Chapter 2 The Girl Who Didn't Bow

CHAPTER TWO: The Girl Who Didn't Bow

Elena

I should've looked away.

I should've stepped back, said "excuse me," and disappeared into the crowd like I always did when men got too close.

But this man wasn't like anyone I'd ever met.

Leonardo De Luca.

I didn't know it yet-not officially-but I felt it. The name clung to him like a shadow. Everyone in this room walked softer around him. Even the politicians.

"I need to get back to work," I said, trying to keep my voice steady.

He tilted his head, gaze locked. "You work too hard for someone so young."

I blinked. "Excuse me?"

He smiled again, and something inside me shrank. Not from fear-but from the overwhelming sense that he already knew things about me he shouldn't.

"Your hands," he murmured. "Calloused. From scrubbing. But your nails are clean. Neat. You take care of things... even when the world doesn't take care of you."

How did he see that?

"Am I wrong?" he asked.

I stepped back. "I don't need charity."

"I wasn't offering it."

Then what was he offering?

He watched me in silence as I turned away, my heart racing, my fingers tight on the tray.

I felt his eyes on me until I disappeared behind the kitchen doors.

---

Leonardo

She was perfect.

Not in the way society valued beauty-not plastic and polished, not pretending.

Real. Soft-spoken. Brave enough to stand tall in a world that crushed girls like her under crystal heels and glass ceilings.

Elena.

The name tasted honest. Untouched.

She thought I was done. That walking away meant she was safe.

She had no idea.

I already had her name.

In a few hours, I'd have everything else.