“The boss has ordered for you to return to the family home. He’ll be there shortly,” Alessandro said to her.She looked at him, then nodded slowly. She climbed off the hospital bed and walked out behind him.Daphanée was surprised as she walked out. Many of the doctors and nurses had their heads bowed to her as she walked past, and so did some patients.Alessandro looked behind him at her and saw that she looked around, confused.When they were off to the family home, Alessandro looked in the mirror and said, “I told them you were his wife.”Daphnée looked at him and asked, “Who was she?”He sighed and answered, “Ginevra.”“Who is she, Alessandro?” She asked sternly.Looking into the rearview mirror, he said, “She’s one of his exes. One that is so obsessed with him that she tried to kill Emilia a year ago. She had been quiet, but I guess she’s back.”Daphnée took out a mirror from her bag and looked at herself. Her cheek had a gauze on it.She looked into her eyes and could see that t
Mario walked up to Alessandro at the bar and asked, “Is she speaking to you?”He raised a brow as he looked up from the bottles he was counting, then looked up towards the office area and shook his head.Looking back at Mario, he said, “Not unless she needs something or has to tell me something.”Mario frowned. “I thought it was my imagination, but it’s been a few days now and she’s tight lipped. Do you think the boss said something to her?”He shook his head. “Nothing out of the usual.”“What’s usual for us isn’t for her,” Mario said.Alessandro frowned. He thought back to what he overhead and couldn’t tell what it was. He had smirked when Dante claimed about her biting him, but other than that?Looking at Mario, he asked, “Why don’t you take her shopping? She enjoys spending his money.”Mario smirked. He nodded his head and rushed off to the office.Opening the door, he looked at her, and she looked back at him.Daphne raised a brow. “Did something happen?”Mario shook his head as h
In his office, Dante sat behind the desk after he sent the woman away. It’s not that he didn’t want to sleep with Emilia, but the fact that he was overly excited since tasting Daphnée. He never went down on his knees for a woman, but with Daphnée and his limitations, also with their circumstances, he unconsciously did what he did and he didn’t regret it.Running a thumb over his bottom lip as he watched Daphnée’s body rock on her toy was exotic. She was big, everything of hers was big, and she was attractive—dangerously attractive.“Have they found her?” He asked Raffael.Raffael glanced over at his boss. Dante had a look on his face that he’d seen way too many times, and it was directed at Daphnée this time. If only she knew what troubles she had gotten herself into this time.“No,” he answered.Dante glanced over at him, then lowered his gaze. Daphnée was rather sexual for someone who was never in a relationship. Was she self-conscious?Didn’t she like men?*Alessandro sent Mario
Placing the fork down. Dante glanced over at Alessandro and asked, “How did it happen?”Alessandro knew he should have kept a keen eye on Daphnée, but it seems that they have gotten too close and she took advantage of him.Alessandro explained what had occurred until he found her and her behaviour after.Looking at him with his crossed fingers resting on the table, he asked, “From what you’ve said, Mario was part of this too.”Alessandro shook his head. “You know he would never double cross you.”Dante raised a brow. “That is what I thought. Now I am uncertain.”Raffael stepped in saying, “Boss, you know it spooked her after she was attacked. How many months has it been since she joined us and she now only decided to escape? Anyone could tell that Daphnée wouldn’t have just done this. Hasn’t she run the club as you’ve ordered?”Dante didn’t glance his way as he said, “I don’t recall hiring you to be a defence lawyer, Raffael. Daphnée had a choice and the chance she had to be on my goo
“Donatelli,” his mother greeted with open arms and a smile.Dante hugged her and gave her a kiss. He sat her down and asked as he handed her a cup of tea, “Why must you call me by that name?”Madam Bardi chuckled, “It’s the name your father gave you.”He groaned and sat back on the couch. He rested his arms over the back of the couch and looked at her.She called him over to discuss something, and he wondered what it was.Placing the teacup in a saucer, she glanced over at her son then asked, “How is my daughter-in-law doing?”Dante brought his hands to his lap and answered as he looked away from her, “She’s frightened.”“What are you doing that makes her frightened?” She asked him.Dante smirked inwardly, and he couldn’t hide it from his mother. “She disobeyed the rules. She needs to be punished. If it was anyone else, then they’d receive the same treatment.”She turned to him saying, “Remember Donatelli, she’s your wife yo—”“Why her mother?” He interrupted.She sighed, “Why not? An
Daphnée groaned as she grew conscious.Opening her eyes, she stared at someone and when she realised who it was; she yelled and rolled off the bed.Dante leaned up on his elbow and asked, “Why are you on the floor?”Daphnée sat up and turned to him. She almost asked him why he was so ugly but asked instead, “Why are you in my bed?”“Your bed? This is my house,” he said. She got up and was embarrassed. She was still naked. They hadn’t given her anything to wear, but at least she was eating now.Dante sat up, saying, “I have something for you.”She looked at him as she covered herself up to her breast.Narrowing his eyes, he yanked the blanket away. “I’ve seen you naked so many times. Why are you hiding?”Looking down, she pulled the blanket back, saying, “I’m still a woman.”He scoffed. He reached to the night table and brought over a cup. Holding it in front of her, he said, “Drink it.”She hesitantly took the cup and looked inside.“What is it?” She asked, gazing at the white substa
Mario printed all the documents he received through his email from Dante’s office and all that was needed to do. Stacking everything up, he got up from his seat and made it to Daphnée’s office, passing Alessandro on his way.Alessandro saw Mario had a glare on his face but asked nothing. Things have been hard for the two of them since Daphnée’s escape, and Dante was still punishing them for it.He walked into the office without knocking and looked at Daphnée, who just placed her glass of water down.He hadn’t spoken to her today unless it was work related and now; he needed to speak to her again.He walked up to the desk and chucked the stack of papers on it.The stack of papers dropped between the keyboard and her glass, hitting the glass, making it tip over.Daphnée stood up and glared at him, but she saw he was glaring at her. She knew she was in the wrong, but Mario was going far right now.He didn’t even care about messing with her and said, “There’s all the shit you need to do.”
