Gentle For Her (Editing*)

Chapter Twenty-one

Leonardo

"I will tell you everything from the beginning but promise me, you won't lash out or anything." Savannah said looking me directly in the eye.

"Yes, I promise" I said but I was already ready to kill whoever hurt her.

"Okay let me start from the beginning and please don't disturb me until I finish." She said and I nodded stiffly knowing very well after this, I'm gonna hunt whoever that is down.

"So, it all started in high school I would say. It was me, Violet, Mario and Vasily. We were the popular kids, the it gang. We had promised each other that we're gonna be friends forever. I was the captain of the cheerleading squad and Vi was my right hand. Vasily and Mario were in the football team and obviously Vi was dating Victor who was captain of the football team. Victor's family was the French Mafia, Vasily's family was the Russian Mafia, Mario's was the Italian Mafia, my family were the hackers who worked for each of the Mafia and Violet's family was your typical rich family. Life of a high scholar, everything was going great until Vi got pregnant near the end of senior year and had to drop out. Vi and Victor never wanted Sandy, they often referred to her as a bastard child, but they had no choice. Vi's parents disowned her and she was forced to put up with Victor and his Mafia family. 2 years later after Sandy was born, Victor got high on drugs and mistakenly shot Vi who was reported dead but now is surprisingly alive. I was obviously hurt and devastated by my best friend's death. I went into a major depression, I shut everyone out until one day I met this other guy. His name was Yuri Smirnov. He was the definition of a perfect gentleman. He was handsome, kind, caring, protective, gentle, etc. He was the leader of a well-known Russian Mafia." Savannah said I was fuming after hearing Yuri's name. I'm gonna skin him alive when I find him.

"He encouraged me to go to college and study culinary because I always had a passion for cooking. He was the one who pulled me out of my dark place only to take me back there again. One night we went out for dinner just the two of us and the waiter at the restaurant was openly flirting with me, but I just shrugged it off. The dinner went well but Yuri didn't seem too pleased with the waiter. When we got home, he unexpectedly backhanded me" Savannah choked out, I could tell this wasn't gonna end well.

"Shhh, you don't have to carry on, I already get the idea." I said comforting her, but she shook her head and carried on with the story.

"I fell to the floor and asked him why he did that. He told me it was because I was dressed like a slut and that's why the waiter was flirting with me. I apologized although my dress wasn't even that revealing. He took out his belt and told me he's gonna whip me 10 times and I must say 'thank you' after each strike. I begged him not to do it, but he wasn't having it. I tried crawling away from him, but I got caught against the wall. That was the night he gave me my first beating. Then it became a constant thing, every time he came back from work and a deal wouldn't go through, I would get blamed for it and that earned me a beating. One night he was beating up me and I was just quiet enduring through the pain because I knew if I ran away, he would find me. That night Sandy stood by the door, and she stood frozen in place. She was shocked and scared, eventually her adrenaline kicked in and she came to try and fight him off me. But her being just a tiny little girl that didn't work, he threw her off and she hit the wall hard. There was blood oozing out her head and he thought he killed her. He yelled at me and told me it was my fault and that I should clean up the mess before he returned. He took off leaving me with Sandy. I hurried downstairs to Daniel who was the Mafia doctor. He said Sandy was she just hit her head a bit too hard. He stitched her up and told me to keep her at bed rest for a few days. I did as I was told, and she eventually healed, and the stitches were taken out. Yuri disappeared for a week after that incident and of course when he came back, he took out his frustration on me.