My Boyfriend Sold Me to Bellandi—Too Bad I Was Bellandi’s Heiress Chapter 06

My Boyfriend Sold Me to Bellandi—Too Bad I Was Bellandi’s Heiress Chapter 06

The rest of the week blurred past quietly.

I stayed at the compound, and Dr. Hayes came by every morning to check on me and change my bandages.

Meals arrived on schedule. My medicine came with them, and my uncle came by three or four times a day.

Slowly, the throbbing in my finger began to ease.

My throat wasn’t on fire anymore, but talking still cost me.

A few mornings later, my uncle let himself in with papers in hand.

“It’s done.”

He held the papers out to me.

“They signed. The whole family gets shipped out to the Ashwood quarries tonight.”

I took it and flipped through the pages.

The terms were simple.

The Vales had signed debt papers – voluntary, at least on paper – committing them to work at the Bellandi

family’s Ashwood quarries.

Their wages would go straight toward the marker.

Every cent of that fifty mil — principal and the vig — until it was paid in full.

The pay rate was a joke.

At these numbers, even if they spent nothing – not a dime on food, not a dime on anything – the three of them would be in those quarries until they died.

“They signed willingly?”

My uncle smiled.

“I gave them two options.”

“Sign, or the whole family goes to the bottom of the bay,”

“Smart people don’t take long to decide.”

I handed the papers back.

“And Marco?”

The warmth vanished from my uncle’s face.

“Omertà.”

“What he did to you wasn’t a mistake. He put his hands on my blood and used my name to do it. That’s a

death sentence.”

“I turned him over to the Capos.”

“He’s taking a one-way ride in the trunk by now.”

I knew the old Bellandi rules.

Once you’re taken for a ride, whether you live or die is between you and God.

Even if he survived, he’d never set foot in Oakhaven again.

“You think I went too far?” my uncle asked.

He was watching me.

I shook my head.

“No.”

“He earned every second of it.”

If my uncle hadn’t recognized me, I knew exactly where I’d be right now.

Drugged, broken, shipped off to the brothel rings like merchandise.

The thought alone made my skin crawl.

My uncle rested his hand on top of my head, gentle.

“Good.”

“In our world, mercy for people who hurt you is just a liability.”

“That’s lesson one.”

That afternoon, he wheeled me into the garden to sit in the sun.

The winter sun was thin but warm on my skin. The white roses along the garden wall were in full bloom.

“Elena, what do you want to do once you’re healed?”

I didn’t have to think long.

“I want to keep dancing.”

“I owe my mom that.”

My uncle nodded.

“I’ve been in touch with a dance company in Aldoria.”

“Their artistic director knew your mother personally.”

“Once you’re healed, I’ll send you there to train.”

I stared at him.

My uncle had always been against my dancing.

He thought that life was too hard, and a stage couldn’t keep me safe the way a last name could.

“What?”

A half-smile.

He knew exactly what I was thinking.

“Surprised the old man can change his mind?”

“I just finally understood something.”

“Your mother loved it so much that your grandfather couldn’t have stopped her if he’d tried.”

“You’re the same way.”

“I spent years trying to keep you close, keep you safe behind the Bellandi name.”

“But maybe the best thing I can do for you is let you live your own life.”

My eyes burned.

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me, kid. That’s what family’s for.”

He messed up my hair.

“But I do have one condition.”

“What?”

“Next time you start seeing someone, you bring them to me first.”

He wasn’t smiling anymore.

“I’ll vet them personally,”

“No one gets close to you without going through me first.”

A real laugh slipped out of me, the first one in days.

“Deal.”

The sun warmed my face.

My hand was still splinted, my throat still raw, but something inside me had unclenched for the first time in a long time.

I had someone who loved me.

I had a name that could shield me.

And anyone who ever tried to hurt me again would learn exactly what that name meant.