Alessandro was swapped out with a new bodyguard named Gabriele, who was warned to keep his distance from Daphnée. Alessandro was to monitor her at the club, but other than that, the life she once had here in Italy was far worse.Daphnée closed the door as she stared at Gabriele, who was watching her ever move. SHe made her way to the kitchen after placing her bag down on the island and looked around for something to make.She had ready-made meals and popped one in the microwave, then made her way to the bathroom. Climbing in the shower, she stood there until the water turned cold, running the conversations she had with Mario and Alessandro.Tears started falling and her calm heart became chaotic. Her breathing became frantic.Daphnée crouched and hugged her knees, screaming at the top of her lungs as her body retraced the torture Dante had put her through.Gabriele heard the screaming from outside and opened the door with the code he got from Alessandro. He made his way to the bathroo
A few months later…Giovanni and Aurora climbed into the back of a limo. Facing Aleksandr, the twins could tell that something was wrong. Aleksandr looked at Aurora, “Aren’t you going to greet me?”She smirked. “Do you seriously want to do this in front of my brother? You know he doesn’t like you.”“Cut the crap Aleks, why did you call me here? Wouldn’t it be better if it was only Aurora?”“Well, I wouldn’t call you for anything. You know we don’t get along, but I’m doing this for Aurora.”He looked at her and saw that she was confused. “So I know the story and I find it strange that your father doesn’t want to talk about it, so I did my research.”Pulling out an envelope, he handed it to Giovanni.Giovanni took the envelope cautiously and opened it. Aurora placed her hand on his. Her heart was beating incredibly fast, and she was unable to fathom what was on those papers. Looking at her brother, she shook her head. “I thought you didn’t care.”Staring at his sister, he hook his head
Aurora felt guilty from the depths of her soul and heart. She could feel that her brother was staring at her and she didn’t know if she wanted to look at him or dig a hole and die. “Why are you staring at me?” she asked as she finally got the courage to look back at him.To her surprise, Giovanni wore what seemed to be a bored expression on his face. He should be freaked out by this information, but he didn’t seem to be bothered at all. “Why do you look like you don’t care?”“It’s not that I don’t care. You’re just making a big deal about nothing. I already told you that you shouldn’t listen to those girls, but it looks like you’ll jump into a fire if they mentioned it a bunch of times.”Aurora sighed. “It’s not like that. I don’t know why, but it’s like something told me to look into it.”“And what did you get out of it? A broken heart, red eyes and me glaring at you? You even made momma cry with your stupidity! Just because you have the resources to do shit doesn’t always mean that
Aurora walked into the house with heavy steps. Suddenly, it felt like there was a heavy load on her shoulders with all the information she now knew.‘Don’t worry about it. Just forget it,’ Aleksandr told her before he dropped her off, but how could she? I dug my grave. How am I going to face them now? “Oh, you’re here?” Giovanni said as he walked out of the living room, snapping her out of her thoughts. She looked at him and saw that he was typing away on his phone as he walked round shirtless and in green socks. “She’s got presents again for us. You took so damn long. I want to find out what she got us.” Walking up to him, she asked, “Why didn’t you just open yours?”“Did you forget? We always open our shit together. What’s wrong with you? Forgetting your own rules like a damn idiot.”She nodded her head as he walked away, following behind him as she put some distance between them.From head to toe, she looked at her brother. ‘How did I not see it? But how am I going to live witho
“So when are you going to be my girlfriend?” Aleksandr Novikov said as he stared across the table at Aurora, who was picking at her plate of food.Aurora glanced over at him and smiled. They had been going on dates for the past three months, getting to know one another. He was three years older than her and somewhat of a hostage in the Bardi Familia. It wasn’t a secret that Aleksandr had a thing for her. He made sure everyone knew she was untouchable.Pouting, she said, “Aleks, you know I’m not allowed to date.”He reached over the table and moved her plate to the side. Taking her hands in his, he looked into her beautiful hazel orbs saying, “And I want no one but you. I’ve spoken to your father already–”“But has he agreed? I also told you I’d consider it.”He raised a brow and squeezed her hand firmly, minding not to hurt her. “I know what we spoke about.”She smiled weakly with a shake of her head.“So tell me, what’s bothering you?”Aurora stared at him, and immediately her eyes
