MARIA’S POV
“I have nothing, I am only a nun!” I shrieked with my eyes blindfolded with a cloak. Sweat leaked over my face. I felt a harsh pain on my wrist as I struggled to break free from the hold of the tie to the chair I was seated on.“Please, please just let me go,” I pleaded.There was almost silence in the room but there were faint footsteps I could still pick out amidst the tranquilly. My words were reverberating so I knew it was an empty and enclosed space.“Here she is boss” a burly voice roamed out of nowhere. I was already filled with trepidation and anxiety. My heart was pummeling the fastest it could. My palms were wet and I was on the verge of tearing up. I only watched kidnapping scenes in movies. Being in that position made my stomach churn.I could hear some soft Italian in the background. I wasn’t so sure how many voices I heard, but I think probably three different voices. “Please don’t harm me” I whimpered in fear with my whole body shivering. My legs itch as well. I also felt stupefied. The conversation in the background all of a sudden ceased. This skyrocketed my anxiety to cloud nine. I gulped down large chunks of saliva repeatedly.“Take her off the chair” a bold voice came through. I couldn’t stop wondering how just a voice could make the hair on my body sprout up and arouse goosebumps.I felt hands on my body and even though I tried my best to oppose with my voice and also with nudging myself out of their grasp in fear, I was still standed up. My dread and tension level was just fifty percent while seated but standing up and having people holding me made me die multiple times.All of a sudden, I was stripped naked by my clothes being ripped off my body with their fingernails scratching on my body. I cried but my tears most certainly fell on the ears of the deaf. I was still blinded and my hands tied behind while I stood totally unclad. My tears continued flowing like the river Nile.“Please… please I am a virgin and a nun… please I beg of you” I shuddered and trembled in fear. My whole body was literally like a drenched pigeon on a tree while it’s still raining and earthquakes rumbled the earth. “Please” I sobbed with a broken voice. My dream was at the verge of being destroyed. I just hoped it wasn’t what I thought it was they wanted to do to me.“Piega la stronza!”My body froze at the sound of this. Bend the bitch!I struggled with them and cried while they bent me and I leaned forward from my waist and forcefully flexed my spine, almost cracking it. I recited different prayers in my heart while I cried and my tears soaked the blindfold cloak that covered my eyes.My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!?I was spanked hard on my left ass cheek a couple of times. Just after the fourth spank, something forcefully entered my vagina. I sent out a loud, sharp, piercing cry like a siren. My heart stopped working. I felt immense pain around my pelvic while the penis remained in me. I clenched my fist so firmly while I struggled with those who held me. I couldn’t break free.“Plea…” I was trailed off my words by another thrust. There was a grab on my hips. It was rough and intentional. It went in and out of me aggressively and swiftly. Series of slaps on my ass and my lower back followed as the beast went in and out of me.My words meant nothing to him so I bothered not, rather I allowed my tears to be my consolation. He yanked my hair abruptly and continued hitting on me as though I was some toy. Without pity, without conscience, he pounded me. Each time he went in and out of me, I felt a sharp pain in my vagina and around. Soreness filled me and there was no energy left for tears.There was a tiny hole underneath the cloak blindfolding me. It breezed up due to continuous oscillation. The first thing my eyes narrowly saw was a tattoo of an anchor on the top right side of his chest. It was a little different. The arm and fluke were just like flaming swords and the shank was painted like a white-bearded old man with his mustache flagging on both edges.There was a last pound and I felt his spill inside of me. I became dizzy and my vagina became even sorer when he was done.“You are born with your father’s name, his sins as well!” He growled and spat on me as I crumbled on the concrete ground like a dried log of wood with no purpose. Without knowing the identity of my molester, I passed out of emotional and mental trauma.—“Maria! What happened!?” A voice shrieked in my ears as I slowly opened my eyes…MARIA’S POV“Maria Goretti was born on October 16, 1890 Corinaldo, Province of Ancona, Marche, Kingdom of Italy.” I paused and mulled overcon what I was saying. It was time for Spiritual reading and I was the one to take that day. The last day to me taking my perpetual vows. Ironically, Maria Goretti was my name sake and there was more to it obviously. She also died by forceful rape and she was stabbed fourteen times to death. Everyone’s eyes were on me. My whole body was stiff. It was a month now after the grotesque incident. Though I told no one about it. It was too nefarious and stigmatic, so I was better off without telling them.“Maria!”Mother superior's voice sparked my consciousness back to life. I gasped and looked around as everyone peered up at me, waiting for me to continue. My hands were wet. “I’m sorry” I smiled. Yes it was fake, very fake, but it was a smile. Abbess’ gaze directed at me and I knew she felt something was off. I managed to clasp myself together and fin
MARIA“ Sister Maria Salvatore, after serious deliberation by the Senior Sisters of the order, I’m pitiful to say, but you have been excommunicated from the order of The Most Holy annunciation, on the footings of unchastity and debauchery which has led to you becoming unwantedly up the duff. On that note, you are advised to leave the Convent as soon as possible.” Mother superior's voice boomed. My whole body froze. My legs stiffened and my heart halted pulsing. Sizzling tears filed out from my eyes, flowing freely on my face. My lips quivered tremendously as the words kept resounding over and over in my head. I closed my eyes and pressed out more tears with a heavy sigh. I flipped my eyes open and watched as the four senior sisters of the order who sat lined together with Mother Superior seated in the middle. They all stood up at the same time and walked out of the consultation room. I sniffled and ceased my breath before releasing it furiously with more tears rolling out of my eyes.
