The brothers now stood leaning against the car. They had pulled over at the side on the emergency lane in the highway right after the call was cut. Diego, though running late for his flight he did not bother to move nor did Thiyagu mentioned about the fight his brother was about to miss. 

They did several calls in between, informing the others who needed to know about the call Diego received earlier, meanwhile.

"I did not expect this to happen, brother" Thiyagu broke the silence after long.

"Me either. But the officer strictly told me that the report will only be out day after tomorrow. I wonder what made him call me a day earlier" Diego went silent again, thinking. 

The whooshing of the cars in the background depicted the speed of their mind wavering from one point to another.

The officer who called had given an informal update on the ink dating of the letters the brothers had submitted two days ago. 

They had received a total opposite report from what they expected it to be.

"The letters are dated from year 2014 - 2018. The aging on the inks tallies with the dates written on the letters. These are genuine letters with no forgery done." 

Thiyagu seem to be lost as well. "Do you think this could be someone's work?" he asked

"I don't know. We did not tell anyone about this except Ella..." Diego's mind drifted and he spoke again. 

"do you think this could be Luciana's work, itself?" Diego asked.

"Hmmm.... maybe but to persuade a forensic officer, Luciana needs to have a certain power to overrule him. 

Big money.

Which she doesn't... at least at the moment..."

"hmm" 

After spending some more time pondering on the same matter, both somehow had convinced that they were only exaggerating the fact the Luciana isn't Ara Agosti only because they did not want her to be her. That they were unnecessarily trying to find loopholes to prove Luciana wrong.

----

After a four hour long meeting, Diego managed to escape himself from the many delegates that were present for the meeting. Their conversation seems to have no ending despite the meeting that has come to an end long ago. 

Diego took a cab to the forty-five minute drive to the nearest lake in Rome. The lake is an almost hidden place of serenity that it's nature were mostly untouched, located in the middle of medieval village.

He sat on a huge rock by the side of the lake. Such a tranquility, the calmness of the lake instantly brought peace to his mind.

The vast scenery of the calm water had shun away all of the unwanted thoughts, unnecessary worries and unimportant matters off his head for the moment.

He took deep breaths, watching the water ripples forming as mild wind blew. The water radiating ripples caught the sunset on the water surface, he eyes then darted to the sky. 

The orange hues however reminded him of someone special. The corners of his mouth turned up. 

He wondered, why did she asked for his favorite color all of a sudden?  

Fishing out his mobile and he dialed her number. 

No one picked up the call. He tried a few more times only to get disappointed. 

'Where could she be?'

He tried one more time. This time to Carlo, Ella's bodyguard he had assigned to keep an eye on her. 

"Where is Ella?" Diego almost yelled in distress to Carlo who answered the call.

"Mr. Moretti,..... Ella is in... the hospital"  stammered Carlo.

"Hosp— What? What happened to her? Is she okay? Is she fine?" Diego had jumped on his feet and walked back and forth on the rocky path, frantically. 

Desperate to know what happened, to go back and be with her. 

"There isn't much to worry si—"

"Nothing much to worry about?! She is in the hospital and you are telling me nothing to worry about?!" Diego yelled.

Carlo stayed silent longer before Diego spoke again.

"I'm sorry I have been yelling at you. What happen?" he now spoke calmer, in much sorted manner. 

"Ella and Luciana almost met in an accident earlier in the afternoon. Thankfully, Mr. Lazaro happened to be there on time to pull them away from the spot." Carlo explained. 

"Where did it happened?"

"A few blocks away from JobLane building. They were at the traffic light waiting to cross the road. A car from the opposite road speed towards the footpath where they were waiting at. 

Both were lucky to be pulled away or it could have been fatal" Carlo sighed, unable to imagine the words he uttered to come true. 

Diego stayed silent. "How is Ella?" 

"She is fine, sir. Just a few scratches"

"Can you pass the phone to her?"

