PART 13 – Hiding in the Mountains
The car drove along the narrow, winding road climbing steeply into the Dolomites. Outside, the world had transformed into a rugged, misty landscape of dark pine forests and giant rock walls towering like menacing giants above the road. Evening fell quickly in the mountains, and the temperature dropped significantly. In the backseat, Vittoria slept deeply and peacefully in her car seat, completely unaware that we were fleeing from criminal accomplices.
I sat next to Luca in the passenger seat, staring at the windshield wipers moving monotonously across the glass as the first raindrops fell.
"Thank you for doing this, Luca," I said softly, warming my hands on the dashboard heater. "You don't have to take this risk at all. You've already helped so much."
Luca looked away from the road for a moment, his blue eyes catching the dim light of the dashboard. A warm, gentle smile appeared on his face.
"I'm not doing this because I have to, Elena," he said with a deep, serious undertone. "From the moment you sat there on seat 12C, with that stroller and that stuffed rabbit... I knew my life was going to change. I won't let you down anymore. No one is touching you or Vittoria again."
Those words touched me deep in my heart. After all the betrayal, the lying words, and the humiliations by Stefano, this man's sincere protection felt like a warm blanket in the freezing cold.
After driving for another twenty minutes along an isolated gravel road, Luca turned the car onto the grounds of an old, stone mountain cabin beautifully hidden among the pine trees. The house looked cozy and robust, with a thick plume of smoke rising slowly from the stone chimney.
"This used to belong to my uncle," Luca explained as he turned off the engine. "There's no cell reception, no internet, and nobody knows we're here. Here we are absolutely safe."
We stepped out. The mountain air was ice-cold, sharp, and pure. While Luca tenderly lifted Vittoria out of the car without waking her, I walked behind him to the heavy wooden front door. Inside it was cozy and warm, lit by the crackling fireplace Luca had evidently prepared beforehand.
But while Luca set down the bags and closed the heavy wooden shutters over the windows, in the distance, deep down in the valley, we heard the sound of a car driving at high speed along the gravel road.
Luca's movements froze. He looked at the door, and then at me.
