Vicious Proposal: A Dark Mafia Romance

Oligarchs. The rotten, selfish bastards. I hated Nervosa for dragging me to that meeting and hated Silvano for being a brash, arrogant shit. And I hated myself most of all for going along with this.

But thirty years ago, back before my mother became an Orchard, back before Redmond and I were born, there was a murder.

And I was going to find out who did it, and why my mother’s rightful inheritance was stolen.

Chapter 5

Melanie

Dear Diary, still talking to you like you’re a person, what a total dweeb. Daddy came home drunk again. Mommy screamed at him and Cedric got involved like a total dummy. Daddy didn’t like that, and I thought they would come to blows, but Mommy put a stop to it. I sometimes wonder when he’s going to kill us all. At night I lock the door, afraid Daddy will try to kill me in my sleep. He threatened to do it once. “Go ahead and pout, little bitch. I’ll strangle you while you sleep if you don’t like my rules.” All because I wanted to quit dance lessons. Oh, well. Daddy can’t last forever, can he? Nothing does. They say it goes fast. So far, every day lasts forever, and I can’t wait for it to be over. Love ya! Connie.

I read that passage over and over. It broke my heart every time: Mom used to be so young and so innocent, but a darkness lurked in her family. I didn’t know her father was abusive growing up, and it wasn’t until I found the notebook that parts of her history became clear.

I knew what she went through. Her father sounded worse than mine, but there were similarities: the violence, the threats, the anger. Redmond took the worst of it, just like it sounded like her brother, Cedric, did the same.

But something happened. I didn’t know the full story, only pieces. My grandfather died when my mom was still young, around the same age as me. She ran away from home, but her brother stayed behind—and was given everything. All the money, all the property. He took over the family, while Mom was given nothing. She met and married my dad a few years later, and as far as I could tell, she never went back home again.

I tried asking Mom over the years about her childhood and about my grandparents. She wouldn’t say much, only that things were complicated in her house, and she’d rather not go into it.

I respected it. For a while, anyway.

But the notebook held too many secrets, and I was determined to unwind them.

Sarah came into the dorm around six the day after my meeting with Nervosa. I slid the composition book under my pillow and smiled sweetly as she dumped her bag on the floor and collapsed into her bed face down, groaning.

“Long day?”

“I didn’t sleep last night.” Her words were muffled by the pillow. “I had the first calculus test of the semester.”

“First?”

“There’s a test every other week.”

“Holy hell.”

“I know. I’m going to die, Melanie. My brain’s going to explode.” She struggled to sit up. Bags hung under her eyes. “How’d your date go?”

“It wasn’t a date.”

“Whatever. How was it?”

I hesitated, thinking. “It was acceptable.”

She laughed gently, shaking her head. “That’s a really weird way to describe a casual meeting.”

“I’m aware.”

She chewed on her nails, studying me. Her hair was a mess, and her clothes were rumpled. She really did look like she’d stayed up all night. I hoped she didn’t burn herself out because of this stupid class.

“I saw him, you know. When he brought you back to the dorm.”

“You did?” My eyebrows raised. Nervosa insisted on walking me home after we’d run into those men. Looking back though, I couldn’t be sure they’d been watching us at all—I had to take Nervosa’s word for it, and he was notorious for mind games.

Even so, I’d warned Palmira, and she’d promised to stay vigilant.

“I know him. Well, I know of him.”

My mouth dropped open. “Excuse me? You know Nervosa?”

She nodded, eyes tight. She wasn’t smiling, and her normal, sunny demeanor, though lately dimmed a bit by her obsessive studying, completely disappeared.

“He’s got a reputation. Not a very good one. Popular with girls, if you know what I mean.”

“He sleeps around with Stanford students?”

She shrugged and gestured vaguely in the air. “The ones with money and connections, anyway. The ones that can get to him. A lot of people at this school are willing to do whatever it takes to succeed, especially in a place like Palo Alto.”

I clenched my jaw. It didn’t sound like Nervosa—sleeping with women and giving them connections to the tech industry? That sounded like something a sleazy angel investor would do.

But I didn’t understand how else Sarah could possibly know him.

“I guess I should be careful then.”