Who Is the Real Mafia Principessa Chapter 02

Who Is the Real Mafia Principessa Chapter 02

Rafael pressed his fingers to his temples, frustrated.

“You know Elowen isn’t like you!”

“She suffered out there all those years—no school, no nothing! And you? You were brought into the Moretti family and given everything—the best tutors, the best opportunities!”

“You had to be top of the class every single time. You were just trying to break her, weren’t you? Drive her to despair!”

I barely heard him. My hands shook as I tried to piece the scraps back together.

In the end, three pieces were missing.

“They’re gone…” My voice trembled. “It’s gone… my home is gone.”

I made to run into the road again.

Crack!

A hard slap landed across my face.

Dizzy from the pain and the ringing in my ears, I was dragged over to a foul, icy puddle at the curb.

“Althea, you want to die so bad?” He let go, pointing at the frigid, dirty water, his voice like shards of ice. “Go ahead. Stop putting on a show.”

Before I could react, he swatted the last of the paper scraps from my hand. They fluttered down like dead leaves, landing on the gray, slushy ice.

I looked up at him. All I saw was that same familiar, condescending disdain.

I thought back to Elowen’s first birthday home. She’d cried that the pearl necklace her brother gave her was missing, and claimed she’d seen me in her room.

At first I’d protested. “I never took it! There’s security camera footage in the hall—”

I never finished. Rafael grabbed a baseball bat and smashed the camera right in front of me.

I went silent immediately.

He was sending a message: My words meant nothing next to Elowen’s tears.

The necklace was never found in my room. It had been cut apart, the pearls scattered at the bottom of the backyard pool.

Everyone knew I’d nearly drowned as a kid, leaving me with severe aquaphobia—so bad that even water in a glass or a mirror’s reflection made me gasp for air.

But that winter, Rafael had me thrown into the freezing pool.

“Fish them out,” he’d said. “Every last one.”

Don Moretti and his wife had only glanced at Elowen, sniffling in their arms, and let it happen.

I passed out again and again in the icy water, only to be jolted awake by something even colder. By the time I’d fumbled for the final pearl with numb, frozen fingers, I could barely move.

After that, my fear of water got so bad I’d shake violently at the sight of any reflective surface.

Rafael thought that meant I was scared to die.

But in prison, when I’d scraped my wrist over and over with a sharpened piece of plastic, watching the blood run… all I’d felt was relief.

The doctor who treated me shook his head at the guard: She has severe self-destructive tendencies. With family support and care, she might still recover…

Rafael stared at my empty, lifeless expression and smirked bitterly.

“Too scared now, huh? You can’t even look at it. Imagine how hurt Elowen must have been to—”

He never finished.

I lunged forward and plunged straight into the stinking, icy puddle.

Water filled my lungs, rushing up my nose.

Getting back to my real family was the only thing keeping me alive.

But strong arms wrapped around my waist and hauled me out, throwing me roughly onto the mud.

I coughed violently, spitting out murky water. Through blurry eyes, I saw Rafael, soaked to the bone.

He knelt in the muck, hands still frozen in the position he’d pulled me up. His pupils were blown wide, staring at me like he couldn’t believe what he’d just seen.

This time, there was no coldness, no contempt.

Only shock.

And something I’d never seen before—fear.

I didn’t understand.

What was he so afraid of?

Wouldn’t the world be better for everyone if the fake disappeared?