Oblivion [18+]

Chapter 23

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The girl was now not a child. But a curious teenager. She was observing her grandmother's every move and she was learning. Nonna was so proud of her but didn't dare to say it too often. Her heir was a woman and she knew what that meant for her not only to rule but to survive this life. She taught her lessons the hard way and never showed weakness in front of her. She didn't play by the rules she made them stricter.

Maybe her granddaughter would hate her for that. Maybe there were days she wished she wasn't born at all or at least not in this family. Nonna knew because she had thoughts like that at her age. Even now she was thinking about what if...what if her son was here? Would he approve of her methods? Most certainly not! But then again if her son was here everything would be different...

Nonna: Are you not hungry?

The girl was playing with her food, spinning her fork around the plate without taking a bite of anything. She looked up at her grandmother and shook her head.

Nonna: Did something happen?

The question was rhetorical. She knew something had happened. But she wanted to hear it from her granddaughter's lips.

Brielle: I just...some guards were talking today and I overheard them.

Nonna raised an eyebrow wondering how that was going to go. Guards, maids, traders. Everybody talks and everybody has nothing to say. It's either gossip, rumours or misinformation.

Nonna: So?

Brielle: It's just they were talking about you and grandpa. They said he kidnapped you and...raped you when you were sixteen.

The silver lady remained expressionless. Her granddaughter was turning sixteen this year. To think that something like that happened to her was scary and unfair. Yet she was raising that girl to become merciless, cunning, untrusting and certainly undefeated. And that road wasn't paved in roses.

Nonna: Don't believe everything you hear.

Brielle: So it's not true, is it?!

There was a glimpse of hope at her voice that made the older woman's heart twitch.

Nonna: Not everything you'll hear about my relationship with your grandfather is true. But one thing...

The girl was waiting for her to finish holding her breath. But a shadow of regret, pain, anger and nostalgia has clouded over Nonna's eyes.

Nonna: He broke me...

***
Matteo's POV

I watched her sleep in the middle of the night. I was supposed to be in a different room getting ready for my wedding but I simply couldn't stay away from her. Not to touch her, not to see her, not to feel her near me was a torture on its own. She had me bewitched and I didn't really care at this point.

That was not my plan though. She wasn't supposed to have me wrapped around her little finger, drown in her eyes or addicted to her lips...no, that's not how I wanted this to go. But she changed the rules and I like a fool obeyed.

The past few months watching her becoming a dangerous little vixen, a woman able to handle a knife and a gun and how she was fascinated by the power of poisons, maybe that should scare me but it only made me want her more, knowing she was withholding such a dangerous knowledge! Knowing that not only her looks but her mind could also kill while she was mine, mine alone made me feel a satisfaction I've never before in my life experienced.