Promised To The Don: The Runaway Mafia Princess novel Chapter 7

Alessia

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I scrambled to my feet, heart pounding so loud I couldn’t hear anything else.

I blinked at him, eyes wide, breath caught in my throat. I didn’t know what to do with my hands, with my body, with the heat crawling up my neck like I’d been branded.

I had never been kissed before, not by love and definitely not like that.

He cocked his head slightly, like he was admiring a painting that didn’t impress him much.

“You really thought you could talk shit and walk away?” he murmured.

His eyes flicked down to my lips, my swollen, bitten lips and then right back up to my eyes, smug as hell.

“Now you’re tainted by the inbred clown prince of Liguria. Wonder what that says about you.”

Tears stung my eyes before I even knew they were there. Hot, sudden, blinding. I turned on instinct, didn’t look back, didn’t breathe, just ran.

Their laughter still echoed behind me, but it sounded far away like it was underwater.

I ran through the sand, past the fire pit, the music, the bodies. I didn’t care where. I just needed to be gone. My breath came in uneven bursts like I couldn’t get enough air.

My chest locked. My throat burned. Panic bloomed wide across my ribs.

I staggered up the beach and into the dark, past the edge of the lights, tripping through gravel, seaweed and grass. My hands were shaking as I pulled out my phone, fingers barely working.

I hit Salvatore’s name.

It rang once, “Alessia?” he called, “What’s wrong?”

I couldn’t speak. My mouth cracked open uselessly and nothing came out.

“Alessia—?” he called my name louder now.

“I—” my voice broke. I pressed a hand over my mouth and sucked in a ragged breath, like I could trap the panic inside and force it back down.

“Alessia. Talk to me.”

“Can you come get me?” I finally choked out.

There was silence on the line for half a second. Then he asked, “Where are you?”

I looked around wildly, rocks, ocean somewhere behind me. I had no idea.

“I… I don’t know.” I hated the way my voice sounded, small and scared, like I’d just woken up from a nightmare.

“Alessia, listen to me,” Salvatore’s voice dropped, the tone he only used when things were serious. “Open your phone. Send me your location. Right now.”

My fingers shook so badly I almost dropped the phone but I did it. I opened the map, hit the share button, and sent it. A little blue dot flickered on the screen.

“I got it,” he said a second later, “Stay where you are. I’m coming.”

The call ended, the screen went dark and I was alone.

I dropped to the ground hard, my legs just gave out. The sand was cold, or maybe I was. I didn’t know the difference anymore.

And then the tears came.

Ugly, gasping sobs that ripped straight out of my chest, the kind I couldn’t hide, couldn’t swallow. My face crumpled before I could stop it. My hands covered my mouth, but it didn’t matter. It just spilled out.

And all I could think about through the nausea clawing up my throat was the kiss.

That kiss.

My first kiss.

He took it. He stole it. Right there in front of everyone. In front of people laughing. People watching. People who didn’t stop him. People who clapped.

He didn’t care that it had been my first or not. He didn’t care that I was shaking. He didn’t care about anything except proving a point that he could shut me up. That he could humiliate me in front of all his little friends and no one would lift a finger to stop him.

And that’s what he’d do again over and over, for the rest of my life.

Because that kiss wasn’t a kiss. It was a preview of what marriage to Rino would be like.

It would be a lifetime of being pinned in place, silent, obedient, used when he wanted, paraded when he felt like it, ignored when he was bored.

Property.

That’s all I’d be.

A thing with his last name stamped across it. A ring on my finger like a noose around my throat.

My lips still tingled. They felt bruised. I wiped at my face with the backs of my hands, but the tears just kept coming.

I hated him. I hated the way he touched me. I hated the sound of his laugh. I hated the way his fingers had dug into my scalp and made me feel small, like nothing I said or did mattered.

He saw it as his right.

Because in our world, women were just collateral and I was already his.

Even if my body hadn’t been taken yet...

My future already had.

Headlights cut across the beach road. I saw the familiar black car long before it stopped, Salvatore.

The passenger door popped open with a hard click. I wiped my face quickly, smudging the tears, not hiding them. I got in and slammed the door shut without looking at him.

The second it closed, he pulled away, “What happened?”

I stared straight ahead, trying to slow my breathing.

“Alessia.”

I didn’t answer.

He slammed a hand against the steering wheel, “Talk to me. What the hell happened down there?”

My throat burned, but no words came out. Because if I told him, if I said it out loud, it wouldn’t just be my problem anymore. It’d become a Capone problem. A political mess. A scandal. Salvatore would lose his mind and put a bullet between Rino’s eyes before the sun came up. Then his father would retaliate, and the whole mafia world would bleed because of what happened on a beach.

Because of me.

And none of them would ask how I felt. None of them would care about what it did to me. Papà would be disappointed. Mamma would cry and call me reckless. Everyone would talk. I’d be the girl who let a Lombardi get too close.

So I did the only thing I could.

I swallowed the truth.

And I lied.

“They made fun of me,” I whispered.

Salvatore blinked, “What?”

