to maintain the illusion?
Years? Forever?