MARIA“How dare you even leave the house in the first place!?” Papà yelped with his hand firmly clasped on my chin. He pressed so solidly that my face hurt so bad. My legs were weak, and ricketing while my eyes drained in panic and horror as I stared at my Papà brutalizing me. He was extremely contumelious.“I…” just before I could complete this statement, he moved from my chin swiftly to my throat. It was tenser. I lost balance and could not breathe, face red, legs jiggling. My eyes spread out in fear and pain. Amidst the opacity in the room, I could still see the rage in his eyes. I was driven back to how he did the same thing to me when I was a child. He practically wrung my neck to death when I was ten years old when I tried to leave the house without his permission. “Do you even know the disgrace and humiliation you brought to my name and the Lazio Familia? Do you know!?” He roared and intensified in his choke. His eyes were fierce with irritation. I had my hand holding his wr
MARIAThe ambiance of the room was frenzied even more, an oven would be right for a vivid description. I stood like a prisoner that was about to be sentenced by the judicial panel. I darted my stare from Papà to Mamma and the consigliere. “As much as I do not want to see your filthy face and I wish I could just put a bullet through your head right now. But then, you have chosen yourself to be useless to me and the Outfit but then I am not going to allow that.” Papà hissed. My emotions tingled as I knew there was something greater coming. My heart thumped dejectedly. I swallowed large chunks of saliva instantly to try to push down the angst. “I am Salvatore Luca and no child of mine is going to bring shame to my name. You have humiliated me enough by running away from the house to only God knows where and worst of all you are with child. You left me to go live a life of a whore. Firstly, after an intent rumination on how to salvage the situation, I have decided that you are going to
MARIAIt was the next day, just a day more to the impending doom. It was afternoon and I was really peckish. I crutched on the bed with my legs braced upwards and my right hand rested on my kneecap. My stomach growled with hunger. Since I returned, I found it very hard to vacate my room. I didn’t want to see anyone. I’d call it a life of desolation and chagrin. But at that juncture, I trusted that my intestines would have snipped if I didn’t get food. I stood up from the bed abruptly in my white tee and brown palazzo pants. My hair was scattered but I bothered less about it. I hastily left the room feeling extremely dizzy as though my head was about to fall down. I waltzed down the stairs and hoped that I wasn’t going to see Papà. He was the least person I wanted to see. I felt guilty around him while in the real sense, I was culpable of nothing. I finally entered the kitchen. My eyes met the wolf eyes of two men close to the entrance, one holding a bottle of water while the other f
“I presume you are not delighted with this union”Dante spat just what I truly felt. My lips parted and my throat choked with air. I was surprised at the preciseness. He remained cold as before. I was lost and in a dilemma of what to respond with. I peered up at him.“Yes, I’m not” I allowed the truth from my mouth. His lips pulled taut. I wondered how he deciphered what I truly felt but then, I shouldn’t expect less from a Made man, he literally studies and tortures people for a living. There was a large part of me that was hopeful that he'd break the alliance after knowing that I am not happy with it. “Unfortunately you are bound to me” my hopes scrambled to the floor and shattered. My face fell from the little glory that it crept to. I should have known better that a Mafia wouldn’t care about a mere woman's emotions. They were rigid and felt nothing.He took a walk and sat on one of the black Adirondack chairs. He balanced perfectly on the chair and laid his strong arms on the sid
“Maria! Miss Maria!”I grunted and rumbled on the floor as I unhurriedly peeled my eyes open. My sight was blurry, feeble, and imprecise. I was weak and nauseous. My head was too heavy for me to lift. I finally seized sight of Bria standing in front of me. She was tapping me continuously and tried lifting me up from the floor. My throat was arid and my body was as heavy as the earth itself. Everything came arranging back into my memory when I saw myself lying in the pool of my blood. Indeed I didn’t die as I thought I would. Bria helped me up from the floor and placed me on the bed. My breathing was ragged and unstable. My chest, legs, stomach, and head hurt. My whole body hurt. It was the true definition of penury. I whined my eyes around and my tongue touched the tip of my patched lips. “I’m so sorry,” Bria said. She was in tears and fretting. She felt what I was going through. She saw the pain I went through and was still going through at that point but my family couldn't. I sti
