The Road to Defeat

ELEVEN

Turning gears

It's been almost a week since Chloe had been to Emily's place. However, the time couldn't be going any slower. Chloe was keeping herself as distracted as she could, but her mind couldn't stop over analyzing the entire situation. She was an overthinker so it was something she was used to dealing with. It was Friday morning and she was on her way to work. She took on the early shift in hopes that she could leave earlier and just relax, so she had to open the store today. To her surprise the morning wasn't busy at all, and she had almost no customers come in. However, she still kept busy by cleaning and organizing books. But unfortunately, her mind kept traveling elsewhere. The day she met Emily and was invited over to her house. Emily and all the friends that she lived with were quite young to be so rich and successful, Chloe couldn't help but wonder what careers they worked in. It wasn't often that she had seen young rich people in some of these smaller parts of Rome. Not to mention the very small and secluded area that the house was built upon. Chloe was never the nosey type so she honestly felt so bad for being as curious as she was.

She was quickly distracted from her thoughts by the bell ringing from the front door, indicating the presence of a customer. A tall figure entered the shop with a bright smile on his face. "Hey Changmo! I wasn't expecting to see you today," Chloe said happily to the man. Changmo had been a relatively consistent customer at the book shop. He became good friends with Chloe since he first came to the store, which was over a few months ago now. Changmo visits the store frequently when he is free to play the old piano located in the store. The shop itself was quite old, and so were most things inside of it. However, even if the piano didn't work the best, Changmo still came in regularly for some quiet time and to visit Chloe. He lived a busy life so the quiet store gave him a sort of comfort. "I had some free time today so I decided to pop in." Changmo smiled at Chloe. He was a relatively large guy, standing at a good 6'3", which made him seem intimidating but his personality was the complete opposite. Most of the time, Changmo had the biggest smile on his face, it was rare for him to be seen otherwise. He was also a very talkative person, which all together made him a huge extrovert.

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The rest of the day was pretty quiet. Changmo stayed at the shop for a few hours and the music seemed to help distract Chloe from her constant thoughts. However, now that she was alone and on her way home, she couldn't stop thinking. When Chloe was at Emily's house she couldn't help but observe her surroundings, she noticed many things. The obvious being, they lived in a mansion. However, this mansion was different in ways to any regular mansion she had seen. First of all, the property was closed off to the public eye by a large metal gate which could only be opened from inside the house. Once the gate would open the long driveway led to the front of the house, which would be completely normal apart from the men that stood guarding the door. When Chloe noticed these guards that's when she started questioning things. She was confused on why this man drove Emily and her to the house, he seemed very uptight and unlikely to be one of Emily's friends.

Coming from a long line of family lawyers, Chloe knew that something was off about the entire situation. Her uncle had worked on some of the toughest cases in Italy and he had told her many stories and theories about the Italian Mafia and mafia culture in general. Basically, there was a lot of speculation that most crime happening in Italy was caused by a mafia or many mafias. The term mafia is used to describe a group of people (possibly criminals) who use criminal methods and live by ruthless behavioural codes. Chloe didn't want to assume the worst of the situation, afterall she didn't know these people well enough to even know their intentions. However, she was smart enough to know that for someone to have such high security there was something being hidden, and she was determined to find out what it was.

Chloe felt horrible for doubting her new friend Emily. Even though they hadn't known each other for long Chloe honestly felt a strong friendship forming between them. That being said, Chloe needed to confront Emily about her suspicions and that's exactly what she was going to do.