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01 || Welcome To The Hideaway

Edited: 02.19.2022

Song: SZA - good days (slow & reverb)

𝔚𝔚𝔚
Giana

Mamá was beautiful which explained why these men were starring at me as I was no different. It may also have had to do with the fact that we looked eerily alike. But even I grew uncomfortable with the incessant starring.

I was locked in a room with people I barely knew, discussing my mothers will when it was only ever mamá and I living in a nice two story home in the suburbs of Los Angelos.

Why did all these random men need to be here?

The only people that deserved to be here were family. That only included Liam and I.

"Why are all these people here? It's only suppose to be family?" I mutter to the man on my left who's currently playing candy crush on his phone.

Liam heaves a sigh, his blue eyes finding mine. "I know it's a lot to take in Principessa. But these people are family. These were the people your mamá considered family." He spoke carefully, wrapping his arm around my shoulder.

With a small huff, I nod knowing that- unlike me-mamá was tied to the Italian mafia. The same mafia that saved us from danger and took us away all those years ago. The same mafia I should be grateful for.

Mamá loved all of these men, but it was hard for me to come to terms with it considering I was never allowed to meet or see any of them. The only exception being Liam and the now late Don Ricardo Galanti.

And when I was lucky enough to get mamá to share some stories before bed, she would only ever tell me good things about the prince.

My prince.

It was odd yes, considering I hadn't ever met the man, but she'd tell me stories. Stories of the vile, brooding man who hid his generosity behind a cloak of intimidating power. A man with a soft side reserved for a collectively small pool of people.

She'd tell me how he could be horrible if provoked - but beneath all that stone was a teddy bear.

There was only one problem. I tended to avoid intimidating men.

I needed to have the upper hand and control when it came to men. And a power hungry dominant male was anything but what I was looking for.

I never longed for the day I got to meet him. It was never something to look forward to, for I knew I would only meet him when she was gone and I was unsafe. It was something we prepared for yet it still scared the shit out of me.

And even now, the idea made my stomach turn and my mind race with fear, because I was now under the protection of Alessio Galanti - the head of La Famiglia.

"And to Giana Moretto, first and only child of the deceased, the deceased leaves the rights to her trust fund in the hands of her caretaker Alessio Galanti until she turns twenty one." Rings the boring voice of the man standing at the front of the room, reading the papers at a snails pace.

"What?" I scowl my brows furrowing. "I was suppose to get the money now, not have a permanent babysitter till I'm twenty one." I whisper under my breath.