Labyrinth of Desire

2 - Spanish Mafia

TW- Violence, Abuse, degrading names

Angelina's POV

I am searching for my family, brothers, and my father. I haven't seen them in over six years. My mother said that they stopped looking for me when I was 15.

My heart shattered when I found out that my father didn't care anymore.

I was supposedly in hiding with my mother from the Russians, she didn't know what happened in Russia, nor did she ever ask.

She sent me for therapy, but it never worked. I still had night terrors, and in every single one, it had always led me back there, in that stupid cell with that stupid flat, lumpy mattress and one of his stupid men trying to get their way with me or just hurting me in general.

I never used sleeping pills when I was home, because I didn't want to become dependent on them. It was mind over matter, and I knew over time they would fade away.

All my mother thought was that I was a traumatized little girl. She didn't know about Dimitri, or that I killed Nikita. It was rumoured that he was murdered in his home, but no one knew by whom besides Dimitri.

My mother didn't know how they tortured me for simple slip-ups, the kind of slip-ups that made me want to die on the spot. She didn't know about the scars I had hidden underneath my clothes.

FLASHBACK

"You're still slacking!" Ivan yelled at me, whipping my bare stomach again. "I'm trying; it was a mistake," I cried, out of breath. "Iv-Ivan, please stop, it hurts." He threw the whip to the ground and lifted me by my neck.

"It's Mr. Romanoff to you, and you know you deserve it. You know what they say, little Angelina, lazy girls always get punished."

I wasn't lazy; I was fourteen. Fourteen-year-olds make mistakes, and I happened to make one today; I fell off the 20-meter-high tightrope and sprained my ankle badly.

Ivan, Nikita's cousin, told me not to wear the harness. He said, "You don't get harnesses when you have to do this on missions."

He dragged me back to the cell, holding me by my neck. My air circulation was being cut off, and I almost couldn't breathe.

"You are ungrateful. You are worthless. You are a little slut. There is no hope for you. I don't know why my cousin is so invested in perfecting a little brat like you." After he said that, I was dropped to the ground right on my untreated ankle. Ivan picked up the whip and continued to beat me until all I saw was black.

When I woke up, I was chained to the wall, sitting against it on the thin mattress I usually do not sleep on; my arm hung above my head, which prevented me from being able to lie down.

This only meant one thing: that when they'd figured out I was awake, Ivan would come in for round two.

END OF FLASHBACK

Then Mother brought me to Spain and explained her position as a leader in the mafia.

We moved into a relatively big house, for two people. It was a double-story house with 5 bedrooms and a large garden that overlooked a beautiful river.

When she died, I became the leader of the Spanish mafia. She put me in her will; all I had to do was agree and then I got everything she ever owned. She wanted me to have it, so I did, for her legacy.

She had shown me how she ruled, so after a few bumpy months, I was on track.

The members got to know me, and I very quickly gained their respect. I showed them that I respected them as individuals, and we all helped each other.

It was almost like my mother was preparing me to take over for her one day; she helped me keep fit by training me well, feeding me the best home-cooked meals, and sometimes even letting me help cook.
She loved me, so I did this for her, not as a favour because I loved her too.

When we were in Spain together, she taught me so many things. She was one of, if not the wisest person I've ever known.

She told me things about life, relationships, and love. When I couldn't sleep, she used to make me this 'golden tea', a mix of warm milk, honey, and turmeric, and tell me stories of when I was younger.

The stories never worked, but the tea always did; sometimes she'd even put fresh ginger in it. She learned all about cooking when she lived in Asia and India for a year.

She studied law as an exchange student and lived with a family of 8 people; the eldest woman of the house taught my mother everything.

She wrote down every recipe and made a book for my mother. Then my mother showed me everything she knew about global cuisine and gave me the book with all her perfected recipes. It's one of the things I've kept of hers up until this day.

Soon after my mother's death, I started looking for my family. With my father still being the Camorra Mafia leader, it had been difficult to find them with such little knowledge, but also very dangerous.

I was at risk of some way being recognized by anyone my family was associated with.

For the last few months, I ran my Mafia from Italy, with help from Aurora. She has been with me since we were 14; Rory is Puerto Rican; she was sold to the Russians by her father, a gang leader, in return for cleared debt. I don't know what I'd do without her.

When I killed Nikita, she was released as well. We lived together in a vacant apartment for a while until I found my mother, but I always kept in contact with her. After I moved to Spain, I asked Rory to come with me, and she did.

On my 17th birthday, my mother gave me a heavy yellow envelope with a card attached to it. She told me to treasure it with my life and only open it on my 18th birthday.

Although I asked why she couldn't give it to me a year from then, she said that time would tell me why.

She told me to use the contents when I desperately needed it and told me it would make more sense when I turned 18 in a year; I left it in my cupboard, in my memory box.

Every girl had a box with all the things that were sentimental to them. When I left it there, I didn't know I would be spending my next birthday without her.

On my 18th birthday, I sat on my bed and opened the envelope; Inside were 8 stacks of cash, a case that contained an engraved dagger that read 'AMC' in cursive-my initials, a fake passport, and ID with the name Amara Perez, and a set of keys.

After I looked through the items, I read the letter that was folded in half neatly in the envelope.

𖤐⭒๋࣭ ⭑

Word count: 1210

N. J.