Page 16 of Sworn to My Heart
“See? That wasn’t so hard to answer,” he taunts, but it seems I don’t surprise him with the information I give him. He did his research well.
“So now I just need to understand how the adopted, ordinary girl from New Jersey vanished off the radar for almost twenty years,” he says again, and I decide to answer him this time to end this day and get out of here.
“The adopted, ordinary girl moved in with her biological parents at age 8, after they paid a lot of money to the adoptivefamily as a token of gratitude and requested their silence. My biological parents didn’t want to report my whereabouts, so I remained registered under my adoptive parents, who reported me as missing to the police to avoid suspicion,” I tell him the truth but leave out the main details.
“Now could you please let go of my hand and let me leave, Mr. Luca Spallo?” I ask with fake politeness. It seems our conversations are based solely on sparring with each other.
He releases his grip and smiles a diplomatic, insincere smile, as if he’s been on his best behavior all along.
“Of course, Cinderella,” he adds. I seize my opportunity, grab my sketchbook, and quickly head for the café exit. But not before he claims my crumpled drawing in his hand, declaring ownership. “This stays with me, Cinderella,” he says, and I mutter to myself, “More like the Little Mermaid,” as I leave the café and walk briskly toward my apartment.
The weather outside is chilly, and I hug myself, with only a short tank top and shorts separating me from the cold evening breeze. I pull my phone out of my pocket and see several missed calls from Cora. I call her back, relieved to hear she returned to the city a couple of hours ago, and we agree to meet at her place. I feel my sanity restored the moment Cora is back. When she’s not here, I feel so lonely and need to immerse myself in hobbies to keep busy.
We met by chance about six months ago and haven’t stopped talking since. I know I am her anchor to a normal life just as she is for me. We both hold private secrets that create a huge wall separating us from an ordinary social life, and that’s exactly what binds us together.
My legs stop in front of a luxury apartment building, and I still find it hard to believe that it all belongs to the Spallo family.
The building towers above with dark blue colors and enormousglass windows along its entire length, which are darkly tinted on the outside, making it impossible to see in. I haven’t visited Cora often, but I clearly remember the view of the city from the other side of those windows, and I must admit, it’s breathtaking.
I move toward the main entrance, push the large glass door with force, and ignore the presence of the brawny guard at the building’s entrance, who has probably already notified someone of my arrival.
The entrance looks like the lobby of a five-star hotel, and the sweet vanilla scent of the air freshener permeates the space. Suddenly, I feel very small.
The same elderly lobby attendant I remember from my previous visit rises from his chair and greets me warmly.
“She’s on the third floor,” he adds with a genuine smile. For a small moment, he seems like the only person with a bit of humanity left in this building.
He escorts me to the elevator, quickly enters a code, and presses the button for the third floor. I return his warm glance and thank him as the elevator doors close, separating us.
I look at the number of floors in the building and see that despite the immense height of this luxury building, there are only five floors. The only times I’ve been here before, I came with Cora, and I remember there being more floors in the elevator. The doors open as I try to figure out where the other buttons have gone, and I’m greeted by a long corridor. Its walls are shiny gray marble, and the floor is covered with a black carpet along its entire length. Yes, this is the right place, I remember.
My eyes follow the corridor to its end, where there’s a tall, black double entrance door with a code lock and fingerprint scanner. “So over the top,” I sigh in exasperation and press the bell symbol on the keypad screen.
Cora immediately opens the door and without any warning,swallows me into her hug.
“I always forget that your behavior doesn’t match your height; you’ll kill me one day,” I laugh into her hug, trying to pull my head back slightly as she blocks my airway with her chest.
She laughs and gives me a mischievous look.
“Love suffocates, deal with it,” she says, releasing me from her embrace and leading me inside.
“Only you could grin while saying something like that,” I reply with a smile, once again taken aback by her apartment.
The place is breathtaking, just as I remember it. You can see the entire first floor’s open space as soon as you walk in. It’s open, allowing you to survey every part of it without moving.
The gray marble floor and light cream walls give off a warm, homey vibe, yet scream modern touches.
At one end of the apartment, I can see cream-colored leather sofas with brown pillows in various shades. The round, furry rug on the floor matches the color of the sofas. I continue to scan the rest of the floor, checking what’s changed since my last visit. The apartment is well-furnished, and a small kitchenette occupies one corner of the floor. It looks more like an alcohol bar than a kitchenette, but it definitely adds to the design.
The entire wall in front of me is made of glass, and I marvel again at the city view it reveals. Everything is just as I remembered.
“Every time you come here, are you going to keep gawking and surveying the house?” she says impatiently, pulling me toward the second floor. “The playroom,” she calls it. On this floor, there’s a huge living room with the same color scheme as the first floor, a television so large it looks like part of the wall, and a grand piano standing near the large glass wall that extends up to this floor as well.
Cora doesn’t wait for me and runs straight to the central couch,jumping into her seat and looking at me, waiting for me to stop marveling at the apartment and join her.
“Maria will be bringing us a late-night snack soon,” she says excitedly, but the last thing I can think about right now, at ten at night, is food.
I finally sit next to her, and she has already turned on the TV, flipping through Netflix. She doesn’t seem to find anything interesting to watch because she doesn’t pick any movie or series. Instead, she starts telling me about her experiences over the past two weeks while flipping through the options. Some of them sound like repeated stories she told me on the phone when we talked. But I try to remain surprised even when I know how it will end because I don’t want to ruin her enthusiasm.
