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I’m not sure I’m ready to say goodbye to the most important person in my life.
She was the only one I told about what happened to me when I tried to get out, tried to make my own way and work outside of the family business.
A collage of images rages through my mind: pain, unwilling attraction, injuries I couldn’t tell anyone about. Hiding my shame, unwilling to admit that I needed to escape, break the cycle.
The pain coalesces inside of me and then implodes. A ragged scream tears from my throat, and I throw the bedside table to the ground, the lamp smashing to the floor, scattering crystal pendants across the floor.
I tear the room apart, the destruction the only possible balm for my rage, my fear, my anguish. When I finally calm down enough to stop breaking things, I stand in the destruction of my hotel room, panting.
My palm feels wet, and I hold up my hand to see that it’s bleeding, a fresh cut tearing through the sensitive flesh. I mindlessly pull off my designer tie and wrap it around my hand.
I grab my phone from the mess on the bed and arrange for my jet to be ready to fly at dawn.
Then I curl up in the middle of the bed, cradling my injured hand against my chest, and drop into an uneasy sleep.
Surprise Baby for the Mafia Boss - Sneak Peek
Chapter Two - Emelia
I see the jet plane coming in to land, and I imagine him sitting there. He may not be showing it, but I know his heart is broken.
His grandmother was everything to him, and he was everything to her. I just know her death is going to leave a massive hole in his life.
Ever since he came back from California three years ago, he’s been different. Luca was always fragile, quick to rage, mercurial in his moods.
But then he left to try and become an actor, to get away from the family business. Enzo let him go, but he worried about him.
None of us heard from him for a couple of years other than the occasional call. He even called me once, but when I asked him if he was all right, he hung up on me.
He just showed up at the Baldini home again one day, thin, tan, and with a wild look in his eyes. Grazia, his sister, and my best friend, told me that he looked like a stray dog that someone had kicked too many times.
Nonna had taken him into the kitchen and sent the rest of the family away. Grazia said they were in the kitchen for hours and she heard Luca crying.
When she and Enzo asked their Nonna what had happened, she told them that Luca would tell them why he came home when he was ready.
It had been three years and he had never said another word about what had happened in California. Instead, he threw himself into business with Enzo with a fervor that bordered on insanity.
That was when the rages started to happen. He broke every piece of furniture in his room one night, beat a man half to death during a raid, crashed his car trying to see how fast he could drive.
Luca and I had been close as kids. Well, as close as Grazia would allow.
My silly, childish heart had always been set on marrying him. I had missed him every single day he was gone and been secretly hurt that he never reached out to me.
But then he had come home so…broken, and I had to admit that I grew scared of him. Not scared enough not to want to fix him, though.
Every cell in my body wanted to be the balm to his wounds, but he barely noticed my existence these days.
That’s one of the reasons I thought it would be best for me to come get him from the airport, so that he knew there was someone to help him through this.
His siblings will be going through the same struggles, but I’ve been around this family long enough to know that competition often supersedes compassion.
Maybe I can get him to actually talk to me. I miss my friend.
As the plane comes to a stop and I see Luca step out, I make my way over to him.
He looks like he didn't get any sleep last night. But that doesn't change the fact that he still looks like a goddamn vision.
He might as well be in a painting with the way the sun is casting light on him.
