His mafia Queen

The first day

'Where are you going grace, do you really think anyone will ever want you, your damaged goods' he screams in my face as I'm kneeling down on the ground clutching onto my now broken wrist.
'I told you your mine and your never leaving, when will you learn! Look what you've made me do!'

'I,I'm s-sorry' I stutter to him between sobs trying to breath through the pain my wrist is in.
He leans down his body towering over me as he grabs a handful of my hair pulling me up so my face is closer to his. His face covered with an evil smirk and a dangerous look in his eye, 'your sorry' he laughs pulling my hair harder, 'You won't ever get away from me Grace, when will you get that into your thick head'

Opening my eyes in a panic, I can feel my body trembling and sweating ridiculously, I sit myself up trying to calm my now erratic breathing.
'It was just a dream, it was just a bad dream' I tell myself while taking deep breaths trying to calm the panic attack I can feel building,
'he's not here, he hasn't found you. Just calm down grace'
These nightmares have been a recurring thing since finally escaping and running from my ex boyfriend Matteo 2 years ago, we were high school sweethearts and everyone thought we would be together forever- hell even I did I always thought we would be married and grow old together. He wasn't always bad not at the start anyway. It all started after his dad started getting involved in his dodgy business. Matteo changed he became darker and a different person, I'm still not sure about what exactly went on I tried to ask him about it but he would always get angry and start lashing out so I soon learned to just avoid it completely, I guess that's when I should have first left.

Pulling myself up out of bed and sitting myself on the edge I glance over to the clock - 08:30am - at least I managed to sleep through the night tonight. Tonights the night I finally start my new job at the new Cassini opening in town, I've been living in London for 3 months now and finding a job was a lot harder than I thought I went for lots of job interviews but never had any luck.
It was only because my friend Poppy mentioned the Casino opening that I even knew anything about it.
I met poppy the first day I moved here when I came to see about a flat share which turned out to be with her! We clicked the moment we met and she's become one of my closest friends, I've told everything about my past and she's never once judge me or looked at me any differently and that's what I love about her.

Finally standing up out of bed I make my way downstairs to the kitchen making myself some food, Poppy's already left for work, she works in a restaurant down the road and she loves it! She finishes today early afternoon and told me she'll come home and see me before I head off for my first day at work.

The day went by so slowly I started work at 7 this evening and after spending the day binging on Netflix and having a little pamper I now had almost 3 hours before I needed to leave, it wasn't far away only a 20 minute walk. I hadn't managed to get myself a car yet as any spare money I had went on essentials and the odd night out me and poppy would go out on.
I miss my little car I had before I ran away but it was too a big a risk to take it, it was a bright yellow little thing so wasn't the best get away car I could have!

I hear the door open and shut before hearing poppy shout out to me 'Grace are you home?'
'I'm in my room, I need to grab a shower and start to get ready' I shout back to her
Her head pops round my bedroom door her blond curls hanging down around her shoulders with her usual beaming smile 'okay you get a shower and I'm going to get changed when your out I'll help you get ready for your first shift at work, don't stress it'll all be okay' she tells me before blowing me and a kiss and disappearing to her room.
But I couldn't help but stress this is the first proper job I've had in years and I can't afford to mess it up, I take a deep breath and get myself into the shower trying not to over think about work tonight.

Finally after 2 hours with poppy having almost burnt my head twice with her hair straightener, I was ready. I had my hair down and straight, Smokey eyed make up with red lips. Wearing my uniform which was a white blouse, black pencil skirt with black shoes. I felt confident and looked good, I've never been overly confident in my looks i was around 5ft 6, lightly tanned skin, I had hazel eyes and long dark brown hair, I've always said I was around average - when I was with Matteo he would always tell me how horrible I looked no matter how hard I would try to please him, looking back now I realise just how much he put me down and thanks to Poppy in the short time I've known her she's helping build me back up!