PRINCESS

XIV

"Roxanne!" The loud sound shook me out of my sleep, I rubbed my eyes tiredly as I opened the door to meet the face of Giovanni.

He wasn't happy.
He pushed into my room.

"What was that stunt you pulled?" He shot daggers at me with his eyes,

"The man you brought to be my husband tried to rape me!" I said to him,

"Cazzo. Are you crazy? Do you know how much he's paying me to keep your whoring ass in his house?"

"I am not a whore, and I don't give a fuck about the amount of money he is paying you. I am not for sale!"

"Don't talk to me that way, I am your father and I demand some respect."

"I thought you said I was your bastard child, huh?"

"We will not talk about this, Roxanne. You will apologize to Angelo. I already apologized to him on your behalf, I will not have you as a liability in my house."

Obviously, yelling at him was not going to change his mind, so I decided to try a different approach.

"Father... please."

"We are not arguing about this anymore." And with that he shut the door, leaving me to my fate.

***
"Behave yourself, or you will regret it."

"The best Giovanni could have done was come here by himself to threaten me. I know the rules, Enzo, no need to explain."

He gave me a long-lasting stare, "Don't start what you can't finish, Roxanne. Mr Thorne." He acknowledged the round figure that walked up to us with a guard behind him,

"It's my pleasure to meet you again, Annie, and of course, Enzo."

He nodded, "I will leave now."

We walked alongside in the garden, our feet crunching the grass beneath us. Sad.

"I truly hope you have learnt your lesson." He finally said,

My instinct was to give him a piece of my mind, but that was just going to enrage him further. So I crushed my pride and said exactly what he wanted to hear.

"I did. I'm sorry, I was surprised and taken aback...and that was my reaction."

"I understand. Growing up around men like these can be rough." He nodded soberly, like he understood.

He didn't.

Even worse, he continued with his spiel, "That is why I want to make you my queen, Annie. You don't need to get used to this because I will make it better, you just need to trust me."

"I trust you," I said stiffly,

"You do?" His brown eyes lighted up,

I nodded. He walked over to me and stood very close, he was only taller than me by some inches, so his height wasn't what intimidated me. His leering gaze did the trick. I didn't want this.

"I just want to take care of you." He ran his finger from the side of my face down to my jaw, revulsion ran through me,

"I-i understand," I responded, sincerely hoping that he didn't try anything.

I wasn't going to sit still and let him rape me. Then again, was he really going to do that in front of his guard?
I didn't know his boundaries, and that was the scariest part.

"I'm happy you do." And he seemed genuinely happy, he finally shifted his suffocating aura away from me, a move I greatly appreciated,

"Looks like your father finally taught you some manners." He replied,

I wanted to burst. I was so angry. Men were the root of my issues, they all wanted to take everything from me and I was tired...so tired of being controlled.

I was a minute from exploding when we heard a slight ruffle at our backs.

"What was that?" Angelo asked,

I shrugged, "I don't know."

"Zachary?" We both turned back. I was guessing Zachary was his guard, but he was nowhere to be found.

"Where could he have gone? Zachary?" He called out again and we started walking back,

All of a sudden, a body fell in front of us and I screamed.

"Quiet, Princess, you do not want to wake them up."

I knew that voice. My suspicions were confirmed right as I looked up and let out a louder scream at the bigger horror.

"Who are you?" Angelo shouted, he brought out a handgun and trained it on a smiling Sasha,

"Let's skip introductions for now." He responded, and within a blink of an eye, the gun was thrown far away and Sasha was on Angelo's body as he writhed like a snap beneath him.

He let out a bark of laughter.

"I didn't realize how much I missed blood." He got off Angelo whilst I still stood in horror,

"You might want to help him with that, give or take...eighteen stitches. But it won't do the job, because you will die, eventually." Sasha smiled again, like everything was alright.

I was the one that spoke this time. I finally released the breath I was holding,

"What did you do to him, Sasha?"

"My beautiful little princess." His ice-blue eyes jumped to me, "I missed you, did you miss me?"

"What did you do to him?" I said with urgency this time,

"Woah, woah. No need to feel hurried, I have promised you that he will die. Isn't that what you want?"

"Sasha!"

He sighed, like explaining was a chore he couldn't wait to get rid of, "The blade was dipped in poison before it visited our mutual friend over here."

"I cannot die," Angelo said,

"Too bad, these are the things we cannot avoid." He paused momentarily, "But..." He smiled coyly, "There might be an antidote."

"If there's one, you better give me now," Angelo ordered,

"Tsk, old man... don't order me around." His tone now matched his eyes,

"Sasha, please give him the antidote." I pleaded on his behalf,

Sasha stalked closer to me, his minty breath fanning my nose,

"Why do you care so much, princess?"

I didn't reply. My mother's life was on the line.

"Please." I gulped,

"Who do you belong to?" Sasha asked,

This was a completely different switch in the topic.

"His life is on the line." He said in a singsong voice,

"Roxanne, are you deaf?" Angelo snapped,

"Let the princess make her decision."

I jolted out of whatever reverie I had fallen into and looked between Angelo and Sasha...

 "You, I belong to you."

A/N: It might get a little cringe from here, tighten your book belts.