I swallowed, “His friends, all of them. They were playing some stupid game and they started making fun of me, of how I talk, of being American. It got ugly.”

He let out a sharp scoff, dragging a hand down his face. “Christ, Alessia.”

I turned to him slowly, eyes glassy, my breath catching as I tried to keep the tears down. “You think that’s nothing?”

“You’re crying over that?” he said. “Over a bunch of spoiled kids laughing at you on the beach?”

I didn’t answer.

“You’re a Capone,” he snapped. “You think our name was built on soft feelings? On running away and sobbing?”

He kept going.

“You let them rattle you, embarrass you. And now you expect me to what? Storm the beach because you couldn’t handle being teased?”

I wasn’t teased. I was kissed without consent and thrown to the ground like trash.

But I didn’t say it.

I just turned my face back toward the window, jaw clenched so tight it ached.

Tears stung at my eyes again. Isabella reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. Her touch was so gentle it made me want to sob.

“When your father made that match, when I first heard Rino's name, I hoped, I prayed, really hard that he’d be different. That you’d escape it. That maybe… he’d love you soft enough to leave you whole but he won’t. And you won’t be whole again after this. I’m not going to lie to you like my mother did to me. I won’t hand you fairy tales while they feed you to wolves.”

Her eyes dropped to our hands, fingers threaded tight.

“because when I look at you, and I don’t see my sister-in-law. I see a little sister. I see the girl I used to be before this life wore me down,” she looked back up at me, “And it kills me to see them do it to you too.”

I opened my mouth to speak but nothing came out.

“You know how this world works, right?” Isabella asked gently.

I nodded.

“Your father's honor is stitched into your spine, Alessia. His legacy lives in your choices. His promises live in your vows. And the weight of all that, that cost, it doesn’t fall on your brother. It falls on you. You pay for his alliances with your body. Your heart. Your future.”

My chin wobbled. I didn’t want it. I didn’t want any of it.

“And if you think it gets easier after the wedding, it doesn’t. It just gets quieter. You learn to smile through bruises and bite your tongue until it bleeds. You figure out when to speak, when to moan, when to vanish. You don’t stop hurting. You just get better at hiding it.”

The sob hit me before I could stop it. I shook my head, crying harder now.

“They’ll take your name. They might even try to take your body. But don’t you ever let them take your soul. Do you understand me?” Her voice cracked, just slightly. “They can’t steal that unless you give it to them. So don’t. Don’t ever give them your hope.”

She exhaled, slow and long, as if she’d been holding that in for years.

“I never did. I kept mine,” she whispered, “I’m waiting for my sons to grow up. I know one day they’ll have the strength to stand against their father. And when they do...” her eyes flicked toward the door, “It ends with them.”

I looked at her, my throat thick, “It’ll be too late for us,” I said quietly.

She smiled sadly, “Yeah, but Vincenzo won’t trade his daughter for alliances. And Adriano won’t sell a woman off to settle a blood debt. Maybe we don’t get to leave... but we’ll leave this world a little softer for the girls who come after.”

I swallowed hard, blinking away my tears, “I don’t want to marry him,” I whispered.

She didn’t try to lie. She didn’t offer false hope.

She just pulled me into her arms and held me, “I know,” she murmured into my hair, “I know, my sweet girl… I know.”

We stayed like that for a long time, I hadn’t realized how long I’d gone without being held. I pressed my face into her shoulder and let it all spill out.

When I finally pulled back, my cheeks were wet and my voice barely worked. “Do you think he’ll hurt me more?”

Her fingers brushed the tears off my face with a kind of reverence, as if she hated every drop.

“I think Rino Lombardi is exactly what this world made him,” she said gently. “And I think it doesn’t matter whether he hurts you on purpose or by accident, it’ll still hurt.”

I looked down at my lap, hating how small I felt.

Isabella reached out and tilted my chin up, “Your father loves you, Alessia. More than he knows how to show. I’ve seen it. Even when you don’t feel it, it’s there. And if you tell him what happened, if you tell him the truth, he will listen.”

I blinked, unsure if I believed her.

“He’s many things, your father,” she went on, “but he is still a Capone. And no man, not even Rino Lombardi, gets to touch a Capone daughter without honor, not before vows. What Rino did, it goes against everything your father stands for. It spits on his pride.”

She paused, looking into my eyes.

“You still have time. Rino isn’t your husband yet. This isn’t sealed. If you stay silent, they’ll think you’ve accepted it. But if you speak now, if you make him see, it might change something.”

I looked away, “I’m scared.”

“I know you’re scared. You have every right to be. But silence will cost more than your fear ever will. I know, because I paid that price. I paid it with my voice, my body, my dreams.”

I looked at her, and she looked like every woman who’d ever wanted to scream but had to whisper instead.

“I’m still paying for it,” she said.

Tears burned behind my eyes. “What if he doesn’t believe me?”

Isabella gave a sad smile. “Then say it anyway. Say it with your spine straight and your voice loud. Because if you don’t stand for yourself now, there won’t be a self left to protect later.”

And in the silence that followed, I realized something.

I couldn’t stop what was coming but maybe, I didn’t have to go quietly.