The whole debacle went on until two in the morning.

Noah returned to the villa and sat in the car for a while. It was eerily quiet around here. All of the lights inside were turned off. The few lamps on the porch were the only source of light and they looked especially lonely in the cold night.

After a brief moment, he opened the car door and walked into the villa.

It was dim indoors, but he didn’t turn any lights on. He merely climbed the stairs in the dark.

A gentle moonlight cascaded i