Ten years laterAurora stormed into the living room where fifteen-year-old Giovanni was lying on the floor eating popcorn.He looked over at his sister and saw that her eyes were red, her cheeks were swollen, and so was the skin under her eyes.He quickly sat up, asking, “Who should I kill?”She shoved her bag on the floor and walked up to him. She sat down in front of him. “Why don’t we look the same?”“What?”“Isabella said we don’t look like twins,” she said as she broke out in tears. She had been crying for so long already that her eyes were burning, but the tears just wouldn’t stop.Her heart was broken and if what they were saying was the truth–what was she going to do?He shook his head, annoyed. “Why do you still hang out with those idiots? All they do is bad mouth you when an opportunity arises and make you spend money.”“That is not the point!” She took out her phone and went to the gallery and showed a picture to him saying, “Giovanni, you look so much like daddy and I do t
Giovanni was sitting on the staircase watching his mother walk, or you could say waddle up and down the steps. Her stomach had grown over the months, but the relationship between his parents was dour.His father was home every day. He made sure to give them enough attention too but just wished things would go back to the way it was before he met his father but then again; he liked his father too.“You’re making me dizzy.”She stopped next to him and glared. “No one told you to watch me!”“I missed you,” he said.Daphnee chuckled, “You’re supposed to pay attention at school, not miss me.”Giovanni rolled his eyes. “Whatever mommy.”“Where’s your sister?” She asked.He groaned inwardly, “I left her in the playroom, she talks too much.”Daphne chuckled. She worried about him, especially the relationships between Giovanni and his father and him and his sister.Dante had told her he saw what happened that night and for about two months, his relationship with Aurora wasn’t good. They suspec
“What do you mean?”Daphne chuckled. Rolling her eyes, she walked towards her with the sound of heels clicking against the cream tiles. Backing Emelia into a corner, between a cupboard and pillar, she said, “So, there was this woman, and she decided she was going to kidnap my dear husband and take care of him in her own way. So, I killed her.”Emelia’s eyes widened. She recalled the chaos that occurred many years ago and, come to think of it, but the details, “An, Angelica–you killed Angelica?”Daphnee nodded her head slowly with a calming yet canning smile, “I did and I don’t regret it. She played so much in getting me to where I am today, but you—”Emelia pushed her away. “Oh, don’t lie. I know all about you. You killed all those men a few months ago, and that’s why Dante’s here with me. Thanks to you, I am going to b
Daphnee wiped the edges of her mouth as she came up from the toilet—disgusted and nauseous. Walking to the sink, she stared at herself in the mirror—glaring, not at herself but at the future awaiting her.Her gaze slid down to the pregnancy test tube she had just took ten minutes ago. She recalled how Dante man handled her a few weeks ago.Since that night, he didn’t show his face–never even called.The children asked about him and all the lies she spoke. She was slowly starting to believe, living in delusion.Wiping her mouth, she left the bathroom, throwing the test tube in the bin at the corner of her desk.Sitting down behind the desk, she leaned against the chair and closed her eyes as she rubbed her stomach, thinking about the little rat growing inside her womb.Her week had been miserable. She even lashed out at her children for wanting her attention
“Are they going to be okay?” Dante asked her as he watched Daphnee stroke Aurora’s hair. They ended up laying the children down on their bed because they didn’t want to leave Daphnee’s side. She gazed over at him contemplatively, asking, “What happened between the three of you?”His nostrils flared up as he took in a deep breath, recalling what the conversation was about. Rubbing his nose as he paced around the room taking off the clothes, he said, “They can tell that things aren’t okay between us. Aurora said they wanted to go out together as a family, hoping we would make up.”Daphnee raised a brow. She looked down at her children and sighed. She tried her best to not make it obvious that things weren’t well between them, but how was it possible when she herself wanted nothing to do with Dante and he–all he knew was not to come home. “Are you staying or leaving?”“Leaving,” he answered and froze. Turning to Daphnee, he looked at the children and realised that it was because he a