Chapter Two

My heels are not particularly noiseless as I strut down the hall, a file clutched in one of my hands, my ponytail swinging viciously behind which is good. I'm not exactly in the best of moods, and luckily, the guards around can tell because none of them sends me their usual morning greetings and stay unmoving, head high in respect.

For the first time, I don't tell them to relax either.

I keep walking down the hall till the sound of someone screaming begins to echo through it, growing louder the further I go, and when I reach the door from where it resonates, push it open and enter.

The room is musty, smelling of sweat and blood, and possibly pee. The stench is enough to make anyone throw up, but not me. The room is barely lit, a man on the table is tied and bleeding, erratically shaking, two men gathered around him with torture gleaming in their eyes though all three pairs turn to me as I walk to the man seated on a chair with his legs crossed and chin resting on his palm.

My brother, Enzo Rossi, sits looking like a King in his element. He has one of the most expensive suits on, his face marred with a scar he had acquired during one of his escapades though it only gives his rough edge a sexiness to it. 

One look at the devilish glint in his eyes is usually enough to send people running into the hill, but I'd been there all through the beginning maniac stage that I'm now completely immune to it and walk to him, folding my hands. "How could you keep this from me, Enzo?"

He says nothing, a dark smile spreading on his face as he turns to the man on the table tied, saying with a slight drawl, dragging out each word as it pains him to speak. "Angela, I'm very busy at the moment—"

Before the rest of the words leave his lips, I pick up the gun on the table, and without bothering to look at the man, shoot him in the head.

Enzo doesn't explode, even though I know full well he would do it to someone else and turns his black soulless eyes to me. "That man was holding reliable—"

I throw the file to him and he catches it, his eyes never leaving my face, the smile on his lips spreading. Mostly because that man held valuable information and he had once asked me to get it for him and I'd refused, but now, here I was, giving in.

Noticing the anger in my eyes, he stands and spreads his arms out. "Mio Angela, I knew I could count on you."

I move away, making sure I keep sending him glares. "How could you keep the supposed marriage agreements with Alexander Wolfe and me a secret? You claim I'm your favourite person and yet you..." The words don't seem to come out because of how angry I am, my whole body shaking in anger.

Enzo notices it and he holds my chin, speaking softly, "Angela." It's the pet name he had personally given me, all my brothers had their names for me, and this one meant Angel. Usually, it always calmed me but this time it only made me nervous. "I would have told you if I could but I made a vow to Padre. He promised he would tell you on his terms, and I like to believe he knows what he says sometimes."

"He can't do that, can he?" I ask. My voice is coming out in a whisper now. I am never scared. A child of the Rossi Family never shows fear, but I'm a person of principle. Details. When one thing takes me out of a loop, the spontaneity throws me off and leaves me disorganized. "He can't sell me out."

"Sell you out? Angela. If he sells you out, we kill him. Or Madre would do so first, who knows?" He asks. "Why don't we go meet him and ask questions, hmm?"

His hand wraps around my shoulder, the other one flinging the file to one of his men who catch it as we head out of the room. The men in the hallway all salute to him, considering he is the next Mafia Ruler but as always, his attention is on me as he speaks, "If it upsets you, we can both discuss ways to castrate him. He doesn't need his cock anymore if we think about it."

I can't help rolling my eyes. "You wouldn't hurt Father even if you were given the world. Hurting him won't solve anything since you've already sworn to the deal. Or does the Italian Mafia not keep to their promises?"

"Ah, but there's no need to keep to a deal if the people it was made with are all dead, no?"

We reach the elevator, the door opening as I push my glasses back up the bridge of my nose and enter. Enzo follows after, the male cracking his neck as he does so while I reply to his question, "You won't enter a pointless war with my name, dear brother. Plus, there would be unreasonable losses and there's nothing smart about it."

"Oh?" He says, tucking his hands into his pockets, resting on the wall behind us. "Then what can I do for my favourite sister so that frown on her face goes away, hmm?"

The doors open to the top floor, clean cool air bursting on my face as I walk out, Enzo following behind. The building is one that I'm familiar with even though Father tried to bring me as rarely as possible but I had been headstrong, wanting to know the certain things that always kept him away from me.

His office, as always, is spotless. Father was a man that couldn't stand the littlest of dirt on his properties, even his ways of ending people's lives could be counted as clean. Littered around the place were pictures of his family. My brothers have their place, and Mother does as well, but mine is the one that's almost everywhere. Mostly the embarrassing ones that I had once thought he had gotten rid of at my behest but he had for some reason holed up in his office.

It is no wonder that I'm his favourite child, not that anyone ever tries to pretend that I'm not and neither do I. That's why I don't bother to knock on his door and enter. At the sound of his door opening, he realises his head up, slant eyes ready to rip apart the person that had dared enter his sanctuary but they soften and glow with love as he spots me. "Principessa."

I storm to him, Enzo still trailing behind me though he goes to sit on one of the lounges in the office, while I stop at Father's table. He's still smiling and staring at me like I'm an angel that fell from his heaven, unable to hide his happiness at seeing me. It's understandable. After finishing college, I moved away from Italy, cutting off most communication with them, because I knew they would have tried to interfere with my personal life, though now they had successfully done that, taking advantage of my absence. "You don't get to call me that after what you've done."

"I don't—"

"Don't pretend." Enzo cuts in, now letting out a low groan as he rests his head on the back of the lounge, sinking more into it. "She already knows."

