Mistress to a Monster

Turning to the front page, Milah looked over the words again.

She couldn’t remember exactly what happened to Alicia Russo. She hadn’t been the first daughter, but her beauty had been legendary.

Milah didn’t know if she wanted to read more or ignore it.

Would it be so bad to read about her relative? She wasn’t a grandmother but a great aunt to her.

Opening the book, she started to read once more.

I was a prisoner once again. I had tried to run away from my father, but my brother, Antonio had dragged me back. Like always, he was our father’s puppet. The firstborn son. He already coveted the ring he so desperately wanted. Of course, he already had a son of the same name.

Milah paused and did a rough calculation. Antonio, Alicia’s brother, would be her grandfather, which meant the son he had would be her father.

Wow, why didn’t people name their kids something different?

“Don’t you worry, little person. You’re either going to be called Daniel or … Georgina, or something. You’re not going to have the same name as anyone in my family, or your daddy’s.”

She hadn’t thought of Damon being a father, but at that moment, she very much knew it.

This was going to be bad. Part of her didn’t want to read this book. She had never met Alicia Russo before.

Valentino told me today that I was not going to belong to anyone but him. He would not allow my father to marry me off to anyone else. He owned me. No one else. There is no way a marriage could ever happen between us.

I’m a woman, but I’m not a fool.

De Lucas and Russos have feuded for generations. I don’t even know why they did, and to be honest, I’m starting to think they don’t know either.

So, he keeps me prisoner.

There are nights he comes to my room, and even though he doesn’t touch me, he tells me to scream. He tells me to beg him. I don’t understand why he is doing this, but each time he orders me, I do as I’m told.

I guess my father’s teaching has been good for something.

Not once has he raised a hand to me. There is no hatred in his gaze. No anger. Sometimes, he will bang his fist against the door, throw precious items. He broke a lamp that was so beautiful, it surprised me. The room would always look a mess, and then he’d come to me, tell me to cry, and as I started to weep, he’d tear at my gown.

When his maids came, I looked a mess. It looked like … he raped me. I don’t understand it.

Milah stopped reading and frowned. “What the fuck?” Was Valentino mental? Why had he acted that way?

Blowing out a breath, she read on.

Valentino kept Alicia prisoner for days, if not weeks. The only solace Alicia had was to sneak her writings into this book. To tell of the time she spent.

The irony was not lost on Milah that even though kept as a De Luca prisoner, Alicia found a sense of freedom.

As the day wore on, Milah had no choice but to put the book away and make her way out of the attic. She hadn’t put the catch on the stairs, so she was able to lower it and to climb down.

No one had found her.

Leaving the bedroom, she put her hand on the door and wondered if this was the very room where Alicia Russo was kept. There was so much about her family history she didn’t know. Tomorrow, she’d find time to hide and to read more.

She needed to know what was going on between Valentino and Alicia.

Why would the mad De Luca pretend to rape Alicia? Why go to that extreme? She had heard Valentino was mad beyond understanding.

Milah rounded the corner and gasped as she came face to face with Damon. “Crap, fuck, Jesus.”

“Wow, not what I was expecting.”