His Caged Dove -Mafia Romance (BOOK ONE)

One: Dove

One:

Dove

The God loved the birds, so He created trees miles and miles long for them to fly.

Man loved the birds and created steel cages to trap them.

The tales Mother told me when I was young stayed with me, especially one that pertained to freedom and birds. In fact, my name was, ironically enough, Dove. The symbol of peace, tranquility, and faith that my mother had that perhaps one day, we could both be free from the man who placed us in a steel cage. With just enough room to flap our wings and food to live, we sat all day, inside the cage, longing for the freedom.

Freedom would be the last thing I will ever obtain, especially if I am Mateo Genovese's daughter.  Known to be the most feared man, and the second Italian family in command of the crime family in New York, I was rendered a nuisance with no good.

The only good I can do, in his eyes, would be to marry into Robert Gaggi's family for a stronger alliance, as both families had been in turmoil of power to take over if Galileo Romano, who is the Italian's boss of bosses' were to pass. I swallowed as a cold shiver ran through my body at the thought of my fiancé's, Robert's, name. Betrothed to him since I was fifteen, it was a night I could never remember.

The day Mother died, and the day Robert took my virginity against my will to prove I was a virgin. Snapping my attention back onto my copy of Little Women on my lap, I gingerly flipped to the next page as I kept my head drawn down.

My band aided hands and wrists ached whenever I tried to do anything, not that I was even allowed to do much to start off with. Besides sitting in the room with two guards in front of the bedroom where only Father and Robert could enter, I had nothing to do. I wasn't allowed to do anything.

A small window allowed little imagination as of what was on the other side. It was almost as if it was placed there in order to mock me that I could never escape. Shuffling between planned outside events that Robert had planned was the closest I'll ever get to freedom. Even then, I was under the watchful eye of the guards.

I thought I would spend the rest of my life in the cage, destined to be beaten into submission by Robert, destined to always be mute unless spoken to. I've done so for the past twenty-two years of my life. If I was lucky, I won't live till past thirty like my mother.

They may have caged me, but they'll never make me submit. Never break my will. It was the only thing I owned that they couldn't rob from me. It was something Mother never gave up as well. A small smile formed at the thought of her.

Suddenly, the sound of two men echoed the halls and I immediately stilled. The first one was of my father. The second one, I wasn't so sure. It was muffled from a distant, though it was low, thick, and velvetlike. My father never had visitors come into his mansion, unless they were about to be executed or were part of the Italian families. Always serious, and never for the intent of just talking. Imagine my shock to hear Father's laughter echoed the long hall, reaching to my bedroom. It was nervous sounding, not façade.

I knew I had to keep my head down and buried into the book. Unless I was spoken to, I had to look down. It was a way to demean my existence since I was seven, taught young by Father. If I didn't, I would be starved or worse, beaten or taken against my will by Robert.

But like all curious animals, especially that of me, I couldn't help but gingerly sneak a peek. My father never laughed, except maybe when he was torturing someone for information. I wanted to know who was the soul that was able to get a laugh out of him, even if it was one of nervousness.