La Principessa

Chapter 6

Cherophobia (N: chair-oh-foh-bee-ah) - The fear of happiness because they believe that
every time they feel too happy, something bad comes and ruins it.

•••

ANTONIO'S POV

I met evil in the form of those who were meant to be my parents when I was just a child. Whose role was to be loving and caring. But no, they were anything but that. So, I looked out and essentially raised myself since I was a kid. I might've been young but I was smart enough to know that people like them never change.

Who else was meant to protect me but myself when they only cared about them? They always picked favourites and treated each child differently. I never expected a lot from anyone in my life because in return it would result in nothing but heartache and disappointment on my part. But I guess now looking back at it, some attention and love would have been nice. Perhaps my heart wouldn't have dulled and my world was still lit with some fucking colour.

Evil took away the only person I had ever treasured. I met the fucking evil when they sent away the only person who didn't hate me, for reasons that weren't her damn fault. She was a baby, younger than me and the events that took place weren't her fault at all, and now she is dead because of them. They were crazy, so when they did that to her, I ran. I finally had an excuse to run far away from those who acted as if I was invisible and wasn't worth their time. I ran when I overheard their plan to send me away but it was too late.

Those fuckers who abused me caught me and did what they could to damage me. It worked, I'm all sorts of fucked up because of them.

I fled when I was thirteen and finally had enough of them and their insanity. Every day was the same, wake up and serve them and have no purpose in this world. I spent the majority of my childhood being invisible, the useless brother who was only a backup plan, to a boy who wasn't so invisible anymore since all they saw was me.

They saw me and while at first I basked in their so-called affection, it soon turned into something that made me helpless and so, so fucking weak. When the initial shock of them forcefully taking me went away, both the man and his wife did things to me that still bring terror to my body every time I think of it, of them, the nightmares forever plaguing me.

They both violated and corrupted everything in their sight and damn if I wasn't their favourite toy. Neither of them cared about anything but themselves and each time they damaged me some more, they proved to me every time that everyone is the same.

I thought that everyone was evil and corrupt, that no one, especially those in the mafia would have an ounce of kindness in them but I was wrong. When I stole from a small Russian gang to buy myself something, anything to survive and encountered near death, a man saved me and showed me genuine compassion that no one in my life ever has.

It stunned me to silence when I found out he was the leader of the Cosa Nostra. I always thought, shouldn't they be aggressive and cruel? The leaders I met before were exactly that. But the man was funny and kind, and when he took me to his home to meet his family, I thought it was all a sick joke, a sort of revenge to get back at my biological family but they all welcomed me into their home with open arms.

I was an asshole, but they knew my background of stealing and fighting, and yet they still accepted me and gave me a second chance at life with a home that had everything I was ever missing. 

"Okay, what do we know of the situation so far?" My mamma said as she looked over in the direction of the room where the little girl was currently getting examined by multiple doctors. When they saw her, they immediately rushed her to one of the rooms. They talked in a panicked way that made me and my parents even tenser, and fuck if my heart didn't drop at the look on the doctor's faces upon seeing her.