Conflict of Heart

Chapter 26

The bright morning sun gently eased through the glass windows and parted curtains of Rosa's bedroom, the warm tendrils filling the room and gliding their way toward the king-sized bed cloaked in soft satin sheets. The golden rays touched the sleeping woman's dark hair, making it shine a brilliant ebony shade before caressing her closed eyes.

Rosa frowned in her sleep and grumbled at the uninvited brightness, turning to hide her face in the silk pillowcase. She sighed and relaxed into her downy pillow before her eyes flew open, and she shot up in the bed.

Her large room was brightly lit by the morning sun shining through the massive windows, and she squinted against it. Slightly disorientated, she raked a hand through her unruly dark locks and looked at the clock on her bedside table. She gasped and scrambled out of bed, almost tripping as one of the blankets wrapped around her leg in her haste.

"I'm so late," she hissed as she scurried to her walk-in closet and grabbed the first articles of clothing she could get her hands on.

In record time she had changed from her silk nightwear and into a grey pencil skirt and lime blouse and rushed out of her room. She took the steps two at a time, and she was so focused on where she was going that she almost missed the delectable aromas lingering in the air or the voice that called to her.

"Ah, my beautiful Rose. Will you be wanting breakfast?" Alfredo called out to her as he exited the kitchen.

She glanced at him over her shoulder as she scurried down the hall leading to the garage. "I'm so sorry, Alfredo. But I'm running very late!"

She thought she heard him grumble something under his breath, but she didn't have time to comprehend what he said as she entered the garage and opened the cabinet that held all the car keys.

She froze, her eyes growing wide. "What? No, no, no! Where are they?" she screeched as she looked at the empty cabinet.

All the keys for their twenty-something cars were gone!

Bordering on a panic attack, she fished her phone from her handbag and called her sister's number. She held her breath and waited. Each ring seemed to last an eternity as she fidgeted with the ruffle on her blouse's sleeve.

"Hello?"

Rosa almost breathed a sigh of relief. "Izzy, where are they?"

"Where's what?"

"The car keys! They're all gone!" she shrieked, close to hysteria.

"Keys? Oh, yes. Martin called saying that he needed them all because he wanted to change something with the security. He was spouting a bunch of nonsensical terms that I couldn't even begin to fathom."

Rosa groaned and rubbed a hand down her face in frustration. "Izzy, you took my car keys too, and I have to be at the clinic in . . ."—she glanced at her watch—"fifteen minutes!"

She heard her sister gasp. "I'm so sorry. I thought that you had left already."

Rosa released a harsh exhale, attempting to rein in her quickly flaring temper as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "Well, what am I going to do now? I'm surrounded by over twenty cars, and I can't drive any of them because their keys are too far away for them to unlock automatically!"

The other side of the phone was quiet for a moment. "You can always ask someone to give you a ride," Isabella supplied.

"Like who?"

"Whoever on the estate owns a vehicle?"

Rosa felt her heart drop in her chest until it landed in her stomach. There was only one person on the estate who owned a vehicle, and Isabella knew very well who it was.