Diego waited, meanwhile he heard many noises and one prominent sound was a hush whispering. "You told Diego? Didn't I warn you not to?" 

"No, you didn't. Whatever it is, my job is to report to Mr. Moretti. Here talk to him" 

Ella groaned, rolling her eyes before taking the mobile phone from Carlo. 

"Hellooo...." 

For whatsoever reason he felt better hearing her voice but he was angry. Angry that she didn't want him to know about this. Just like before.

"Don't you think, I should have known this way earlier?" his voice was low and demanding. 

 "But it was just a small—"

"Shut up! 

You are getting into all these messes whenever I'm not there. Soon, I'll have to take you everywhere with me." those words came out so casually, he did not realise he actually said what he really wanted to do for this short trip. 

"It's not that I'm going in search of these. Trouble finds me" she whined like a kid.

"Yeah, right. And you will never let anyone know about it either?"

"Lazaro knows about it. Carlo knows about it."

"And I don't know about it" he fumed. 

"Okay,I'm sorry. I'll tell you next time" 

"You are such an idiot!" 

"So are you!" she muttered.

"Fine, do you have any idea who did this? Was it really an accident or...? Did you made a police report on the driver?" He begin shooting questions. Though he got diverted a little, he wanted to know if the accident was planned or not. 

If it was planned than they might be a step closer to finding who is behind all these chaos.

"I don't know. Lazaro handles the police matter. You ask him" she said with complete disinterested in answering him.

They spoke for a little longer until Carlo came back completing her discharge formalities ready to take her back home.

------

"As much as it looks like a planned attempt of murder, it isn't, it seems. According to the driver, the car had a break failure and he got too panic that the thought of honking did not struck him" Lazaro explained.

"Do you think this could be planned despite the driver's reasoning?"

"I absolutely think it's a made up excuse. The breaks must have been cut beforehand so even if caught by the police, they will not suspect the driver. The accident is obviously meant for Ara Agosti" Lazaro stressed.

Lazaro's statement convinced him even more that Luciana is indeed Ara Agosti and they have been worried for no reason.

"I thought so. But how to we get to them? How do we stop this?" —Diego nipped to the television and switched it off. 

"I'm trying my best to get this ended as well. We just need some solid prove and once we get those proved, they are doomed"

"I'm waiting for the day to come, to give justice for Uncle D's death and all of us can live in peace after that." he sighed.

"Thank you so much, Lazaro for saving them. I wouldn't have forgiven myself if anything had happened to them.

Do you think Ella could have been targeted as well?" he asked out of concern as she too have been attacked many other times. 

Lazaro stayed quiet for some time then spoke. 

"Maybe... maybe not. I can't confirm anything yet"

"Hmmm... By the way, do you by any chance know what these two ladies were doing together?" Curious of how they ended up at the same place.

"Nothing unusual. They were having a chat about you, I guess" Diego heard Lazaro chuckled a lightly, made him roll his eyes.

"Alright, thank you. Take care of her, Lazaro. I'll be back in a day"

Diego felt much relieve with the thought that there is still someone he can completely rely on to keep them safe while his away. He felt thankful to have enough resources to control aspects that he could though from far.

Amidst of this unexpected event, Diego remembered something else from the conversation earlier.

"What were they trying to do? Argue in the middle of the road like two crazy women?" He wondered.

"That's so unlike Ella but again if they weren't arguing, what was going on between them?"

As much information he got from Thiyagu the other day, Ella isn't really in good terms with Luciana.

How this then?

He dropped himself trying to find a comfortable spot on the bed.

This only made him even more confused and so doubtful of everything.

"What is actually happening around me?" He questioned himself.

As if his question being answered, he heard the familiar phrase echoed in him.

Trust no one!

***********

Yup, it's a late update.

Compensating with another update very soon. Tomorrow.

Meanwhile, hope this one was a good read, worth a comment 😉

Oh! and vote too 😁

Here is a cover made by my dear friend Penfolk . Thank you again for this wonderful cover <3<3<3