LOGIN...❤️
Gianna ━⊰ ❦ ⊱━I snuck out of the house in the middle of the night, using the hidden passage Silvio had shown me.And then I walked and walked until my legs throbbed. The guilt inside my chest pressed down on my lungs until I could barely breathe.What had I done?The memory of the loud smack echoed in my ears over and over again. I could still feel the burn in my palm from where I had hit his cheek. The look of total shock in Raphael’s eyes flashed behind my eyelids every time I blinked. He hadn't been trying to take advantage of me. He had just been trying to hold me together while I broke. And I had treated him like a monster.A strange, hollow ache throbbed in the center of my chest. I missed him. It was a stupid, terrifying feeling, but I wanted him next to me. I wanted the sound of his breathing to drown out the screaming in my head.Without my tools, the itch under my skin was growing louder. My thighs felt like they were burning, begging for the blue current to make the noise
Gianna ━⊰ ❦ ⊱━"What have you been doing to yourself?" she wept, "My baby... what have you done?"I couldn't answer her. I couldn't even feel my own body anymore. I just stood by the open door, staring down at the pile of my tools on the rug, my eyes completely blank and empty. The room around me faded into a dull, distant blur as my mind retreated deep inside itself, into the dark, quiet space where her screams and her tears couldn't reach me.A slow heat started to burn under my skin. It wasn't the kind of anger that made you want to scream or throw things. It was a cold, bone-deep exhaustion. I was just so tired. But beneath the anger, a sharp spike of pure panic pierced my chest.Raphael.He was in here. I didn't look toward the bathroom door, but I could feel his presence. He was in here somewhere, probably listening to every single word, watching every single piece of my ruined life get dragged out onto the floor.A cold sweat broke out across my collarbone. I felt completely
Gianna | Age 15 The leather of the passenger seat was cold, even through my jeans. I pressed my back hard against it, trying to stop the shaking in my legs, but the tremor just traveled up to my chest. Outside, the highway was a blur of trees and empty fields. We were somewhere in the middle. Not Chicago anymore, but not yet Philadelphia. Just the empty space in between. The neutral ground. My hand sat on the gear shift console, my palm damp and freezing. Then, Leone’s hand slid over mine. His fingers were warm, and rough from the gym and the streets. One by one, he slotted his fingers between mine, squeezing until there was no space left between our palms. He did not look away from the road. His jaw was set, his dark eyes watching the asphalt ahead, but the grip he had on my hand was everything. I looked at our joined hands. His skin was tan against my pale knuckles. I took a shaky breath, the air catching in my throat. Seven years old. That was the last time I had seen her.
Raphael ━━ ⛓ ━━ The morning light hit the pale skin of her inner thighs. Hazel went completely still. Every muscle in her mother's face froze, the tears halting on her cheeks. Her mouth fell open in a horrified gasp. I knew what she was looking at. The bruises on the side of her thigh. Those bruises looked like they had been pinched hard, and right beside them, small, round, angry red marks, faint, circular burns. Those weren't marks from some accident. They were self-inflicted, I knew that, I fucking knew. It was the secret I had been waiting for her to trust me with, the truth I had patiently hoped she would one day tell me herself. "Oh, God," Hazel whispered, her voice barely a breath, her fingers trembling violently where she still held Gianna's ankle, "Gianna... I knew it..." Hazel let go of Gianna’s ankle as if the skin had suddenly burned her. She stumbled back a step, her weak left leg giving out slightly so that she had to catch herself against the foot of the bed.
Raphael ━━ ⛓ ━━ The frantic pounding on the door rattled the wood, but it was nothing compared to the sudden, wild panic that erupted in the girl standing across from me. Gianna froze like a rabbit caught in high beams. Her eyes went incredibly wide, darting from the door, to her own damp bathrobe, and then finally to me. "Gianna! I know you're in there!" her mother's angry voice boomed through the wood again, "Open this door this instant!" Gianna snapped. She bolted across the room toward me, her bare feet dragging on the rug, and grabbed my bare arms. Her hands were freezing, shaking so hard I could feel the tremors in my own bones. "You need to hide," she whispered, "Now. Raphael, you have to hide." I stood there, rooted to the spot, looking down at her. It was hard to take the threat seriously when she looked like this. Her hair was still damp, smelling faintly of sweet shampoo, and she was swallowed whole by that oversized, fluffy white bathrobe. Her cheeks were flushed
Gianna ━⊰ ❦ ⊱━ "Our setup," I whispered, my voice sounding small and breathless against his lips. "Just ours." "Just ours," he nodded. He was right. We didn't need labels, and we didn't need forever. We just needed the burning hunger that only we could give each other. I didn't give him time to talk anymore. I lifted my head and kissed him again, deep and hard, my tongue sliding back into his mouth. Raphael’s body went completely tight. His hands slid down my sides, his hot palms burning through the thin silk of my dress. He bunched the fabric of my skirt up in his fists, pulling it higher and higher until the cold air of the bedroom hit my bare thighs. He reached down, his fingers brushing the soft skin of my inner thigh, slowly moving upward toward the aching, wet heat between my legs. He wanted to touch me there. He wanted to slide his fingers into my slickness and feel how much I wanted him. The moment his fingers brushed against my most sensitive spot, a sharp gasp
Gianna ━⊰ ❦ ⊱━ The room was too big. It was too quiet, and it smelled too much like expensive flowers and floor wax. I lay in the middle of the massive bed, feeling like a speck of dust in this giant, cold mansion. I pulled the silk sheets up to my chin, but they didn't feel warm. They just felt
Gianna ━⊰ ❦ ⊱━ I stood in front of the full-length mirror, my hands shaking so much I had to tuck them under my arms. I was dressed in a white button-down shirt and black slacks. I spent ten minutes pulling my hair back, brushing it until every stray strand was flattened into a sleek, tight bun
Raphael ━━ ⛓ ━━ I leaned against the cold marble wall, my glass heavy in my hand. My brothers were all around me, a solid wall of dark suits, expensive cologne, and mean faces. We stood in the shadows of the hall, watching the reception like it was a funeral. Across the room, our father was a
Gianna ━⊰ ❦ ⊱━ I was still frozen, when Madeleine came jogging back down the stairs. She had a thick textbook tucked under her arm and a bright smile. The normalcy of it felt strange after the moment I’d just had with Raphael. "Ready?" she asked, her voice light. I nodded quickly, not trustring







