All Chapters of Sweet, Sweet, Nightmare. : Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

DANIELLE'S P.O.V. Settling in the Valentino Mansion was not at all what I had expected it to be. I had no exact idea about what I was to expect at the Valentino family home, but what I was met with far exceeded my every expectations. The warm welcome by the two women of the house, Alvida and Alisia, was more than enough to quell every of my doubts and worries about my stay in their house. The only other thing I worried about was having to meet Alfredo; I had neither laid eyes on him nor spoken to him since that family dinner we had months ago- the one where he had called my original course of study useless, and had basically forced me into starting business school so that I would be a worth daughter and daughter-in-law to both my father and himself respectively. It was safe to say that I was not particularly excited about coming face to face with Alfredo- not after what he had said to me the last time we had met. After visiting her own room and lying on her bed while aimlessly

DANIELLE'S P.O.V. Following Alisia through the back door, I entered the kitchen and was met with an astonishing sight. Unlike a few hours ago when it was just Alisia and I in the room while she was giving me a tour of the big kitchen space, the room was now filled up with several household helps. They scurried in and out of the kitchen, bearing trays of food. A man stood at the kitchen counter, giving orders to the helpers. He was a huge person with broad shoulders and biceps that strained through the material of his chef clothing. I guessed that he must be Etienne, the Valentino family chef that Alisia had always mentioned. "Bon soir, Etienne. How are you doing this afternoon?" Alisia greeted. "Very good, Ma'am Alisia." he replied before barking an order to another help as she scurried out of the room with a tray. "Etienne, we have a special guest amongst us in the house." Alisia said to him, drawing his attention to where we were standing. "Oh really?" he aske

DANIELLE'S P.O.V. For the first time, since I started attending the Leonard N.Stern School of Business, two things, that were usually not an occurrence, happened that Monday morning. One, I wasn't behind the wheels of the car driving me to school, and Two, it was dead quiet in the car. Even the sound of the engine, which was usually soothing for me to hear, was blocked out my the closed windows while the only sound in the car was the one produced by the air conditioner vents. This quietness allowed me to think- an action that I wanted to do away with for the moment. Thinking would allow my mind to explore thoughts and happenings that I wanted so badly to avoid as I could not afford for my imaginations to soar towards places that would furthermore instill, in me, the fear of being wanted dead. I sighed, placing my forehead on the closed window glass which had been made cool by the fully blasting air conditioner, and watched in silence as the trees passed by in a blur. It

DANIELLE'S P.O.V. My ears rang and my heart beat faster at the uncomfortable topic of conversation that Azra had brought up at the lunch table. I knew that Adrian and I's identity had been kept anonymous by the reporter who had covered the story and that there was no need to worry about our names being brought up while my friends discussed the topic, but I could not help the flurry of panic that had started to grow in my stomach and chest. For some reason, unknown to even myself, I was distressed about the path in which the conversation was sure to take. I wished I could do something, anything, to change their line of interest, but the topic of an elite's penthouse being burnt down was just the type of gist that my friends would like to talk about, and I feared that trying to change the topic would only lead them to be suspicious of me. Therefore, although my utmost desire was that they talk about anything else but the one tragedy that had befallen my family and I- that one

DANIELLE'S P.O.V. After Melody was released from the school clinic; she, Mason, Madelyn, Azra, and I, made our way across the other end of campus, where the clinic was situated, all the way to the other end of campus, where our designated lecture hall stood. I would have loved to have been making my way to the cafeteria, but we had all elapsed the time allocated for the lunch period while we were waiting for Melody to regain to regain her consciousness. Unfortunately for me, I could not get to prove or disprove the claims my friends had made; the allegations they had made about the school cafeteria's signature cheeseburger being the one thing that i needed to alleviate my stress and worry, thereby leaving me in the same state of tension and unease that I had been ever since I woke up that morning. The rest of the day went by in a blur of chatty professors, classes made uninteresting by my hunger, and my unceasingly rumbling stomach- that too being as a result of my unsated hung