Chapter 1 (excerpt)

 

📖 Read an excerpt of the chapter 1

The wind stroked the water with invisible fingers, raising small waves that lazily broke against the pilings of the pier. Lake Como stretched out, motionless, like a sheet of liquid slate, framed by dusky mountains rising along the horizon.

Leonardo sat on the edge of the old wooden dock, his legs dangling above the dark surface. He wore a black hoodie, his hands buried in the pockets, his gaze fixed on the shifting reflections of clouds and distant peaks.

That place had always been his refuge.

He went there when he needed to think. When everything else became too much.

He had been eleven the first—and last—time he dove in. It had been summer, unbearably hot, and his friends had pushed him to try. He still remembered the water closing around him, cold and heavy like a soaked blanket. He remembered the moment he opened his eyes beneath the surface.

And saw nothing.

No light. No sound. Only a perfect, suffocating black.

He had surfaced gasping, trembling, his chest on fire. He never went back in after that.

And yet, he always returned to the shore.

Maybe for the same reason people stare at cracks in a wall—just to make sure they aren’t getting any wider.

He let out a slow breath and closed his eyes, letting the wind brush against his face. There was something in the air that day. A tension, subtle but undeniable. Like a string stretched to its limit, ready to snap.

He couldn’t explain it. But he felt it—under his skin, deep in his gut.

“Leo! You’re already here?”

He turned slightly at the sound of his mother’s voice. She was coming down the path toward him, stepping carefully between stones and dry grass, one hand raised to shield her eyes from the sun. She smiled as she approached, the way she always did—like she was trying to bring light into places that resisted it.

“I knew I’d find you here,” she said, stopping a few steps from the dock. “It’s the only place you go when you overthink.”

Leonardo gave a faint smile. “Just getting some air.”

She watched him for a moment, as if weighing whether to say more. Then she simply held out her hand.

“Come on. We’ve almost finished packing. Your father’s already stuffing things into the bags we don’t need.”

Leonardo stood up, brushing dust from his jeans.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” he asked.

“What, the safari?” She raised an eyebrow. “Of course it is. A trip to Africa, all together… when will we get another chance?”

“Exactly,” he muttered.

She slipped an arm around his shoulders as they started walking back toward the house.

“I know,” she said softly. “You’d rather stay here, be with your friends. That’s normal.”

Leonardo didn’t answer. His gaze remained fixed ahead, his hands once again buried in his pockets.

Behind them, the lake lay perfectly still.

As if it were holding something beneath the surface.

As if it were waiting.

 

What awaits him in Africa will change everything.