Page 12

Bia

The next morning after we had breakfast, I stand with Cillian, Grace, and Peter to say goodbye to my family. My mother hugs me goodbye, playing the part of a caring mother, but as she squeezes me, she says.

“Quit stuffing your face and fucking go on your water diet.”

“Yes, Mother,”

I say quietly back to her. After she steps away, Leonidas hugs me next. We don’t say anything, but I know what he wants to say as he looks at me before he walks away.

My Grandfather is the last one to say goodbye. He gives me a hard hug. “Behave or else.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Miss them already?”

Grace asks me as we walk back inside the mansion.

“Yes,”

I say. Grace looks at me.

“You don’t have to lie to me. I can tell you are not close to your family.”

I shrug my shoulders. “I was the disappointment in the family. I just hope one day I won’t be.”

She shakes her head. “They have no idea how special you are. Their loss is our gain,”

she says as she wraps her arm around my shoulder and gives it a squeeze.

“Thank you, Grace.”

“Anytime, Bia. You’re family. I gained another daughter, a super sweet daughter at that. Come on, let’s go meet the De Luca women. Emilia wanted to have a few drinks while the men have a meeting.”

“Okay.”

I continue to follow Grace out onto the balcony, where I see Emilia and her daughter, Alessia, sitting with Kayleigh.

“Hey there,”

Emilia says as she sees us approaching.

“Hi,”

I say, and Grace answers with a hello.

“So, Bia, now that we are away from the overbearing pain in the ass men, let’s talk.”

“Okay,”

I say, questioning her. I have no idea what she could want to ask.

“Don’t worry, I don’t bite. Well, unless you’re Mateo,”

She says with a smirk.

“MA! Seriously, I don’t want to know.”

Alessia groans.

“Oh hush. You will be fine. You have heard worse,”

Emilia snickers.

“When I get older, you're paying for my therapy,”

Alessia tells her.

“If you only need therapy because of that, then I will be impressed,”

Emilia snickers.

“Anyway, so, Bia, tell us, how are you liking staying here?”

“Oh, I love it. The O’Sullivans have been nothing but welcoming.”

“Good. Not that I’m surprised. They were welcoming when I needed to stay here with little notice when shit hit the fan,”

Emilia says.

“And thank god you did,”

Grace says.

“Yeah,”

Emilia says somberly. I sit there staring at Grace and Emilia.

“Emilia saved me from being raped by my father’s consigliere’s son,”

Kayleigh says. My hand goes to my mouth.

“Oh my god. That is terrible. Are you okay?”

“Most days, yes. I sometimes have nightmares, but they are very mild compared to what they used to be,”

Kayleigh says, reassuring me.

“I’m glad ,but still, that had to be pretty traumatic for you,” I say.

“That’s nothing compared to Emilia’s story. Oh crap. I’m sorry, Emilia I shouldn’t have said anything,”

Kayleigh says immediately apologizing. Emilia waves her off.

“Don’t worry about it. If Bia wants, I can tell her, but it is much worse than Kayleigh’s.”

“Oh, you don’t have to if you don’t want to. I don’t want to make you bring up unpleasant memories,”

I say, worrying about upsetting her.

“Darling, don’t worry about it. I’m sure if you looked my name up online you could probably find my story and some rumors. But I will tell you, it’s very dark,”

She warns me but I nod my head.

“Okay, when I was a teenager ,I was living in America with my Ma, Father, and my two brothers, one older and one younger. One day, I was at work when our house caught on fire and all of them were trapped inside. None of them survived. I grieved their deaths in the worst way possible, by going out and getting drunk. That was, until I found out I was pregnant with Alessia. I went back to tell Seth, he was the man I was sleeping with at the time, that I was pregnant. I didn’t care if he wanted to be part of her life, but I was going to tell him regardless. That was the biggest mistake I ever made. He made me move in with him, but he didn’t live alone. He lived with many men, and one of them, Boris, was an old, sadistic fucker who only could get it up if he was beating on a woman. I spent seven years being used and abused so that Seth would provide the basic essentials for her. Until one day Seth came to me and told me he arranged for Alessia to marry Boris. At this point she was only six years old and Boris was well into his fifties. I was able to beat them both unconscious, and with the help of a friend, we were able to escape to Italy. Where I met Mateo,”

Emilia tells me.

“Uh. Wow. I am speechless,”

I say to her.

“You went through so much, but looking at you, no one would know how much you have suffered.”

“Trust me, it wasn’t easy. I have PTSD, and it took me a while to tolerate Mateo touching me.”

“Wow, you are so strong. I have no clue how you did it and still do it.”

“Thank you, but I had to because I had to take care of Alessia. If I was put in that position again, I would do it again in a heartbeat. There is nothing I wouldn’t do to protect my loved ones, which now includes you. If anyone does anything to you, call me and I will handle them. If you ever want to, you can come to Italy, and I can train you to fight. Or hell, we can go to Spain, and we can train with my godmother.”

“Really?”

I ask. I would love to be able to defend myself, it would come in handy with Tristan.

“Absolutely not. No fucking way in hell.”

Cillian says from behind me. Crap. I had no idea he was out here with us.

“Why not?”

Emilia asks as she stands up and puts her hands on her hips.

“Bia is sweet. She doesn’t need to be a psycho like you. You and Esmeralda are not tainting her,”

Cillian states, staring at her.

“Aw, you think I’m a psycho? Thank you,”

she says while putting her hands on her heart.

“That wasn’t a compliment,”

Cillian growls at her.

“Oh, it definitely fucking was.”

She smirks at him. Cillian turns to Mateo, who has joined us out here.

“How do you deal with her?”

“He enjoys spanking me and tying me to the bed.”

Emilia smirks at them. Mateo points at her, “One.”

“Oh, come on. I was being fucking good,”

she whines.

“Two. Keep going, I’m itching to punish you,”

he says again. She just flicks her middle finger at him.

“Three,”

he says before he throws her over his shoulder.

“MATEO!”

she screeches. “Put me down you asshole.”

He smacks her ass again.

“Keep racking up your punishments.”

Grace shakes her head and chuckles.

“They do that all the time; at this rate they will have a football team full of kids. She is my unofficial daughter after what she did for Kayleigh.”

“She is the most loyal person you will ever meet,”

Peter says as he comes to sit down next to Grace and gives her a kiss on her cheek.

“Bia, can I talk to you?”

Cillian asks. I nod and get up and follow him back inside.

“I’m leaving for Turkey in a few hours. I need you stay here until I return.”

“Okay.”

“I mean it, Bia. Do not leave the mansion at all! Do. Not. Go. Outside. I don’t care what Kayleigh wants you to do. You do not take a step outside of this mansion. You don’t want to piss me off,”

he yells at me. I tuck my chin down to my chest.

“I promise,”

I tell him.

“Good,”

he says before storming out of the mansion. I quietly walk to my room and decide to spend the rest of the day in my room alone.