Few hours later after the whole faking of smile and hands shaking, we finally retired to our room. Before then, one of the women from the Vincenzo familiar told me. Try not to cry too much or resistI couldn’t really remember who she was, but I knew she was also introduced to me as family. I got into the room first and my heart was pummeling to the extreme. I stood at the entrance of the all black room in silence. The Interior of Dante’s room was all black. It was scary and riveting in some way. Dante was still outside having a conversation with the made men of the Familia. I didn’t even bother to know what it was they were discussing.I craved to have a conversation with someone but there was no one. No one to share my grief with. My stomach was bitter and churning. The heels I wore began to ache so bad. I moved to the large bed and slowly sunk into it with slight fear. I pulled out my heels and placed them beside the bed. I stared around but found no pictures in the room. The wall
(Dante’s POV / Maria’s POV)Dante’s POVThe dreams came more often now, fragments of a life I couldn’t fully remember. They pulled me into the past like shadows creeping through the cracks of my mind, unsettling and relentless.This time, I was in a sunlit field, the kind of place that felt almost too perfect to be real. Laughter filled the air, bright and carefree. Mine, yes—but not just mine.“Carlo, wait up!”The voice was my own, younger and higher-pitched, full of boyish excitement. I was running through tall grass, chasing after a boy who turned just as I reached him. His face was clear now—dark hair, bright eyes, a smile that mirrored my own.“Catch me if you can!” he yelled, darting away.I felt the rush of happiness, the warmth of innocence. But then, like all dreams, it shifted. The colors dimmed, the laughter faded, and the world became darker.The field was gone. We were in a small room now, huddled together as the sound of gunfire erupted outside. Carlo’s hand was in mine
(Maria’s POV)The rain tapped against the tall windows like a warning, steady and insistent. The Vincenzo mansion was quiet, but not in the way that felt comforting. It was the kind of silence that carried weight, like a storm building just beneath the surface.I sat by the window in my room, staring out at the blurred city lights in the distance. My thoughts were tangled, an endless loop of fear, anger, and despair. Dante’s coldness, Pietro’s manipulations, and the growing sense that this house was a cage with no escape—it all pressed down on me.My hand moved absently to my phone on the side table. I hadn’t touched it in days. What was the point? My life had been stripped down to survival. The only people I could contact were either dead or didn’t care to hear from me.Still, I unlocked the screen. Muscle memory led me to an app I hadn’t opened in years, one I used before I had been forced back into this life. As I scrolled through, something stopped me cold.A notification. Elena S
(Maria’s POV)The days following the massacre bled together, each one heavier than the last. Dante’s revelation had shattered something deep inside me—something that could never be repaired. The world felt wrong now, the air thicker, the shadows darker. Every corner of the Vincenzo mansion seemed to whisper reminders of his words, his deeds, and the lives lost in his wake. The stare of my dad as he breathed his last.I barely left my room, the pressure of grief and betrayal anchoring me to the bed. My thoughts were a storm, memories clashing with the harsh truths Dante had forced upon me. My father… was gone, their blood on Dante’s hands. And yet, the man who had stolen my innocence years ago and deprived me of the joy of becoming a Nun—the man I’d thought was a nameless, faceless monster—was the same man who now claimed ownership over me and there was nothing I could do about it.The knot of betrayal in my chest tightened every time I closed my eyes, the echoes of his words reverber
(Maria’s POV)The days following the massacre bled together, each one heavier than the last. Dante’s revelation had shattered something deep inside me—something that could never be repaired. The world felt wrong now, the air thicker, the shadows darker. Every corner of the Vincenzo mansion seemed to whisper reminders of his words, his deeds, and the lives lost in his wake.I barely left my room, the weight of grief and betrayal anchoring me to the bed. My thoughts were a storm, memories clashing with the harsh truths Dante had forced upon me. My father… was gone, their blood on Dante’s hands. And yet, the man who had stolen my innocence years ago—the man I’d thought was a nameless, faceless monster—was the same man who now claimed ownership over me and there was nothing I could do about it.The knot of betrayal in my chest tightened every time I closed my eyes, the echoes of his words reverberating in my mind.“I was the man who took your innocence.”The first time I left my room was
