Chapter 3. Free

Theo took her to the door of his state-of-the-art car and smiled when she looked at the car with the indifference typical of people who don't care about status. Of course he understood that she didn't know she was getting into the most expensive car in the world and opened the door for her. As he drove, he decided to tease her. He wanted to know how much he knew about who she really was. There was a side of him that wished she wasn't who he thought she was, because it would be like freeing him from a cycle.

"Now I can do whatever I want with you... We're on a deserted avenue and no one will hear if you scream."

To his surprise, Giovanna laughed.

"Maybe I don't really want to shout..."

He smiled at his good fortune. As well as being beautiful and powerful, she was also funny.

"You don't even know what can happen between a man and a woman, do you?"

She stared at him intently. He must have been about twenty-three and it was obvious that his manhood was active. She turned her attention to the landscape in front of her. He drove very fast. She liked speed.

"I know how children come into the world."

He punched the steering wheel angrily.

"Damn it, they already told you about the stork!"

Giovanna laughed and began to like him. She hadn't really thought about what she had done. All she saw was the chance not to go back to babysitting countless children in a poor orphanage and she grabbed it. She thought it would be easier to get away from him than from the superior.

"I'm not a child and... Just as I was told the truth, without fairy tales, about sex, I also told the children I helped look after."

"You helped?"

"The older children looked after the younger ones."

He stared at her for just a few seconds, but it was enough to make her nervous.

"Do you want to know... What's it like?"

"Of course! I'm sixteen and my hormones make me crave these things."

"There are no boys at the orphanage where you used to live?"

"Yes. But, like everyone else, they only stay until they're eighteen and then they're taken away by their protectors, when they have them, or they're sent to some colony."

"You were never interested in any of them?"

"No. When I arrived there, I was just a baby and when I grew up, the superior sent them younger and younger to other places and only allowed ladies my age..."

"I imagined they'd have that kind of care... You'd meet your protector within two years if you stayed there..."

"I don't really know the meaning of 'protector'. What if he's a sick old man who's bought me to be his wife and carer? I'd rather not risk it. You've probably noticed that I'm not very lucky..."

"You're not the least bit pessimistic..." He said wryly and parked the car in front of a mansion.

Soon, a man dressed all in black, with a small emblem familiar to Giovanna but which she couldn't remember why at the moment, approached and opened the door for her.

As soon as Giovanna stepped out of the car and faced the man to thank him, her words died in her throat. The man, for a brief moment, she could swear, had recognized her and his eyes flashed yellow, before he returned to his professional air of studied indifference.

Theo took Giovanna's hand and led her into the huge house.

Giovanna was so enchanted by the place that she forgot about the strange event with the man who opened the door for her. After all, she thought it might have been a hallucination caused by hunger. She was starving.

The people in the house seemed to guess her thoughts, because it wasn't long after she had thought about her hunger that uniformed people arrived in the library, a rare space in houses in those days, and brought trays with breakfast for two and, after setting everything on the table, left.

When Theo invited Giovanna to help herself, she didn't need to repeat the invitation.

"I didn't even realize it was dawn..." She said after feeling satisfied.

"Time passes quickly when you're... Happy."

"Are you happy?"

"Aren't you?"

"I don't know if what I feel is happiness... I still haven't gotten used to the fact that I'm free now."

"Are you going to marry me?"

"I don't know. There are so many possibilities now..."

"Your possibilities will increase if you agree to marry me, not decrease. I'm going to teach you things and take you on journeys that will make the world seem small to you."

"Aren't you afraid that my protector will come after me?"

"No. I want and expect him to."

Giovanna looked at him suspiciously.

"You know who he is."

"That's a very dangerous statement, Giovanna."

"But it's true."

"You seem sad about it."

"Yes... No! I'm not sad, but disappointed. I feel like I'm your personal revenge. Only then does your marriage proposal start to make sense. Nobody wants to share their life with a total stranger..."

"You're not a stranger to me, Giovanna."

Giovanna stood up and looked at him coldly.

"Of course not. Well, how else would you know my name?" She said and left in search of the exit. She was surprised to realize that there were people in the living room who looked like important guests when she passed them. Despite the brightness of the day, the sun had not yet risen and it was a strange time to receive visitors.

Strange people! The first time he spoke her name intimately, she thought she had heard wrong, but he repeated it, as if to confirm that something was wrong. He must have been scared now. Stealing a protector's object was a non-bailable offense in those days. It didn't matter that he was the richest and most famous man in the world.

Giovanna stepped outside and welcomed the warmth of the sun, which she only now realized was rising over the horizon, like a greeting. She was free after all. It's true that she hadn't thought straight when she got into a stranger's car, but she had noticed that he had spoken familiarly to her from the start and had called her by name, without her having given him that information.

She reached the gate and raised her hand to open it when she felt dizzy and her hand, which would have opened the gate, ended up on the railing in a vain attempt not to fall and hurt herself. She thought about asking for help and when she turned back, she saw Theo running towards her. She still had time to think that he looked different. The same, but still different, before he fell.

There was a buzz in the well-lit room. Giovanna looked up at the ceiling and knew that there were at least seven people near her. This time, she didn't feel the pain of the fall. These fainting spells were a constant feature of her life and she had forgotten about them. She decided to sit down when she realized that no one seemed interested in her. And she was right in all her suggestions. There were seven people in the room and none of them were looking at her.

Giovanna noticed that the room was large, spacious and luxurious. She couldn't tell if it was a rich man's hospital, as she had never been in one, but she saw Theo in the corner, listening intently as a man in a black suit came out to knock on the door, and she was grateful. He had reached her in time not to let her get hurt this time.

He approached her when he realized he was being watched and the other five people fell silent.

He smiled.

"Giovanna... You scared us."

"I scared you?"

He turned his eyes to the people in the room, before looking at her again.

"Yes. I'm going to tell you why you had us worried, who you are, who these people are, who I am and who your protector is. That will explain why I know a few things about you."

Giovanna looked around.

"I really want to know these things, but first I need some water."

Someone immediately came up with a tray and a glass of water and handed it to her.

Giovanna looked curiously at Theo.

"You can start your story by telling me if people here have a habit of listening behind the door to find out what their bosses need..."

"Yes. They do." Theo said and looked at the people behind them and sat down on the bed next to Giovanna.