Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 81292 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81292 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
The bedroom on the top floor had an access point. With no one around, she pulled the lever that lowered the steps, and she looked around to see if anyone would see her.
After climbing the steps, she glanced around the attic and couldn’t make out anything. There was not enough light.
Descending the steps, she rummaged around the room and found a flashlight that had some working batteries. Once again, she made her way up into the attic, and for a second, she debated if she should do this. A lot of bad things happened in attics in horror movies.
Pushing aside her silly thoughts, she shone the flashlight around the room, and there was no big bad monster threatening her. She breathed a sigh of relief, but she heard a commotion coming toward the room.
Glory had become rather persistent of late, and she didn’t wish to upset the young woman. Pulling the steps up, Milah sealed herself into the attic just as the door to the room opened.
“I’m sure she is fine,” James said.
Glory released a growl of frustration. “Damon told me I have to keep an eye on her. He doesn’t want anything to happen to the baby.”
“Milah can take care. She is a good woman, Glory.”
“I know. I know, but … I … think she knows that Damon, you know?”
“Asked you to be his spy?”
“I don’t like doing it, okay? Milah is … she is so nice and sweet, but I think she knows. She is more closed off now than ever before. I just hope she knows that I’m her friend, regardless.”
Milah refused to feel bad. She didn’t just have herself to worry about anymore, but her child as well.
James and Glory talked for a short time and then left.
Milah didn’t want to leave the safety of the attic. Turning the flashlight back on, she glanced around the space. There was nothing there. She took her time, shining the light on every single thing, and then stopped. Tucked away, right in front of her, behind a beam, was a box.
She reached for it, blowing off the dust that had settled over it. The lock was hanging free, and she removed it, opening the box to find a … book.
Shining the light on it, she saw it was a leather-bound book with no distinctive patterns. Milah picked it up, glanced over it, and then opened it up to the first page.
I was taken today.
Men came, threw a bag over my head, and there was darkness. I’d never been so afraid in my life. I didn’t know where they were taking me, but then I saw him, a De Luca, not just anyone, but, Valentino De Luca. My father was going to marry me off, and now I’m trapped.
I’ve only met Valentino a couple of times before at social events. Parties, and each time, he has … intrigued me. Unlike some men who leer at me, telling me how beautiful I am, Valentino looks into my eyes. He doesn’t stare at my body. He sees me.
No one else has ever seen me.
Milah slammed the book closed. This couldn’t be. There was no way … was this the Alicia Russo?
She’d heard whispered tales of the most beautiful Russo being stolen away by a De Luca, but that tale was dark. It was deadly.
What the fuck was this?
Turning to the front page, Milah looked over the words again.
She couldn’t remember exactly what happened to Alicia Russo. She hadn’t been the first daughter, but her beauty had been legendary.
Milah didn’t know if she wanted to read more or ignore it.
Would it be so bad to read about her relative? She wasn’t a grandmother but a great aunt to her.
Opening the book, she started to read once more.
I was a prisoner once again. I had tried to run away from my father, but my brother, Antonio had dragged me back. Like always, he was our father’s puppet. The firstborn son. He already coveted the ring he so desperately wanted. Of course, he already had a son of the same name.
Milah paused and did a rough calculation. Antonio, Alicia’s brother, would be her grandfather, which meant the son he had would be her father.
Wow, why didn’t people name their kids something different?
“Don’t you worry, little person. You’re either going to be called Daniel or … Georgina, or something. You’re not going to have the same name as anyone in my family, or your daddy’s.”
She hadn’t thought of Damon being a father, but at that moment, she very much knew it.
This was going to be bad. Part of her didn’t want to read this book. She had never met Alicia Russo before.
Valentino told me today that I was not going to belong to anyone but him. He would not allow my father to marry me off to anyone else. He owned me. No one else. There is no way a marriage could ever happen between us.