IL PREDESTINATO | Charles Leclerc |

Chapter 4

August 12th, 2021, Rubiera Italy

It's been a week. A week since Christina arrived in Rubiera. The girl hadn't left the house except a couple of times during the nighttime to see the town, which was the only hour there wouldn't be many people outside to recognize her. And thankfully, no one had yet.

So, it was a pretty calm week if you asked her. She woke up early in the morning, hanging out with Shadow in the garden, swimming, and running around. She cooked and read her books. But there was also something else that Christina did every day and couldn't miss from her routine.

Every morning, always at the same time, the guy from the next house played his piano. His window was always open, and she didn't know if he was doing it on purpose just for her to listen after he caught her staring at him. But she wasn't complaining.

The man from the next door always played something different, always feeding her with a new melody she could choreograph. At first, it was just sitting at the room and listening to him play. But as the days passed, Christina found herself feeling the melody.

There were so many emotions radiating from him while he played. And it was like she could feel all of them as she listened. And she wanted to somehow express them herself. So, each time he played the piano, she danced.

From the beginning to the end.

Each time.

Christina loved dancing. She's been doing it since she was 5. Around the age of 16, however, she lost enthusiasm and stopped doing it regularly. Since then, she'd only do it when feeling stressed and overwhelmed.

She liked all kinds of dances and had tried many of them as the years went by. But her favorite dance was classic, ballet. And that man was just giving her the best melody she could find to dance to.

Christina wore her pointe shoes after warming up her legs properly before he started playing. She was doing some exercises just to be ready when she heard the piano.

"What have you got for me today?" she asked herself. From what she was hearing, she figured he was playing the song Primavera, a song of Ludovico.

She danced the whole song. 8 minutes of pure perfection. She was amazed by her neighbour's capabilities. Ludovico's songs were hard to play, but he seemed to have it figured out.   

She was so concentrated in what she was doing that Christina never noticed her one mistake.

She never closed the curtains.

And on the other side of the window...

"You can't be serious right now!" Charles screamed at his phone. "Charlotte, you agreed! I'm not coming back. Let the press say whatever they want. I don't care anymore, " he said before hanging up on her.

She called him this morning after she found an article about them being broken up. Which was true, but they hadn't announced it to the public. And they wouldn't yet because it would hurt both of their images.

Charles sighed before heading to the music room he had set up on the second floor of the house. He sat behind the piano, on his stool, and placed his fingers on the keys. He did some warm-up, just until he decided what song he wanted to play today.