Rooted from Betrayal

Chapter 11: *Rosy's Advice*

It had been a beautiful morning and it had offered me a momentary distraction from my pain, however, sooner than I would have preferred, the phone on the vanity table had rang and a sweet female voice told me I had to get ready for breakfast which was in half an hour.

Thirty minutes was more than enough time and I used it to get ready taking my time so that I did not have to wait for the brother that would fetch me, and drown in my thoughts.

It was Nikolai who came.

Breakfast was uneventful and I had no problem eating, mainly because Draco, Mario and Geovanni were not present. Though Geovanni’s presence did not make me feel uncomfortable his actions from the night before would have been a distraction enough from my food because I would try and understand them.

After breakfast Rosy had lead me back to my room and when we had reached the door she opened it and walked inside. I was confused however I could do nothing else but follow her inside.

I left the door open.

She sat on one of the chairs for a short while her eyes taking in the room before her eyes landed on me. Standing next to the door. She studied my face briefly before speaking.

“You hate us, rightfully so. I do not blame you, I’d hate us as well if I were you. I’m not going to try and sway your heart, pretend to be your friend or make you look at us differently.

I won’t make you believe we are anything other than what we are; Mafia. But I will give you a bit of advice, taking it is up to you.

Forget your life back home, forget the snakes you called your friends and forget the life you could have lived because you are never going back home. I’m not threatening you, though you will probably think so. It is just the truth you won’t go back.

And the faster you allow that truth to sink in the faster you will find Italy is not as bad for you as life can be.”

After telling me that she had walked out, closing the door behind her leaving me angry and mostly terrified. I remember I had stayed in my room for the rest of the day crying and hating the world.

I had cried until my tears went dry and when it was lunch and that beautiful female voice with a thick Italian accent had called me and told me I should come down, I had told her I was not hungry and I would not come down.

A part of me had feared I was going to be reprimanded but no such thing had happened for the entirety of that day I had remained in my room feeling angry at myself for trusting the wrong people, angry at my friends for betraying me and angry at the Valastro’s for taking my life away from me.

I had felt betrayed and lost, not knowing who I was because everything I had defined myself with had been stolen from me, at least that was how I had felt.

More than anything however, I had been terrified, I was in a house filled with criminals I did not know how vile the things they were willing to do and though I had wanted to believe someone was going to find me, that maybe a police officer that was obsessed with the Valastro’s would find me and take me back home.

I had actually believed it for a while but after Rosy had told me that I was never going back home, I had known it was true because she had not said it as a way to communicate that they would find me if I escaped or anything of the sort, it had been the plain hard truth and it had shredded my heart into small bleeding pieces.

That day my hopes of ever going back home, escaping the Valastros—somehow—were crushed but not destroyed.

It had taken a lot more for me to truly accept that I would not see my home country again and I often still wonder if I would have gone through as much as I did had I listened to Rosy’s advice.

I wonder still if I would have seen the signs laid so bare in front of me and saved him had I not been so focused on getting back the freedom I believed was stolen from me.

However, every time I ask myself those questions I remember what it felt like waking up in the morning not knowing if it was the day I would finally start my duties as a toy or if suddenly for some reason they would decide I was of no use to them and kill me because they could not afford to have me running around screaming for anyone and everyone to hear that they had abducted me from my home country, bought me from my friend like a slave and illegally brought me to Italy.

I may not have known much but that on its own was enough to put at least a small dent in their armor so I would have had to die.

And because of all that I try not to think about how the best one of them would still be alive had I taken Rosy’s advice but sometimes…

Sometimes I fail.