Forever Yours

Chapter 17

"Hi," the man says as he extends his hand for me to shake and I do so. "I'm Officer Valentino and this is Detective Bianco, he's a part of our investigation department."

"Thank you," I say as I give him a warm smile "I'm Florence and this is, Santi, one of my employees."

I wonder if they can hear my heart pounding in my chest, or if it's all in my head.

"Yes, we met with him yesterday when we first inspected the property." the police officer says as he and Santi shake hands.

"Right," I nervously laugh "I forgot."

The police arrived about 5 minutes ago but they were all waiting for the detective to get here so they could start looking around properly. So far, they've told me that they believe the break-in wasn't just to get some easy cash, but that it was intentional.

"We're going to walk around for a bit. We do ask if you could come with us and point out anything that doesn't look like it should be there, or that you might notice is missing." the detective says.

"Yeah, of course," I say as I move to the side to invite them in.

"Do you have ideas as to who might have the motivation to break in? Someone you haven't gotten along with recently?"

"No," I say as we walk up the stairs. The only person I haven't gotten along with recently is Charles, but that's just because I'm stubborn.

"Any family around the area?" he asks as we step into the living room.

"No," I hesitate "Well, I have an aunt. But she lives in Nice and I haven't seen her since I was a child."

I walk over to Jules who is sitting on the couch and place my hand on his head in a comforting manner as I notice his worried face by our new house guests.

"And who is this?" the detective says as he walks over to us and crouches down in front of Jules.

I feel Jules still under my hand as he looks at the man in front of him.

"This is Jules." I answer for him "He's a bit shy but he'll warm up after a bit. Right Jules?" I say, giving Jules an indirect hint.

Jules looks up at me and flashes me a small smile in agreeance.

"Well, nice to meet you, Jules." the detective says with a smile as he holds his hand up to shake Jules' hand. Jules looks at him then to the man's extended hand and slowly raises his own to shake.

I smile at his effort and ruffle his hair with my fingers. The man smiles at him as he stands back up and Max comes into the room.

"Sorry, mate," he says to I'm assuming Jules. They were playing video games before I went downstairs to greet the detectives so I'm assuming he might have been using the toilet. "Did you get a better time?"

He looks up at me and then at the detective standing by Jules and stops in his tracks.

"Oh sorry, didn't realize they had come already."

"No worries," the detective says with a smile "I'm Detective Bianco. You must be the Husband."

"Oh no, I'm-"

"Oh, he's not-"

Max and I both try to answer but interrupt each other in the process.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," the detective quickly says "I shouldn't have assumed." He nervously laughs as he shakes it off and walks towards Max and shakes his hand.

Max lets out a nervous laugh "Don't worry about it, mate. I'm Max. Max Verstappen"

"Nice to meet you, Max." the Detective says with a smile before returning his attention to the rest of the room.