"Ah." Romeo Rossi is a man of intellect and wisdom beyond his age. Even though he's older than I remember leaving him, there's still life glowing in his eyes. His hair is dyed a silver shade, his way of keeping control over the growing greyness, each movement he makes regal and elegant. Many people around the world are terrified of him, but he was also the same person that made sure he watched every Disney movie with me no matter how exhausted or angry he was, though I'm beginning to think he just enjoys them. "I'm sure Luca was the one to break it."

"It doesn't matter." He sighs at my reply, knowing it had to be my second eldest brother. I lived with Luca after leaving, since he was the less smouldering brother and he hadn't meant to tell me but he had never been a good secret keeper anyway. "I'm too young to get married."

"That's exactly the point, Principessa," Father says, his voice soft. It's obvious he's already trying to placate me, not wanting to upset me. "You are both young enough to provide an heir that would unite our world together and after this is done, you both can go your separate ways and do as you wish."

"Why do I have to marry him to do that?"

"Because no child of Rossi would be a bastard." He answers, his words not bearing a single hint of malice before sighing out again. "I do not want to put you into this situation but after Diana Wolfe suggested it, I couldn't help but see sense in it. Plus, I see no one deserving of the gem you are, except him."

"Alexander Wolfe?" Saying the name has a pain in my chest that I had almost forgotten was there thumping slowly. It was a name that I would never have been able to forget because it haunted me. In my dreams. Even when I was awake. He was everywhere, the works of his brilliance and his beauty were one thing that I couldn't stop searching for, even if I'd tried.

How long had it been since I had seen him? After the death of his Father and we stopped going over to see him, I heard he got sent somewhere far away and at the time, I had thought he would reach out to me. It wasn't as if we even had a real relationship or friendship in a sense, but I had grown to feel safe around him. Secure. But he had never reached out once.

Not when I had graduated at the top of my class and was the youngest person to ever do so, an act that got me recognized by the world. There was no way he would not have heard me, and yet, he never tried to reach out, and eventually, I stopped to care about him. I stopped waiting. I told myself that he didn't matter and I didn't need him in my life the same way he didn't need me. 

Or that was what I thought. "He's a snobbish prude that believes he is above everyone else because his technology is a little more advanced than others, which I'm catching up to by the way and he changes women like they are worth nothing."

"He wouldn't dare do anything to make you hurt, mi cara," Father says. "Or he would lose a very important member of his body. Plus, I didn't think you would be so opposed to the idea. You used to adore him when you were a little teapot."

I grit my teeth. "I was seven."

"But you were old enough to write love letters and tell him how much you wished to be his wife," Enzo says, suddenly behind me. I tense at the words, my heart quickening. Noticing that he laughs and joins Father at the other side of the table, standing behind his chair and saying with a smug smile on his face. "I remember almost killing him when he had rejected you, and now, if he dares do something that would make you hurt as you did then, I will gladly do so."

I remember the memory as well, how could I forget? The way my heart had shattered as he told me that he could never see me in such a way. He had never given a reason, and I had been so broken by it that I had refused to leave my room or eat, only doing so when I heard Enzo was ready to go on a rampage to start a war he would never have been able to finish.

I couldn't marry him. No matter how short the period would be. I couldn't imagine reliving that pain again. I had hoped whatever I felt for him then was just an infatuation, something fleeting, but it had grown into something I could not control. Even now, the thought of being married to him and bearing his child is music that makes me wish for things I shouldn't. What would happen to me if he decides to leave me? What if I never give him a child?

"He hasn't changed," I say. I try to pour anger into my words. Hiding the pain that's slowly creeping into my veins because I would suffer this than fall deeper for him and get rejected again. "He's still the same selfish person who cares only for himself and no one else, and he disgusts me. I would never willingly be tied to him no matter—"

"Am I interrupting something?"

The rest of the words get choked in my throat, but I don't dare turn back. I don't dare look. His voice, the vibrant depth of it sent tremors down my body. My heart is screaming at the fact that he is here. That the man I had searched for, for so long, that I had yearned so much to be with, stood in the same room with me and heard the words I said.

Father doesn't take off the smile on his face, his hands rested on his table as he replied, "Not at all, Mr Wolfe. Please, come in."

I hear him walk closer till he's beside me. His cologne is heavenly, thick, and all masculine, and he towers over my small frame by a foot and some inches. I'm not breathing. Not thinking. 

Alexander Wolfe is here. Alexander Wolfe is next to me.

"You remember my eldest son, Enzo?" Father moves a hand towards my brother. "You both used to spar together a lot when you were younger."

"How could I forget?" Alexander asks. His tone is smooth and silky. It doesn't bear a single thread of emotion. I can feel my knees weaken at it. "He is one of the reasons I have a scar over my chest."

Enzo smiles. There's nothing malicious in it, but a twisted type of fondness. They were not friends, this I knew because the only person Alexander ever found interesting was Miguel because they were blatant opposites and found interest in each other because of their differences, Enzo found Alexander as an over-pampered child, but there weren't enemies either. "Of course, I had to give you something similar to the one you gave me on my face. So we remain connected no matter what."

Alexander says nothing, but his eyes... Though he always kept them dull and lifeless, it had always been so easy for me to read them. Just like now. And I could tell he was smiling in them. "How interesting."

"Principessa?" 

Immediately, I snap out of my trance, I look at him, keeping my voice stable as I say, "Yes, Father?"

"Could you excuse us?" He's smiling, but it isn't the usual one that I meant he was being kind. This one demanded utter obedience and I do so, giving him a nod, then turning around, I give him a side glance before walking away then let out a breath I didn't know I was holding as I walked out of the office.