Chapter 1 - Someone help me!

V E L I N A

By the time my eyes open, they feel heavy, along with the rest of my body, my gaze drifting around me as I try to figure out where I am...

That's when I feel it, the immense heat around me.

As my eyes focus on what's closest to me, I realise that I'm on the floor, dust covering the surface, and I feel too weak to move, as if my veins are filled with cement, and my head spins as I experience vertigo...

But why can't I move...?

The fire roars so loud it almost drowns out my breathing, spitting heat, flame and smoke into the night.

Night... how is it night already...

The last time I checked, it was the afternoon. I was at the mansion, my father finished a meeting with the family and the rest of the men, and issuing orders for the day. Operations of the syndicate were mandatory for me to know as the daughter of the Don, but I was the last born, so even if I knew everything... it didn't make a difference...

I decided to leave for the afternoon, just to clear my head and be out of the house and away from these people, but before I could reach, I felt someone grab me... and place a cloth over my nose and mouth.

That's it. That's why I feel like this... I was drugged...

As soon as I inhale, smoke fills my lungs, causing me to cough violently as my eyes sting. My pitch-black hair covers my face, and I push it out of the way to try and get a better look at where I am...

Then I hear it... a voice...

Her voice.

“Well, you look awful, Velina.” She says, her tone soft yet taunting, and that's when I turn my head and see her.

Kyla... my sister...

"Kyla...?" I ask her, my brows furrowing in confusion.

She has on a gas mask that covers her entire face, but I can still tell it's her, based on her bright blonde hair that falls over her shoulders and glows against the orange lighting. I had always been the complete opposite of my sister and the rest of my siblings. They were the golden boys and girl with beautiful blonde hair and green eyes... and I was the black sheep. My eyes are a fiery hazel, and my hair as dark as coal, something that I inherited from my father, who has the darkest hair between my parents, but even his hair isn't as dark as mine. My mother always told me I was cursed, and maybe I was... especially if I've already suffered in all the 24 years of my life.

She stands a few feet away, perfectly clean in a white dress that looks ridiculous inside a burning warehouse.

"What's happening... we... we need to get out of here..." I say, my mind still in a haze as I try to bring myself to stand, but instead,d my whole body still feels extremely heavy.

"You were always so oblivious, Velina... or maybe you really are just an idiot..." She says to m,e and that's when my heart drops, and I realise exactly what is happening...

“This was you... You drugged me...” My voice comes out hoarse and thin. "How could you do this...?" I ask.

But the truth is... I know exactly what she's capable of. She hates me, and she always has. So has the rest of my family. They've all treated me like I was next to nothing. Like I wasn't a Merrano. Like I wasn't one of them.

Kyla tilts her head the way she always does when she wants to appear confused, like she cannot understand why anyone would question her.

“This is just a little test,” she says, and her tone stays soft, almost friendly, which makes it worse.

"Mom, Dad, Rolando and Carmelo are already on their way. They should be here any second now." She continues while gesturing toward the flames licking the crates stacked around the room. “Who do you think they will believe? You or me?” She lets out.

"Mamma, please!! She's gone crazy, she's set fire to everything, and she's about to hurt me too!! Please hurry, I'm so scared!!" She exclaims in melodramatic fashion before she begins laughing hysterically. "Someone should give me a damn Oscar!"

I stare at her because even after everything she has done over the years, part of me still struggles to accept how easily she says and does things like this when I am meant to be her blood.

Kyla crouches beside me and removes the mask from her face, pressing it down onto mine and fastening it tightly before I can react. The rubber seals around my cheeks, and suddenly the smoke fades enough for me to breathe properly again.

But the kindness of the gesture lasts less than a second.

She drops to the floor and rolls herself across the ash scattered on the ground like a mad woman, rubbing it over her own face and body until she looks like someone who has been struggling inside the fire instead of the one who started it.

She remains on the floor, and she reaches into the pocket of her dress and pulls out a small box cutter.

For a moment, I think she is going to cut me, and it forces me to shuffle away from her in fear of what she will do.

But instead, she slides the blade across her own forearm, making blood spill down toward her wrist almost instantly.

I watch it happen, and I can not move, which feels like the cruellest part of all this because I understand exactly what she is doing.

Then, she drops the cutter right beside my hand.

I glance around fearfully, uncertain of what to do. And that's when I notice a few workers standing near the entrance of the warehouse, the few who still come here when the family needs something moved or hidden away from the main properties, watching from across the room with pale faces.

And Kyla notices them too.

“If any of you say a word,” she tells them casually while wiping blood across her sleeve, “I will make sure none of you sees the sun tomorrow.” She warns, a sinister look in her eyes as she glares at them. They all stare back at her fearfully, knowing exactly what she's capable of doing,g before they quickly scramble away.

Once they're gone, Kyla studies the scene like someone admiring a painting. And that's when we hear it. The sound of tyres screeching and commotion in the distance.

Kyla then grabs her bleeding arm, twists her face into panic, and screams as loud as she can.

“Help! Help me! Mamma! Papa! Someone help me! Someone please!!” She shrieks, her screams echoing through the warehouse and disappearing into the night outside, and in a matter of seconds, the warehouse doors burst open...

I turn and watch as people flood into the room, and I quickly realise that it is our parents, rushing in with a group of armed men behind them, and my two older brothers, Rolando and Carmelo...

“Kyla!”

I recognise my father’s voice immediately as he charges forward, his gaze landing on my sister.

The rest of them rush in together, their shoes pounding across the concrete floor while the fire crackles around them.

Not a single one of them looks at me first.

They go straight to her...

“Dad, Mom, it hurts so much,” Kyla cries while clutching her arm as blood continues to drop to the floor. “Velina lost her mind. She tried to burn me alive. She said I do not deserve to belong to the Merrano family. She even cut me.”

Her voice breaks in all the right places.

It is almost impressive.

Their eyes move across the scene exactly the way she planned, landing on her bleeding arm, her tear-soaked face, the frightened expression she has practised since childhood.

Then they look at me.

I am on the floor with the gas mask strapped to my face and the cutter lying beside me.

For them, the story is obvious.

My father’s expression twists in a way I know all too well, and pure fury forms on his face...

The fury of Don Russello Merrano...