"You're awake," He said in a gentle voice. He tenderly kissed her forehead and stroked her cheek. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm okay, I'm good," Clara assured awkwardly. "What happened? How did I get here? I remember Arturo losing his mind, he was pointing a gun at me. I thought I will die" she started rambling nervously.

"Calm down. Everything is alright now, you're safe"

"Is Arturo dead? Someone was shooting at him?"

"He's not dead. Yet. You don't need to worry about him anymore" he informed.

"He was following me. He knew we're meeting each other. He was always a little creepy but it has gotten worse after I left my job"

"You should've told me. He will never bother you again. I promise" Lorenzo said darkly. This is when his phone started ringing. "Yes? Sure I will be there" he agreed. He hung up and said "I need to go Clara. Sante will take you home" he kissed her on the forehead once again.

Clara didn't want him to go and she despised that part of her that wanted to grab his hand and ask to stay. So she kept quiet following his every movement quietly until the door closed behind him.

🔆🔆🔆

Meanwhile, Sirio was waiting in the corridor. No emotion on his face. When he saw Lorenzo leaving he joined him in a way outside of the hospital.

"Don't you want to go inside and at least let her know you came here?" Lorenzo directed his question to Sirio.

"She's allergic to my presence. There's no need to stress her more" Sirio responded.

"So you do care about her in your twisted way" Lorenzo snorted.

"What do you mean twisted?" Sirio asked with hostility.

Lorenzo did not respond right away. He threw his keys at Antonio and said "Take my car I will be driving with my future father-in-law"

"I don't recall inviting you to my vehicle. I'm starting to really reconsider if you're a good match for her," Sirio said with clear disapproval after Lorenzo got inside his car without asking

"I am a perfect match for her. By twisted I mean keeping her at a distance and yet suffocating her with your overbearing influence over her life. Getting her a job without her knowledge, getting her into an arranged marriage, does she know about the college scholarship?"

Sirio's lips pursed into a thin line and he remained silent. Of course, Clara didn't know about anything.

Lorenzo sighed. What an interesting family he was getting into. They clearly had no idea what it meant to communicate. That would be an issue to fix for another time. For now, he needed to figure out what to do with the son of the bitch who threatened his fiancé.

Lorenzo and Sirio arrived at Himeros in half an hour. They entered the cold and dark interrogation where Rafael was already presnet.

There was also another person in that room. A man, tied to a chair. There was a bloodied bandage wrapped around his leg. He didn't make any sound but not from the lack of trying. He was gagged.

"I had to ask my friend from the court to unseal his criminal records," Rafael said dropping the file he was reading on the empty desk "Our 'friend' had been accused of stalking back when he was in high school. Of course, police did nothing to help his victim the girl had to leave the city"

"They couldn't legally castrate him. Thankfully we don't need to focus on such details as following the law" Lorenzo said smoothly.

Their captive started struggling more forcefully in reaction to his words. "What is this? Do you have something to say?" Lorenzo asked rhetorical questions and then slowly came closer to Arturo. He removed a gag and waited for Arturo to start speaking.

"I am sorry Mr. Vincenti. But I love her I really love her"

Sirio forcefully grabbed him by the hair. "You scared my daughter so much she couldn't breathe. Some love you have to offer you absolute scum" he said in a quiet dangerous voice.

The knife suddenly appeared in Lorenzo's hand. Arturo stopped struggling the moment it was dangerously near his neck "You know I really dislike the fact that you were watching my woman"

Rafael was still far away from the scene and rather detached emotionally from the situation but he did have a question "You know Arturo I am very disappointed. We even helped Loretta because you begged us to do so. Is this how you repay us?" Rafael left a long-suffering sigh as if Arturo was a petulant child who just caused a lot of trouble.

"Wait, wait, wait there's something I can't tell you. B-but if I tell you, you won't kill me, okay?" Arturo was shivering. He was really a step away from his death so the fear was understandable but none of the gentlemen who gathered here had any compassion for him.

"Oh this is good what's there that you know and we don't," Lorenzo asked.

"I know why Clara started working here," Lorenzo said and he shook his head in amusement.

"She wanted to blackmail Desmond into giving her money, she already told me that," Lorenzo said in a bored tone.

"Why is it the first time I am hearing about this?" Sirio asked sharply.

"That's not what she told Loretta" Arturo responded, excited to learn that she lied.

"Let's say it's not what she said, we don't need you to tell us what Loretta knows. We can ask her and she will tell us" Lorenzo wasn't surprised at all, he knew from the start something wasn't right with Clara's story but it was believable enough so he let it go. But it was a good time to learn more, he didn't mind using the opportunity.

"After Loretta told me why Clara approached her I started digging and I've found something"

"If we decide your testimony is relevant we will consider releasing you from here alive. Not in one piece but alive. Under a strict condition that you will never come back to the city"

"What's my guarantee that you won't just kill me?" Arturo asked in a tight voice.

"Our word. And don't push it, we can torture it out of you, and at this point, I am pretty much willing to do so. You had no right to withhold information from us"

"I-I am sorry. I will tell you what I know. She told Loretta that she wants to become one of the call girls, she asked how to get spotted. At first, I didn't understand why, I wanted to learn what her motivation was and I found out her high school friend Sabrina Meyers was Desmond's Laffan girlfriend. She died a few years back Laffan was a murder suspect in that case"

The whole room went quiet. Everyone was processing what Arturo just said.