Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 43928 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 220(@200wpm)___ 176(@250wpm)___ 146(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43928 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 220(@200wpm)___ 176(@250wpm)___ 146(@300wpm)
My heart slams against my ribcage again. How did he know?
"You can open your eyes, topolina. I know you're listening."
My eyes spring open, landing on his face. With it obscured in the passing shadows, his smile is almost sinister. But there's something soft in his eyes.
"You drugged me," I accuse. My voice is thick and uncoordinated.
"I did." He doesn't sound sorry. "It'll wear off soon enough. You'll be fine, Aurelia. I didn't give you much. Just enough to ensure we could get you out of there safely."
"Told you I didn't want to go." I sound like a petulant child, but I don't really care at the moment. He drugged me. I think I'm allowed.
Besides, he has no idea what he's done or who I am or what he's dealing with. He didn't rescue me. He did exactly what Brio wanted him to do. Now, thanks to him, I'm supposed to betray the brothers I don't know in the worst way imaginable to save my mother. If I don't, Brio is going to kill her. If I tell Rafe the truth, Brio will kill her. If I do anything other than what Brio wants, he'll kill her.
At least while I was there, I knew she was safe. Now, her life is in his hands. And mine is in Rafe Valentino's. And there's nothing I can do about it. All because this man couldn't just walk away and leave me there like I asked.
"Brio Cascella isn't the kind of man you should be living with, Aurelia," Mattia says, his voice firm and unyielding.
"And you are?" I scowl daggers at him. "He never drugged me, Mattia. You did."
"He'll use you against your family."
A bitter laugh breaks from my lips, tears welling in my eyes. I know exactly what kind of monster Brio Cascella is, but I can't let Mattia know that. "You mean the family that never wanted me? Some family."
"Cazzo," he growls, his tone flat. "They didn't know about you."
"Vincent Valentino knew about me. He just didn't care." As soon as he found out my mom was pregnant with me, he fired her. He showed up a few weeks later and wrote her a check to make sure that she stayed gone. He was dead before I was born.
I've heard enough stories about the man to know it wasn't a great loss. But I've always wondered about my brothers. I've spent my whole life reading about them in the papers and seeing them in magazines. Nico is an astrophysicist. Rafe, Gabriel, and Luca run the entire city.
I've always ached to know them, but it wasn't in the cards for me. My mom spent my whole life hiding me in their shadows, ensuring our paths never crossed.
When I was little, I used to pretend that I was a princess and I had to hide so monsters didn't take me away to some scary fairyland. I turned it into a big game.
Eventually, the charm wore off, and I realized that I'm not a princess and this isn't a game. My mom didn't hide me because it was fun. She hid me from their enemies because even if they didn't want me, their enemies would still use me to hurt them.
She should have fled the city with me years ago, but I think she was afraid of what they would do to her if they ever found out she ran with me. So she stayed and kept me hidden instead—chained to a city that would kill me and brothers who didn't know I existed.
"Your brothers didn't know."
I squeeze my eyes closed, blocking him out…mostly because he's right. My mom never told them about me to protect me. And maybe to protect them too.
I thought about meeting Nico once about a year ago. I even showed up on campus where he teaches to do it. But halfway to his office, I saw someone reading the paper. He and Rafe were plastered across the front of it at some big charity event together.
I turned and ran.
I never worked up the nerve to try again.
If she hadn't gotten sick, I'd still be hiding now. But things didn't work out that way. She got sick, and I went running to Rafe for help.
Instead, Brio found me. I was naive enough to let him convince me that he was one of Rafe's men. I willingly walked into his trap, and I've been stuck like a rat in a cage ever since.
Now, if I don't do what he wants me to do, he's going to kill the one person in this world who has always put me first. And the absolute worst part is living with the terror that I'm going to be the reason she dies. Because I can't do what Brio wants. I won't do it.
Mattia Agostino should have left me there. So long as I was there, my mom was safe. I had a chance of finding a different way out of this mess.