The Mafia Princess They Threw Away Chapter 04
I immediately reached for the money.
“I earned that myself.”
“Give it back. I need it for college.”
Sofia lifted her hand out of reach.
“Money you stole? You think I’m giving it back?”
I grabbed for it.
We grappled with each other.
Then I heard footsteps outside the room.
“Elena,” Luca called. “We need to talk.”
Before I could answer, Sofia suddenly let go.
She stumbled backward and fell straight onto the broken pieces of my piggy bank.
Blood appeared almost instantly.
She screamed.
“Elena! Why did you push me?”
I froze.
I looked at Sofia on the floor.
Then at Luca standing in the doorway.
For a second, I couldn’t understand what had just happened.
Luca rushed to Sofia and pressed a hand over the bleeding cuts.
Then he looked at me.
There was hatred in his eyes.
Mom and Dad came running at the sound of Sofia crying.
They barely even asked what happened before turning on me.
Mom slapped me.
Dad kicked me hard enough to knock me down.
“You steal money, and now you’re hurting Sofia too?”
“We should never have brought you back! You should have been killed by your kidnappers and left to die out there!”
They kept hitting me until I could barely move.
Everything hurt.
I was starting to lose consciousness when a pair of shoes stopped in front of me.
Luca reached down and pulled me up.
“That’s enough,” he told my parents.
His voice was almost gentle.
“Elena probably didn’t mean for it to go this far.”
“I’ll take her out for a drive. Maybe we can talk and clear things up.”
I looked at him gratefully.
I wanted to thank him for stopping them.
I wanted to tell him I really hadn’t pushed Sofia.
But when I looked into his eyes, I froze.
There was nothing gentle in them.
Only disgust.
He hated me.
Luca led me downstairs.
As we passed the sitting room, Sofia was lying on the couch while Dr. Hale, our family’s private physician, cleaned and bandaged her wounds.
She caught my eye.
Then she smiled.
And silently mouthed,
Bye.
The sky outside was almost black.
A storm was coming.
Luca drove so fast that I had to hold tightly to the seat belt.
I tried to explain what had happened, but he wouldn’t listen.
He kept driving until we reached the Iron District.
I didn’t recognize the streets.
Rain had already started to fall.
Finally, Luca pulled over.
“Elena, grab something from the trunk.”
I obediently got out.
Cold raindrops struck my skin as I walked toward the back of the car.
Click.
The doors locked.
I turned around.
Luca lowered the window.
There was a cruel smile on his face.
“Honestly, when you agreed to end the engagement, I almost felt sorry for you.”
“But the second you got home, you went after Sofia again.”
He looked at me with open disgust.
“You really don’t know when to stop.”
“Stay here and think about what you’ve done.”
Then he hit the gas.
The car disappeared down the street.
A second later, the rain came pouring down.
I stood there alone.
And suddenly understood what Sofia had meant when she said goodbye.
I think—
I’d been thrown away.