Prologue
Alissandra
Age Sixteen
I’ve never been one to shy away from the world. Even though the world was shut away from me. The truth is I was never really given a chance to explore and experience what life has to offer. But I guess that’s just one of the many curses of being raised in the heart of the Italian Mafia. It’s a world where you’re not allowed to be weak, or let others try to diminish your shine.
Well that’s what i was always told growing up, I just never felt that it particularly related to me.
My life was meant to be one of privilege and for the most part it was. But privilege can often come at a cost and mine was the ruthless torment that I endured day after day. From the outside anyone would think I had everything I could ever want, and in many ways I did. Yet the very house where the walls around me were built purely for my protection, to keep me safe and out of harm’s way never served their purpose, all they did was enclose me in, and hold me hostage in my own home. Placing me directly into the hands of a monster that I was meant to be able to trust.
When we moved to Italy my mother trusted that our new life would be one of love, glamour and security. And the truth was in many ways she was right. But then she was wrong in the worst kind of way imaginable.
She made the mistake of falling in love with a powerful man. A man that promised to give her the world and I can’t deny that he did. Mattio was her one true love, he showered her with his unadulterated affection. But his love came with severe consequences that tore my life apart.
But all of that is in the past now and I’ve come to terms with the fact that I have to lock all of them memories away so I can move past them. Hopefully now that I’ve escaped it all, I’ll be able to finally live my life.
I will never go back to that life ever again even if my reluctance ends up killing me. Which it probably will but after today, after I step off of this plane Alissandra Monroe will no longer exist.
She’s free...
