Their principessa

23 ~ Guilt

Gianni's POV ~

"Why did you get upset when our mo mentioned Alessia?", Val suddenly blurted out, breaking the silence.

Bella and her brothers all tensed at the question and I knew it couldn't be good.

Luca and Bella exchanged looks before Bella nodded and began speaking.

"It's fine really. You're family, you deserve to know.", She said, a sad smile gracing her lips.

"You can stop whenever you want or if you want we can tell them.", I heard Angelo say.

We all looked towards Bella as she took a deep breath, trying to calm herself.

"You don't need to rush.", Romeo assured her, sending her a smile.

"Okay. I'll start from the beginning. As you know it was a bit of a messy divorce between our parents and Alessia left with me. It was fine at first. We moved to Pennsylvania until I was 3 so only a year or so. We moved quite a bit and then she met Mark. It was amazing just the two of us until Mark came. He got her hooked on drugs and alcohol and sh-", Bella chocked as she spoke.

"Do you want me to tell them bambina?", Luca said as he gave Bella a soft smile. She nodded her head in response before burying her head into Enzo's chest.

"Alessia got hooked on drugs and alcohol and started to neglect Bella. The neglect then turned to abuse which Mark also took part in. They would abuse her for the smallest of things. Mark also r-raped her along with his and Alessia's friends. Mark was arrested when she was 10 for drug distribution. Once he was gone, Alessia still abused her and allowed her friends to toy with Bella.", Luca finished as I felt anger rush through me.

That bastard.

I watched as Bella continued to shake in Enzo's arms.

My poor little bambina.

I couldn't take it anymore.

I stormed out of the room and headed straight for the gym, scared that if I stayed any longer, I would end up hurting Bella.

Without wrapping my hands, I went to the punching bag and began to pound at it.

That bastard.

Punch.

How could he do that to her?

Punch.

And how could Alessia do that to her daughter?

Punch.

We should have found her sooner.

Punch.

We could have stopped it all from happening.

Punch.

I felt the guilt in me begin to rise as I stopped punching the bag and fell to the floor, breaking down. All I could think about was how much we let Bella down. How much we failed to protect her.

I promise I will not let anything happen to her.

But I couldn't keep that promise.

A/N ~ Only a small chapter today but I hope you like it! Do you want to see how the others reacted? Let me know what you think. Stay safe <3