Meanwhile, Cosimo, who was resting on the car, glanced at his watch for the tenth time and felt he should not have made a concession at all and should have followed her. He suddenly felt the time was moving slowly. As soon as the fifteen minutes were up, he went directly into the building, only to meet Sofia on the way.
After packing up, I went to drop the keys at the landlady's house. She was one of the people who had been truly kind to me, so I smiled and told her, "I will be staying with my boyfriend now."
"Ohh, I hope he is a good one, kiddo," she asked with a concerned look on her face.
I responded with a nod.
"Okay then, remember to take care of yourself," the older woman reminded me, after which I turned back to go meet Cosimo, whom I met on the way.
Cosimo glanced at the small bags I was holding and asked, "Is this all?"
And I said, "Yes," when I felt the weight I was carrying suddenly disappear. It turned out Cosimo had collected them for me.
After entering the car, it moved away. I glanced back at the building, which was gradually getting smaller until it disappeared.
As the car sped off, I started feeling sleepy, and I soon fell asleep. Cosimo turned to her to say something when he noticed she had slept off, so he parked the car. Then he adjusted the seat, after which he covered her with his jacket as he noticed the goosebumps on her skin.
After settling her well, he began driving again, but if one were to be in the car, one could see that it was moving a little slower than before.
"Sofia! Sofia."
I was woken up by a male voice. I opened my eyes for a beautiful ceiling to come into view, and my mind quickly registered that this definitely did not belong to me.
So I quickly stood up. Only then did I see Cosimo, whose presence reminded me that now I had a boyfriend. This thought finally made me calm down.
"Baby, did I startle you?" Cosimo asked, as if he noticed my initial unease.
So I just nodded, not yet registering the change of address.
Before I could think, I was pulled into a warm embrace. Then I heard a "sorry" from Cosimo, who sniffed my neck again.
I did not say anything. "Yelp!" I was suddenly carried from the bed, and I quickly used my hands to support myself by wrapping them around his neck.
Then slowly, he took me out of the room, which I was finally able to view before we left for the dining table. The scent of food reminded me that I had only eaten earlier in school.
Then Cosimo sat down while I sat on his lap. The closer my nose was to the food, the more my stomach growled. "Growls."
"Chuckles." A low chuckle rumbled from his large chest, making it vibrate against my skin.
Then Cosimo took the spoon and began to feed me slowly. After a while, when the food was brought to my mouth, I shook my head. "I don't want, I'm full."
"But you have just taken a few bites. Eat a little bit more," Cosimo said
After a few more bites, I stopped and even collected the spoon and began to feed him. After eating and some playing around, I yawned tiredly and headed to the room for a quick shower, then slept off after my head hit the pillow.
Cosimo glanced at his sleeping wife—yes, wife. He had wanted to ask her to be his wife, but in order not to scare her, he asked her to be his girlfriend. After tucking her in, he went to a wall opposite the bed and tapped it twice. It opened, revealing another room which had a bed the same size as the one in the room, but this one had specialized chains at its tip.
He had prepared this ever since he came of age. He remembered as a child how his father locked his mother up, and whenever he asked why, he would be told by his father that this was love.
As he grew up hearing this, he immediately prepared this room since he would eventually have a wife. After a while, he went downstairs, where the butler, an elderly man, was already waiting.
"Is the installation of the camera complete?"
"Yes, master," the butler replied and handed him a tablet which was showing all angles of the house and the compound.
"You can go," Cosimo said, dismissing the butler.
As the butler left, he sighed, thinking about why he thought the young master would be different. After all, this madness had been inherited for generations, and with the previous master teaching the current master, why did he hope for a different result?
He just hoped this time around this union would not have a bad ending, and the mistress would not be scared off by the master and try to escape like the master's mother did.
Cosimo watched Sofia, who had been sleeping for more than an hour, before returning back to his room, where he continued watching her until he unknowingly slept off.
I woke up the next morning feeling uncomfortable, as if a dog was sniffing my neck, so I just pushed it away. Then I opened my eyes only to see the "dog" was aggrieved.
So I just smiled and pulled him into a hug.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in a cute pink room with themes showing it belonged to a young lady, the girl on the bed slowly opened her eyes.
Her eyes were a little unfocused as she glanced around the room. Then she suddenly sat up and muttered in a very hoarse voice, "I am back...." After saying this, she glanced at the calendar at the side of her bed, then she smiled. She was back to the time before her misery began.
Meeting Cosimo was the cause of the greatest misery in her life. Alia met Cosimo at an auction she followed her dad to. When her father went to exchange pleasantries with him, she complimented him naively, showing her likes and dislikes on her face.
When her father was facing possible bankruptcy, she was sent to Cosimo's bed. Though knowing she was drugged, he was a gentleman and did not touch her inappropriately, making her have some goodwill towards him.
After saving her, he invited her to his home. Feeling sad that her parents would actually send her to a man's bed when faced with a problem, she agreed.
And that was when it all began. During her few days of staying with him, she was showered with gifts. Exclusive and imperial chefs were at her beck and call. Alia only ate food made from top cultivated crops and livestock.
After that, rows of dresses were brought to her from top designer brands. As she enjoyed this, one day she unconsciously uttered, "How I wish I would not return home," while she was enjoying a massage session in the house. These words drifted to Cosimo, who was passing by, and he took them to heart.
After a while, she felt bored, so after eating dinner she asked Cosimo, "When am I returning home?"
She could remember the sudden change in his eyes when he asked her, "Do you still want to go home? I thought you said you like staying here best."
"I do, but I still have parents. Though I am disappointed at them, and besides, I have friends too," Alia said naively.
That night she went to bed a little angry, thinking she would just leave tomorrow. It was not like she needed his permission to leave.
But she was met with a contract the next morning after lunch. It turned out her parents, in order to fill the holes in their business, had signed an agreement that Cosimo was free to do whatever he wanted to her, and just like that she became his property.
Alia screamed at Cosimo for the first time, "They have no right to do this. I am a person with free will, and you have no right to restrict my freedom." After saying this, she returned to her room angrily. This was when she planned her first escape, which was a success. Feeling hurt, she still went to face her father and mother, asking them why they had done so.
She remembered her mother's eyes were filled with tears when she told her that Cosimo forced them. That was when she was informed that he was only running a legal business on the surface, but it turned out he was a mafia boss.
They had not finished talking when men in black all rushed into her house, demanding her return to Cosimo's house. After a lot of struggling, she was taken back to the house.
As she glanced at the road path, which was different from the previous one, she asked with a shaken voice, "Where are you taking me?"