Beatrice Medici's Perspective
Beatrice simply drove.
Without thinking, without planning, without even properly looking at the traffic lights around her.
The sight of Lorenzo, the sound of his voice, and — above all — the arrogant scent that always clung to him, had been enough to rip her completely out of her own axis.It was as if all the tranquility she had cultivated during lunch had been torn from inside her, along with the air in her lungs.
Every part of her demanded distance.
The smell of him still seemed to cling to her skin, and the memory of that false smile pulsed in her mind like a constant nausea.She didn't want to stay there for another second.She didn't want to risk seeing him again, or endure the curious looks of the people around them.She just needed to leave.
So she did the only thing her body demanded: she started the car and drove away.
No destination. No direction.She just drove.
The streets passed by like blurred streaks of color — sunlight filtering through the buildings, the muffled noise of tires on asphalt, the distant echo of horns and voices.She was on autopilot, hands steady on the wheel, eyes fixed ahead, but not truly seeing the road.
Everything inside her had condensed into a single need: safety.
And instinctively, her feet carried her to the only place she knew she would be safe from everything Lorenzo di Rossi represented.A place where the Medici name still meant control, power, and inviolability.
Home.
The tall iron gate appeared before the car like a vision of relief.The family crest — the silver lion on a blue background — glimmered under the soft light of the setting sun.The place was unshakably secure, the kind of refuge even Lorenzo would never dare to violate.
But as the car crossed the entrance and her heartbeat began to slow, a voice broke through the fragile thread of her thoughts.
"Ah… where are we?"
Alessio's tone was calm, almost curious.
And in that instant, reality hit her like an icy wave.
She wasn't alone.She hadn't been fleeing just for herself.
Beatrice blinked, her entire body freezing for a second. She turned quickly toward the passenger seat.There he was — Alessio Leone, serene and observant, watching the stone-paved courtyard outside the window, completely unaware that she had just — unintentionally — brought him to the very heart of Medici territory.
A shiver ran down her spine.She took a deep breath, trying to disguise her rising panic, but the thought was impossible to ignore:
Without realizing it, she had brought Alessio to her home.Her refuge.Her last bastion of privacy.
And although the place represented absolute safety, that realization made her heart race all over again — this time for a completely different reason.
Panic.
That was what Beatrice felt — absolute, uncontrollable panic coursing through every cell in her body.
The surreal combination of what she saw in front of her looked torn straight from a nightmare:The car parked in the Medici garden.The iron gate glowing gold in the afternoon light.And beside her, Alessio Leone — calm, analytical, gazing at her world with the same steady composure that always surrounded him.
That single image was enough to shatter her fragile composure.
This scene — Alessio and her family home — was something that should never have coexisted.Not yet.
It was as if two worlds that had always orbited apart had suddenly collided without warning.
Beatrice's heart hammered harder, her trembling fingers still gripping the wheel.The low hum of the engine filled the silence, and the heat inside the car seemed to multiply.She tried to breathe deeply, but the air refused to come.
Her gaze, almost by instinct, turned to the façade of the house.And that's when she saw her.
At the second-floor window, framed by white curtains fluttering in the wind, was the delicate, curious face of Sofia, her younger sister.Twelve years old — all sweetness and restless energy, the embodiment of discovery.
Sofia always did that — every time she heard a car pull up, she would run to the window, full of expectation.To her, every arrival was an event, every visit an adventure.It was an old habit, an almost sacred tradition within the Medici house.
But now, Beatrice wished desperately that, just this once, Sofia wouldn't.
That she'd be distracted, listening to music, reading a book — anything.Anything that would keep her from looking outside.
But the universe, as always, had a taste for cruelty.
Sofia's eyes found the car.And then, she saw him.She saw Alessio.
Beatrice watched it unfold as if in slow motion.
Sofia's curious gaze widened in pure surprise.Her eyes grew round, her mouth opened in a small, silent "oh."Then, her hand rose to cover her lips in a gesture of astonishment — innocent, but for Beatrice, catastrophic.
That was it.
The final blow to her already fragile composure.
Beatrice's stomach flipped violently, and before logic could even intervene, she acted.She turned the key.
The engine roared.
Without hesitation, she hit the accelerator.
The car lurched forward, tires crunching over the white pebbles of the drive, sending up a faint cloud of perfumed dust from the garden.The iron gates began to open, and Beatrice didn't wait for the full gap.
In seconds, the car burst through and sped back onto the road, the sound of the engine swallowing the heavy silence she'd left behind.
Her mind repeated a single desperate thought:
Please, let no one else have seen.
Let it be only Sofia — her sweet, curious sister — who had witnessed this social disaster.
Because if anyone else inside that house had seen Alessio Leone beside her…Beatrice wasn't sure she could survive the consequences.