“I work for the mafia, Ariana,” he said flatly.“That’s how.”
“Oh...”I muttered, blinking slowly.
Oh, indeed.
I’d forgotten — or maybe I’d just forced myself to.Mafias.Just when I thought I was free, the past clawed its way back to control my life again.
My eyelids grew heavy.I wiped at my face, absentmindedly poking at the food with my spoon.The only sound left in the room was the quiet clink of metal on porcelain — until Matt reached over and stopped my hand.
“I would never hurt you,” he said softly.“If anything, I’m here to protect you.”
“Protect me?From what?”My brows furrowed.
Matt didn’t answer.He just shook his head and released my arm.
“Finish eating, Ariana.You need rest.”
His reassurance meant nothing.My mind was chaos, screaming at me to ignore everything, but my heart...my heart was telling me otherwise.I needed to get out.Every time I thought of Mom, my stomach twisted — she must be worried sick by now.
I glanced up at Matt, trying to meet his eyes, but he wouldn’t look at me.He just stared at the floor, shame written all over his face.It made me wonder what else he was hiding.
He might have been my therapist, but I knew one thing for sure — he wasn’t telling me everything.
***
“RIGHT, SO WE NEED Aplan for you, because realistically, this clearly isn’t healthy.”
Matt’s voice cut through the silence.I turned my gaze toward him where he sat, scrolling through an iPad — the same one he’d been glued to for the past hour.He was working, or at least pretending to.Beside him, Mia nodded in quiet agreement, her voice softer, more sympathetic when she spoke to me.
I looked away, my fingers fidgeting restlessly in my lap.I knew my habits — skipping meals, ignoring hunger — and I knew exactly what they’d done to me.The endless doctor visits, the warnings.Matt knew, too.He’d been there through all of it.He said it was a psychological thing, a reaction to the trauma — the abuse, the assault, the near-death that had branded itself into my brain.
Even now, my heart thudded painfully when I thought about Nicola...and how close I’d come to not surviving him at all.
Matt held the iPad out to me suddenly.“I made a diet plan for you.Please follow it,” he said, his eyes pleading.
I didn’t even look at it.My anger toward him hadn’t cooled, and I wasn’t ready to forgive the lies.Maybe my silence was the only way to make him leave.
When I didn’t respond, Matt sighed, defeated, and set the iPad on the bed beside me.Then he reached for my hand — careful, gentle.“Mia will help you if you don’t want me to,” he said softly.“Please don’t do this to yourself.”
That was what infuriated me most — the calm way they acted, like this was all normal.Like I wasn’t kidnapped.
The audacity.
They’d ripped me away from my home, from my mother, and now they were sitting here pretending this was some kind of recovery program.Rehab, maybe?A twisted version of healing under lock and key.It didn’t seem to bother either of them that they’d stolen me from my life — that they were keeping me somewhere I didn’t choose to be.
And Alessandro...
The fact that he was here — closer than he’d been in years — and yet refused to even look at me...that broke me more than I’d like to admit.
At that moment, all I wanted was my mom.I wanted to tell her everything — that I’d seen him, that he didn’t want me anymore.But there was no way to reach her.No phone.No freedom.
Just like before.
Just like Nicola.
Except...this time, it was different.Not as cruel, not as violent — but the fear still lingered, the helplessness still burned in my chest.
“Ariana,” Mia said gently, breaking my thoughts.“Why don’t we walk around the garden?Get some fresh air.I promise it’ll make you feel better.”