(Maria’s POV)The dinner had left me on edge, the tension between Dante and my father hanging over us like a looming storm cloud, thick and oppressive. I could feel it in Dante’s grip on my arm as we stood to leave the table—a tightness that spoke volumes. His silence wrapped around me, heavy and suffocating, far more impactful than anything he might have said.The moon hung high in the sky, casting its cold light over the sprawling grounds of my family’s estate. I stared out of the window of Dante’s car as we drove away, the gentle buzz of the engine doing little to calm the dread clawing at my chest. Something was wrong—I could feel it.“Dante,” I whispered, my voice trembling. “What are you planning?”His sharp profile remained stoic, his eyes fixed on the road ahead. He didn’t answer, and his silence felt like a noose tightening around my neck.The memories came unbidden as we entered the city, each familiar landmark pulling me back to my childhood. I remembered running through th
(Maria’s POV)It was the night of the dinner and the dining room was a battlefield disguised with crystal chandeliers and white tablecloths. The long table was laden with an opulent feast—roasted meats, golden bread rolls, and the finest wines Italy could offer. Yet, the tension in the air made every bite taste bitter.I sat near the end of the table, the hem of my dress gathered in my hands beneath the tablecloth. Salvatore, my father, occupied the head of the table, his voice booming with his usual bravado. Opposite him, Vincenzo’s stony silence was a sharp contrast, his eyes cold and calculating as he watched every move Salvatore made. It was my own house but I felt so uncomfortable. I was so tensed that my palms were wet.Dante sat beside Vincenzo, his expression a mask of indifference. But I knew better. His fingers tapped the edge of his wine glass, his jaw tightening every time Salvatore opened his mouth.“Naples has always been under Salvatorian influence,” papa declared, lift
(Maria’s POV)The mansion was steeped in a tense atmosphere that penetrated every corner. Conversations were hushed, movements were highly calculated, and the very air felt heavy. After the confrontation with Pietro last night and the wavering chill from Dante’s cold demeanor, I felt trapped in a world of shadows, secrets, and whispers. I couldn't even slept I kept thinking about what was to happen. It was so ironic that the world I had tried so hard to run away from did find its way right back to me.As I wandered aimlessly through the vast halls, my mind replayed Pietro’s cryptic words alongside Dante’s relentless accusations. When I passed by Dante’s study, I could hear voices drifting through the partially open door.“Dinner isn’t about formalities” Dante’s voice was sharp and authoritative. “This meeting has to send a message—to both allies and enemies.”“Understood,” Vincenzo replied, his tone subdued and weary, as if he had seen too much. “But you’re walking a dangerous line, D
(Maria’s POV)The sunlight streaming through the tall windows of the mansion did little to warm the chill that had settled in my bones. The tension from the previous night lingered, wrapping itself around me like a suffocating shroud. Dante’s announcement still echoed in my mind—two days until we visited my family. I didn’t need to ask why; the dark promise in his tone told me everything I feared.I stood in the library, absently running my fingers along the spines of the dusty books, trying to gather my thoughts. The sound of approaching footsteps made my heart skip a beat. I turned, expecting to see Dante, but instead, Pietro appeared in the doorway, his sharp, angular features lit with a sly smile.“Ah, Maria,” he said, stepping inside and shutting the door behind him. “Hiding away already? I thought my brother kept you on a tighter leash.”His words carried a teasing lilt, but his eyes betrayed something deeper, something darker. I stiffened, stepping back instinctively as he appr
(Maria’s POV)“Wear it.”Dante’s voice sliced through the heavy silence, cold and commanding and snapped me back to reality, pulling me from the crazy and wild imagination I was in. The crimson dress he had handed me lay across the bed like spilled blood. My fingers trembled as I touched the smooth fabric, its luxurious softness feeling like a trap. I lifted my eyes gently to meet his piercing eyes, but they offered no mercy, no explanation—just a silent demand.“I… I don’t think—” I began, but the sharp narrowing of his eyes silenced me.“Don’t make me repeat myself, Maria,” he growled, his tone laced with enough menace to make my heart skip. “You have two minutes. If you’re not dressed by then, I’ll make the decision for you.”He turned on his heel and strode out, his footsteps echoing like a death knell. I stared at the door he had slammed shut behind him, my body trembling with the weight of his control.The dress clung to my skin like an accusation, its deep red color making my p