[ALFIO'S POV]
[Back to Mansini Mansion]
The hallway stretched endlessly, every step echoing louder than the last.
I was still barefoot. Still trembling. My feet had started to sting—cold tile biting into the bruises I hadn't realized were there.
The guards didn't speak.
Not anymore.
We reached a small, narrow corridor. One of those back hallways the public never sees. Dim lights. Old walls. Forgotten silence.
They stopped in front of a rusted metal door. One of them hesitated… then sighed.
"Please…" he muttered quietly, not meeting my eyes, "just stay here… until Master Salvo says otherwise."
He opened the door. A gust of musty air hit me in the face. Stale. Dusty. Cold.
I looked inside.
It wasn't a room.
It was a storage cell.
Small. Bare. Crates stacked against the wall. A mop bucket in the corner. One flickering lightbulb dangling from the ceiling like a noose.
No bed. No blanket. No window.
Just air and silence and time. I nodded once, the motion barely visible.
