Mariella grew up in the foster care system, abused every day until she found solace in the most unexpected form; Mateo, the son of an Italian mob leader.
Fate brought the two together, but when it tears them apart, how is she supposed to cope? Espe...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Chatter could easily be heard from my spot in the upstairs bathroom. My feet, turned lead, were stuck in place like a thousand-year-old statue. Vivienne and Angelico ran past my frozen figure, excited to meet the friend I had told them about.
Scraping my sock-clad feet from the tile, I began to make my way to the front foyer, where everyone was presumably gathered. I knew that Jen was quick in getting herself together because when I managed to limp my way down the long stairway, Vanessa and Jen were audibly enthused with each other.
Vanessa's infectious chuckle had Jen clutching her heart, bent at the waist, and obnoxiously giggling. What the hell was going on?
Two tiny hands appeared, wrapping around my leg when I was a good twenty feet from everybody. I glance down to discover a small blonde girl, looking especially shy. It is to no surprise that Vivi was hovering by me. Her brother stood, showing off his outfit to who I could only guess was Franco Bianchi, Vanessa and Gabri's son.
Despite her hands being wrapped around my leg, she couldn't get herself to look away from their general direction.
"Come on, Vivi, let's go say hi to everyone." I nudged her, picking her up when she insisted with the raise of her arms.
"Who is that boy, Mama?"
"That's Franco. He's daddy's friend's son."
"He's mean."
"Why's that, baby?"
"I tried to talk to him, Mama, I did, but he just ignored me to talk to Angel. Angel doesn't even like people, why would he talk to him but not me?" She pouted up at me, speaking the most I'd heard in a while. Angel is quite talkative, although it is true what she says. He generally complains about people after interacting with them.
"How about we go introduce you to Vanessa, and she can get Franco to come say hi to you. Does that sound okay?"
She relaxed her once tense shoulders, slightly nodding. It was as though her shy front that had magically disappeared upon meeting Mateo, had been put up once again.
I walked the small distance to my best friend and Vanessa, both of whom had calmed themselves down after their laughing fit. Jen's back was towards me, so Vanessa noticed me first, her face immediately lighting up.
"Mariella!", she exclaimed, holding her arms out towards me, "You look absolutely stunning, practically glowing!"
Her arms enveloped me for only a second as she avoided squishing the small girl in my arms. I let out an awkward laugh at her extreme compliments. Those were words to describe a Victoria's Secret supermodel, not me. I was no Naomi Campbell.
