Free Web NovelChapter 17: Chapter 16 She Has His Eyes
The moment we stepped out of the office building, I knew my day was getting worse.
Parked directly in front of the entrance was a matte-black Lamborghini.
Not just any Lamborghini.
A stupidly expensive, obnoxiously rich Lamborghini.
Usually, my daily commute involved fighting for a standing spot on a bus.
Laziel caught me looking...his mouth twitching.
"You’ve never been inside one before."
It wasn’t a question.
I wanted the ground to swallow me.
"No."
His expression remained unreadable.
Then he opened the passenger door.
"Get in."
I hated that my heart sped up.
I hated that the interior looked nicer than every apartment I’d rented in the last five years combined.
Most of all, I hated that he noticed me noticing.
I quickly looked away and fastened my seatbelt.
The engine purred to life.
A few minutes later, my phone vibrated.
GIULIA.
I nearly cried from relief.
Did you resign? Are we packing?
I lowered the phone beneath my purse and started typing.
HELP.
HE’S MAKING ME—
Before I could hit send, a hand suddenly landed on my thigh.
I gasped, freezing completely. Laziel didn’t even turn his head. He just kept his cold gaze fixed on the passing Milan traffic outside his window.
"Put the phone away, Mireya," he said, "You belong to my schedule now."
The text remained unsent. I slowly slipped the phone back into my purse.
Only then did the psycho remove his hand.
I wanted to throw myself out of the moving vehicle.
Unfortunately, I was poor.
...
The driveway never ended.
At first, I thought the navigation system was broken.
Then we passed through a second gate.
A second gate.
Who needed two gates?
The road stretched through acres of trees.
At some point, I stopped wondering where the house was and started wondering if we were still in Italy.
My forehead practically pressed against the window.
Then I saw it.
Holy shit.
The mansion emerged between the trees like something from a billionaire fantasy.
The building looked less like a house and more like the headquarters of a secret organization.
Elegant old-money architecture mixed with modern design. It was surrounded by perfectly manicured lawns, stone fountains, and an army of guards. But the thing that made my brain completely short-circuit was the roof.
A helicopter sat on the rooftop pad, parked there as casually as normal people park bicycles.
Have I actually entered heaven? I thought, my mind completely reeling. Or hell?
The car stopped, and the door was opened for me.
The garage doors were partially open.
Inside, I caught flashes of luxury cars worth more than my entire bloodline.
I looked away before I embarrassed myself further.
"You can stare."
"I wasn’t staring."
"You were."
"I wasn’t."
"You almost walked into a fountain."
I looked down.
I was, in fact, two inches from walking into a fountain.
Damn him.
The front doors opened before we even reached them.
Several staff members stood waiting.
The second Laziel entered, every single person lowered their head.
I suddenly understood why people feared him.
This wasn’t just wealth.
This was power.
The kind that made entire rooms obey without being asked.
Inside was somehow worse— massive chandeliers, museum-quality paintings, a staircase that looked like it belonged in a royal palace.
One painting alone could probably buy my entire apartment building.
Maybe the street too.
I barely had time to process any of it.
"Follow me," he commanded, not waiting for a response as he strode up the grand staircase.
I had to jog slightly to keep up with his long strides. He led me past doors, deep into the private wing of the estate, finally pushing open a doors.
Damn. So many doors.
I gasped. It was a massive, ultra-luxurious master suite. A giant king-sized bed dominated the space, but my eyes darted to the glass double doors on the left, leading into a sprawling private study.
"Wait," I protested, stopping at the threshold. "Why are we in your bedroom suite? My desk should be downstairs, or—"
"You will be working from my private study, adjacent to my room, until midnight every night," Laziel interrupted flatly, not even looking back as he shed his suit. "Your laptop and files have already been transferred. Sit."
I bit my tongue to keep from screaming. Just get through the week, I told myself. Get your money and run.
By 8:00 PM, Laziel had forced me down to a massive, empty dining table that could easily seat thirty people. Two plates of perfectly seared wagyu steak sat between us, but I hadn’t touched a single bite. I was too angry.
I decided to poke the beast.
"Does your wife know you drag your secretaries into your mansion to play with?" I asked. "Or does she just not care about your trashy, cheating habits?"
Laziel stopped cutting his steak. The knife went completely still.
He didn’t yell. He slowly laid the knife down, stood up, and walked the length of the long table. He stopped right behind my chair, leaning down until his lips literally brushed against the shell of my ear.
"My wife and I stopped being husband and wife a very long time ago," he whispered.
I swallowed hard, "That doesn’t give you the right to—"
"Some marriages are contracts, Mireya," he cut me off, "You know absolutely nothing about my marriage. But the fact that you are asking... is incredibly interesting."
He pulled back before I could process the words, leaving me shivering and furious as he walked out of the dining room, leaving his food completely untouched.
By 10:30 PM, I was back in the private study, my head throbbing. I needed a distraction, so I pulled out my phone to check on Anastelle. I slipped into the connected bathroom, locking the door to get some privacy before hitting the FaceTime icon.
The screen blinked, and my daughter’s face popped up.
"Mommy!" Anastelle chirped, "Aunt Giulia bought me the blue cupcakes!"
"Hey, my sweet girl," I whispered, a genuine smile finally breaking across my face. "Are you being a good girl for Auntie Giulia? Did you brush your teeth?"
"Yes! But Mommy, when are you coming home?"
Suddenly, the bathroom door handle jiggled.
I hadn’t heard him approach. The lock clicked, and the door swung open. Laziel stood in the doorway looking completely uninvited.
Doesn’t he know how to knock?
I tried to turn the phone away, but he was already moving.
He simply reached out and took the phone right out of my hand.
"Hey!" I gasped, reaching for it, but he held it out of my reach, his eyes fixed on the screen.
On the display, Anastelle stopped bouncing. She blinked her green eyes, staring through the camera at the man holding her mother’s phone. Silence stretched between them.
Then, Anastelle tilted her head. "Are you the bad guy from Winx Club?
Oh no.
A smirk crossed his face as he looked at my daughter.
"No," Laziel said into the screen. "I’m the guy who pays for your snacks. Go to sleep."
Anastelle’s eyes widened. "Oh. Then you’re not the bad guy. Bye, snack man!"
The call disconnected as Giulia grabbed the phone on the other end, leaving the screen blank.
Laziel handed the phone back to me, his expression reverting to its usual mask. "She has his eyes," he remarked quietly, before turning on his heel and walking back into the study.
