All Chapters of From innocence to mafia tie: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

**Ten Years Ago...**The sun burned fiercely on the car's windshield that summer morning. If there were several things I hated in life, heat was one of them. It was irritating, made me sweat, and gave me a headache. However, it was a day when I couldn’t let something as trivial as the weather bother me.It had been a week since my father was killed in an ambush by a rival family, and I had quickly had to take over the family business. Even though I had been prepared for this my whole life, as a prince trained from childhood to take charge of a kingdom, nothing was quite like practice. A traumatic event, like the death of a parent, suddenly thrusts you out of the shadows and makes you an emperor.Fortunately, I had my younger brothers by my side. They might say it was foolish, but I entrusted them with my own life. Theo and Mateo were with me when I got out of the car in front of a large mansion in Almada, a town near Lisbon.I slammed the door, hearing the impact before my strength, a

# The Viewpoint of LaïsI felt my stomach churn, and my mood was very different from the sunny spring morning. They would come to pick me up, and I would finally leave the walls of this convent to go to my wedding. However, contrary to what my novice friends thought, I was not freeing myself; I felt like I was leaving one cage only to enter another—I would never be able to fly freely like a bird. I didn’t know what awaited me at this wedding, and I feared it would be worse than the endless days of prayer and fasting. I heard a knock at the door and got up from the bed.“You can come in.” I swallowed hard, but the lump in my throat didn’t go down; it just stayed there, making my breathing anxious and difficult.“Hello, Laïs.”“Hello, Sister Antonella.” I rubbed my hands together, trying to rid myself of the cold sweat.“You can just call me Antonella.” She removed her veil, and I was astonished to see beautiful, well-kept blonde hair, very different from the short hair or shaved heads

"Come in, come inside!" She pointed to a small door. "What do you want?" "Just come in, my daughter!" I realized they could arrive at any moment and catch up with me. Without thinking, I stepped inside and found myself in the back of a small bakery, where wood was burning to heat a brick oven, just like the one at the convent. "Take off that wedding dress." "What?" My eyes widened at the unexpected command from the woman. "Do you want to escape or not? The dress attracts too much attention. Hurry, take it off! I'll help you." I turned my back to her as she unbuttoned the pearl buttons. I stepped back, feeling exposed in just my underwear. Thankfully, I was at an angle where I couldn't be seen through the windows. The woman took what remained of the immense, luxurious wedding dress and tossed it into the clay oven. It was quickly consumed by the flames and reduced to ashes. "Thank you, but I can't run in the street like this." "Come with me. You're thin, but I should have some

MARCO'S POINT OF VIEWI slid the glass across the table before bringing it to my lips and taking a few sips of the strongest single malt whisky I could find in my bar. This was certainly not how I expected to end my evening. I would be lying if I said I was looking forward to this wedding, especially since it was merely a pawn in the political game I was playing. The frustration that everything wasn't going exactly as I had predicted was immense. Ten years ago, I had made a commitment to marry Laïs Barbosa. I had left her in a convent and waited until she turned twenty-one. It should have been a circus, but an easy one to manage. What I hadn't anticipated was that Laïs would be capable of turning the tables and escaping me. If there was one thing I hated, it was losing control of a situation. "Are you very angry?" I heard Mateo's voice. I took another sip of my whisky and looked out the window before placing the glass back on the table and turning to face my brother. "I'm not a

The Viewpoint of LaisMy idea of entering the mall was very good, as I managed to escape from the police. However, I still needed to find a place to sleep and eat where no one would ask me questions. Something inside me told me I had to leave this city. I was still in Italy, and I could be found by those who were looking for me, but I was too tired to think of a place to go. My knees hurt a lot, and my head was starting to throb. I needed rest. At least my stomach was full, since I bought something to eat at the food court in the mall.Holding the bags, I went back out onto the street. I saw several hotels as I walked around, but I imagined they would all ask me for papers, and the fear that they would call the police was very great.I realized that without papers, I wasn’t as free as I thought, because I couldn’t go where I wanted or how I wanted. The truth, which was becoming clearer, was that I would always be living on the run and hiding. How could I get a decent job and make a liv