Chapter 1 TURNING TWENTY

Amelia's POV

Happy twenty years of staying alive in this damn world!!!

The only thing I'm grateful for is my best friend and Jacob's two sons that are like my very own siblings and nothing more. Every other aspect of my life is like a passing shadow…almost unnoticeable.

I plugged my ear pods in my ear and munched on an apple as I listened to a country song my parents used to dance to before they went to prison.

Yes…prison!

They happen to have murdered someone and now they are in prison.

‘Lovely Major…Majorie

Pretty Major…Majorie’ I hummed along until the song suddenly stopped and my ringtone sang to life.

I was getting a call…

I looked at the screen of my phone and the name that was displayed shocked me to my core.

“Andrew?” I asked no one in particular, just stunned that he is calling me after going MIA for a month.

I cleared my throat, wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and ran a hand through my jet black hair before answering the call.

“Happy birthday Amelia” Andrew said, his voice ringing out and not sounding ecstatic.

“Thank you…” I replied.

“I can't talk for long but meet me at the coffee shop close to school” Andrew said quickly and before I could dish out the questions I had arranged in my guts, he hung up.

‘The nerve of the guy!

Well, definitely I'm going because it is Andrew Matteo - the one I have liked for a very long time and even began to plan a possible future in my head with…before he suddenly vanished into thin air’

I arrived at the coffee shop like I had not been running and thinking of Andrew all the way.

I walked to the table where he was seated.

He was in a brown hoodie and he had the hood covering his head.

When I was a foot away from the table, he lifted his head and his eyes lit up on seeing me.

I almost smiled…almost!

He had good explanations to give to me.

He pulled me by my hand to the seat opposite him before sitting back on his.

“I know you probably hate me but I need you to listen to me Amelia.

I never meant to disappear from your life…” Andrew started but I cut him off. He was acting really strange.

“But you did,” I said.

“Because…” Andrew said and he took a sneaky look around us to be sure no one was looking our way.

‘Why?’

Facing me and maintaining eye contact, he said, “Because I was threatened…”

“Threatened? By who?” I asked wide eyed.

“By someone who claims to own you and the same goes for every other guy who has ever liked you…” Andrew said quickly.

Now I was at the edge of my seat.

‘What the hell is going on? Could it be Jacob? Hasn't he traumatized me enough? Could that be why every other guy stops talking to me when our relationship is about to take a new turn?’

“What do you..how…I can't…” I stuttered.

“Take a look at this” Andrew said and he pulled out a note from his pocket.

“Stay Away from my Piccino or have your blood used as an ink to the next fool, just like this one was” The note read.

‘What sort of ink is that?!

Ink!

It is no ink…it is the blood of someone…a human’s blood’

I read it again and understanding sunk in me…fearful understanding!

That name the person had called me... ‘Piccino!’

It means ‘little one’.

I remembered who had called me that.

Don Massimo Dela Rosa Vladmiro…the mafia Don of the Vladmir family.

He called me by that word seven years ago, when my sister and her husband - Jacob Marciano - had sold me to him, to clear off their overdue debts.

He promised to come for me only when I turn twenty.

Twenty? Twenty!

I turned twenty today!

“Amelia…Amelia…are you listening to what I'm saying?” Andrew asked.

I did not wait for his next question before I jumped up from my seat and I dashed towards the door.

‘He is definitely coming for me today!’

I ran as fast as my legs could carry me out of the shop, with Andrew hot on my heels.

Just as the cold air from outside caressed my face, a black van turned to its side before me and the doors flung open.

“Fanculo” I cursed for the first time in my life.

It was like a bad a** scene from a movie.

Tall, muscular and terrifying looking men with tattoos and ugly scars jumped down from the van.

I turned back to the transparent doors of the coffee shop and they were closed with Andrew behind it. Andrew had a sad look on his face as he watched one of the men put a handkerchief that definitely contained chloroform over my nose.

I refused to go with them like that and I tried to jab my elbows against whatever flesh it could come in contact with but there was no effect. I would become unconscious in a matter of seconds…

I decided to play to what they wanted and I acted like the chloroform had finally worked and like an actress, my head fell to my side. The hands on me finally relaxed and tried to lift me up but this was my cue to act.

Like a wild and feral cat, I bit into flesh and scratched at whatever that tried to stop me.

‘I refuse to be like a property to a human that sees himself as a god on this earth, just because he is feared.

I.Don’t.Care’

But, my will and resilience was not enough to help me.

The fabric was placed over my nose again and this time around, few seconds passed before I was drawn into a dark world…my consciousness taken from me.

The last view my memory decided to flash before me is that of Don Massimo from seven years ago.

His hair packed behind his head and his black coat that swayed behind him as he walked away, after finalizing the contract that would dictate the remaining days of my life.

I wonder what this next phase of my life holds.

But I just turned twenty…

Note: Fanculo means F**k.