Keep it a secret / Arthur Leclerc (english)

Chapter 3

The next time I opened my eyes and looked around the room I was lying in, I had absolutely no idea where I was. I frantically tried to prop myself up on my arms, but immediately fell back onto the pillows with a groan of pain. After a few minutes the door opened and Mick entered the room. He had bandages and something to drink and something to eat with him. He smiled slightly when he saw that I was awake and shortly thereafter placed the food on a small table by the bed. Then he handed me the glass of water, put the bandages on the bed and looked at me in a good mood: "You scared me quite a bit, Pia." I looked up alarmed. How did he know my name? After a short clearing of my throat, I managed to say something: "How do you know my name? And where am I anyway?" Mick looked at me confused: "Everyone in this house knows your name and, to answer your second question, you are in a guest room on the Leclerc family estate." After these words, he gave me a friendly smile and held the glass out to me. Apparently he wanted me to drink something, but I shook my head vigorously: "Why does everyone here know my name?! Since I'm on the Leclerc family estate, SO YOU HAVE KIDNAPPED ME?! And now you want me to have a drink from this glass too! You probably poisoned that or something because I saw the oh so nice guest room, didn't you?" When I looked around again, however, I found that the room was actually quite nice. The sun shone through creamy white curtains, there was a good sized desk in one corner with a lovely fluffy looking rug in front of it, and an entire wall had been devoted to a single bookcase. I would feel right at home here if it wasn't for the panic that gripped me. Mick jumped in dismay and for a brief moment you could see real pain flashing in his eyes: "We didn't kidnap you... And I didn't poison anything either, I would never do. We just had to bring you here as we can't just take you to the hospital like that." He didn't seem like he was lying, so I finally decided to believe him and drained the glass of water in one gulp. Mick then cleaned my wound and renewed the bandage. Before he left the room again, he pointed to a cupboard: "Just pick something. You are expected in the small hall in an hour." With that he left me alone. So after a few minutes I went to the closet and looked inside. It was filled with all kinds of clothes. No matter what kind of dress you wanted to wear, you could definitely find it here. Overwhelmed, I let my eyes wander over the clothes and then decided on a simple dark blue dress. It came to just above my knees and didn't have a very deep neckline. So after I had styled my hair a bit, I went in search of the small hall. Again I wondered how many halls there were. After wandering around helplessly for 10 minutes, I finally met Mick, who looked at me with a grin: "Can't you find the small hall?" I sighed annoyed: "I've been to at least three halls now and each one was huge! How many halls are there, please?" My indignant look actually elicited a little laugh from Mick: "Come with me, I'll take you to the small hall and then I'll explain the concept of the many halls to you." After a few minutes, during which I was actually just running after Mick, we finally entered the "small hall". Surprised, I looked around: "Well, if that's the small hall, I don't even want to know how big the big hall is." With that, I elicited another small laugh from Mick, which he quickly suppressed, since Arthur was right in front of us and Charles stood. Beside them stood a third young man. He couldn't be much older than Charles judging by his looks. Arthur smiled friendly while Charles eyed me coolly and finally cleared his throat: "Thanks Mick. You can go now." Mick nodded briefly and then left the hall. I looked back at Charles uncertainly, since he had already started to speak again: "Pia. You already know my younger brother. May I introduce you to my older brother Lorenzo?" With these words he took a small step back and pointed to Lorenzo. I swallowed hard, Lorenzo Leclerc was right in front of me and I would have preferred to take a few steps back. His charisma was so full of self-confidence and power that one could easily believe he was the mafia boss in the family. But that wasn't true. He finally shook my hand and smiled kindly: "Nice to meet you, Pia. I've been told so much about you." Smiling insecurely, I nodded and after a few minutes we all sat down.After an hour we finally discussed everything and Charles and Lorenzo left the room. When I wanted to leave, however, I was held back by Arthur. He gave me a short smile before he began to speak, "Pia... I just wanted to tell you that this whole thing wasn't supposed to have happened like this. It was never planned to bring you here. And I promise you that we will try to make your stay with us as pleasant as possible." I looked up at him insecurely: "Mr. Leclerc. I know this was never planned and honestly I'd rather just be home right now. But that's life." With these words, I left the room and left Arthur Leclerc alone.Mick was already waiting for me outside and after I had briefly changed in my room, we went to explore the property.