Adriano Di Lauro

I can hear the staff's movement in the kitchen from my position and even the automated irrigation system of the garden. There is so much silence in this place that I could even hear the laughter of my children at home from here.

My mother watches me stunned until little by little she leaves surprise behind to give way to indignation. It is understandable and I already expected something like this, because despite undertaking an endless search and having built a long list of suitors, she already had her favorite.

"The doctor?”, she speaks for the first time in half an hour. "Why?"

“Cassandra Reid is the one, Mom, and I'm not going to get into a debate with you."

"This is absurd!", she exclaims at the same time she rises from the armchair to walk the room from one side to the other. "You hardly know her! She doesn't belong to our circle... What about Carina? I understood that you two had something..."

"What I have with Carina is far from what you imagine, mom", I cut he