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I regain consciousness and find myself lying on the floor in a bedroom.
I can still hear the music from the party. It’s a relief to know I’m at the Parisis’ mansion and haven’t been taken away while I was out cold.
Pushing myself up, the left side of my face aches and feels swollen. I lift my hand, but the moment my fingers brush over my bottom lip, I flinch from the pain.
With a groan, I stand up and glance around me.
I’m in one of the guestrooms. There’s a bed and a dressing table, and everything is decorated in the lace and frills Mrs. Parisi always loved so much.
Then I remember what happened. My stomach sinks from the weight of the fear pouring back into me.
The Cosa Nostra is going to force me to marry Mr. Greco. The man is so much older than me.
It’s insane!
My breaths start to come faster, and I wrap my arms around myself.
How did you let this happen, Rosalie? You’re so stupid!
Who gets kidnapped twice in a lifetime?
Panic drives me to the window. I open it wide and glance down at the ground beneath.
Suddenly the memory of when Viktor kidnapped me pops into my head. I remember how he apologized for hurting me when he yanked me back into the house to stop me from falling.
Not once after that night was there a bruise on my body.
Unlike now. I have a busted lip, and my face probably looks like I ran into a wall.
I’ll be forced into a marriage, and it doesn’t take much imagination to know what will happen. Mr. Greco will rape me. He’ll force me to have his children. He’ll beat me.
Viktor did none of those things.
God.
Rosalie, you made a big mistake, and now you’ll pay for it in the worst way possible.
I crouch by the window as the realization shudders through my body.
I’d give anything to be back with Viktor and Luna. He made me feel safe and treated me with respect. Even when I fought him, he never raised a hand against me. Those last two days, he made me feel so loved and cherished.
I’m so glad he was my first because if I don’t manage to escape, the memory of Viktor will have to carry me through the dark days ahead.
God, I had a chance at a love of a lifetime, but I let it go because of my family, who turned out to be bigger monsters than the Priesthood.
The disappointment and heartache create a storm in my chest.
Enough! Find a way out.
I stand up and glance down at the ground again. “God, this was so much easier when I was a kid,” I mutter as I throw my leg over the windowsill.
I hold on tight as I swing my other leg out, then find my footing between the holes in the trellis. Slowly, I start to move down, searching for spaces to hold onto.
Suddenly, I hear the wood snap. I suck in a breath, then the trellis pulls away from the house, making me shriek.
No!
I climb down further, but the wood must be worn with age, and it gives way. Another shriek escapes me as I fall. I hit the ground so hard my teeth clatter, and a sharp pain flares through my right hand and wrist.
