CHAPTER 5: Rosalia.

With all the strength I had, I twisted towards her, and she stumbled back. But before I was able to reach the journal, she turned around and went off the bed. I quickly cornered her, but she was fast enough to fist my hair, using my momentum to pull me into the ground like we were children fighting over a toy.

“Argh!” My throat burned as pain exploded in my scalp as she yanked my hair.

Davina always did pry, push and test boundaries like they were non-existent. I never had a moment of secrecy except this journal, and sure, she’d read it before, whenever I pissed her off, but not today. 

“Relax!” she chuckled, licking her lips, panting. “God, you’re so dramatic.”

“I hate you!”

“No, you don’t,” she grinned. “And what do we have here? ‘... blah blah, I imagine him at my window. Just standing there, watching, waiting for me to open it. I don’t know why, but I want him to climb through. I want him to grab me, to take me with him. I want to feel what it's like to belong to someone who’s dangerous. Someone like Dominic.’”

“I knew it! Oh my God, Rosalia,” She gasped, theatrically, of course, “You want to sleep with Dominic De Laurentiis. Our Dom.”

“He’s not our Dom,” I snapped, struggling under her. 

She pressed into me. “Wow. That explains why you keep sneaking out of dinners early. You’re not just sad and mysterious, you’re horny and mysterious.”

“Vina, please…”

But she was already reading again.

‘He’d kiss me rough. He’d pin me to the wall, whisper things into my ears. He wouldn’t treat me like I was fragile. He’d make me beg. He’d make me scream.’

“Damn,” she dragged the word like it was the smoke off a joint. “You need therapy. Also... I think you need a birth control talk.”

I wanted to disappear. Melt. Turn into dust and vanish through the floorboards.

She laughed again, but it was breathy this time. Her voice softened as she glanced back down at the page. “So that’s why you’ve been all jumpy and quiet lately? You’ve got a whole fantasy life with Dom running wild in your head. I mean, I get it, but he's Enzo’s little brother. That’s like mafia incest. I wouldn't want your life to be like mine.”

“Davina, please,” I choked out, eyes shut. “Please stop.”

“My little sister is in love,” she resumed back to kneeing me, but this time, my face and chest was against my wooden bedframe, while she tugged at my hair. “So, sisterly advice, start with someone your age who actually still has homework. And you know the rules… I meet them first.”

I was too tired and too heavy. I felt like something inside me had been peeled open and now I was trying to sew it shut without thread.

A loud knock slammed against the door, and I moaned indistinctly.

“Back off, Matteo,” Davina shouted, tearing her eyes away from my journal. “This is sisters business.”

“Signorina,” Matteo’s voice came through the door. “Mr. Capello just arrived. He’s asking for you.”

Davina rolled her eyes. “Go play bodyguard elsewhere. And I get it… Rosie’s gonna be yours when I’m gone, but while I’m still here, she’s mine,” she smiled wickedly at me, still breathless from laughter. “She’s fine. Ain’t you, sissy?”

“Understood, ma’am.”

“See? Even Matteo gets it,” she turned back to me.

I couldn’t answer. My face was still pressed into the bed frame, my lips had started trembling.

“Hey…” My sister's smile faltered. “Why aren’t you fighting back? I’m literally reading your diary. That’s supposed to be a war crime, right? You should be biting me or something.”

She didn’t read out loud this time as she looked down at the page again, and I bet her eyes changed because I felt her hold on me loosen. That was all it took for me to twist, pulling my arm free, and yanking the journal out of her hands. I stumbled back to the floor, curling around it like it was the last thing I owned.

Dom had carried me to his chamber and sent for his personal maid to help me get cleaned up and changed. I'd been gone for over four hours… what was supposed to be a quick thirty-minute absence had Matteo nearly hyperventilating.

He came looking for me with a full battalion, and I was grateful his panic hadn’t alerted my father before I returned.

I’d lied, saying I went for a stroll and gotten lost before Dom found me. Matteo had calmed, barely, but it didn’t stop him from nearly getting into a fistfight with Dom when it took another round of convincing for me to promise I’d tell no one, especially not my father.

In exchange, Matteo made me agree to one condition… he’d always be an inch away from me even if I needed to pee. He didn’t care. I hadn’t had a choice but to agree, though if I hadn’t, it wouldn’t have changed a thing.

Davina was on the floor, hair spilling out in waves, her face was pale, and she just remained there, motionless. Seconds later she sat up slowly, and I stared woundly at me. I could see the raw emotions but couldn't find the words to describe them. Neither of us knew what to say. 

She forced herself to crawl towards me and wrapped her arms tightly around me that I could barely breathe but I didn’t want her to let go. Her face buried into my hair and I felt her body shiver.

“Oh God,” I thought I heard her whisper.

My lips quivered and the tears I so desperately needed refused to fall.

She pulled back only slightly and her eyes met mine again, and they were red and blown wide.

“Dad…” she managed.

“No…” the word tumbled out like broken glass as I shook my head, whimpering. “No. No.”

Davina was going to tell him.

The salvatores will hurt us or I, alone, might turn up dead in less than twenty-four hours.