The Maid: Mafia Romance (Series)

Escape Plan

I hardly slept last night. I was so worried that even with the soft mattress and heavenly pillow, I still couldn’t sleep a wick. Half of my worry was centered on Giovanni and how he would be worried sick about my disappearance, and the other half was for my sister. After Lorenzo had kissed her, his phone rang. It was Giovanni. I panicked and shouted out his name when Lorenzo started describing all the cruel things he would do to me. I felt visibly sick until he ended the call and Amelia just slapped him in the face. She literally slapped him. Lorenzo got so mad, he literally dragged her out of the room and had me locked in this bedroom ever since.

They had brought in food and all the basic necessities for me to live a cushy life, if you could call being locked in a massive bedroom fit for the queen of England cushy, then, yep, it was a cushy life. But that still didn’t stop that gnawing feeling in my belly.

What was Lorenzo doing to my sister? And where was she staying, if she didn’t stay in this bedroom with me? Because clearly, with the way he’d treated her, she was one of his prisoners, too.

When did Amelia become Lorenzo’s prisoner? She never had the opportunity to tell me when Lorenzo came barging through the door last night.

It was already morning. The sun was peeking through the curtains, and the birds were chirping outside my window, a nice musical sound I’d hardly heard in New York. I opened the window and saw we were on a ranch of some sort. No tall buildings, just plain blue sky above and endless acres of green grass.

I looked down from my window and saw I was only one level above ground. An idea popped into my head. I had no idea where Amelia was, but the first thing I’d do when she arrived was to tell her of my escape plan. There was no way I was staying here. I belonged to Giovanni. I would not let them use me.

I leaned out the window, half of my body already tipping forward when I heard a door open from behind, followed by rushing of feet, before my whole body got pulled back up to a standing position.

“Jen, what are you doing?” It was my sister.

“Mel. I was looking out the window. Did you see? We’re on level one. If we use the bedsheets as ropes, we can escape from here.”

Amelia sighed as if I’d gone crazy. “Do you think I haven’t tried? I’ve been here for four months now, and in that time, I’ve done everything. It doesn’t work. Nikolas has too many guards. They will only capture us again.”

“Then do you expect me to wait here?”

“Is there a better way out?”

“I know Giovanni will come rescue me.”

“Giovanni? Who is Giovanni?”

“He’s my lover.”

“Jen, you have lover?”

“Yes. He’s the mafia boss Pa sold me to. We’re lovers, and he’ll come rescue me.”

“Jen. I’m sorry to disappoint you, but no one is coming to rescue you. Nikolas is also a mafia boss. He controls everything in this territory. He will not let another mafia boss just come take over his residence and rescue you.”

“Then why did he kidnap me? And why did he kidnap you? What did we have to do with him?”

“I don’t know how to explain this.”

“You don’t have to explain anything. Once I get myself out of here and find a way to contact Giovanni, I’ll come back and rescue you. If what this Lorenzo dude wants is money, I’ll make sure Giovanni comes back to pay for your ransom.”

And as soon as I said this, I started pulling at the sheets and tying all the ends together, but Amelia kept on untying them again. “Jen, you can’t be serious.”

“I am very serious, Mel.” I kept tying the sheets together.

I refused to listen to her. She may think it was good idea to stay here and let Lorenzo control her, but I wasn’t like her. I could never be like her. I was not some sweet girl who anyone could control. Heck, even when I first became Giovanni’s maid, I used all my skills to survive and demand the right to my freedom. Not live in this beautiful golden cage like this.

At her last attempt to stop me, Amelia took away the bedsheets in my hands and shouted at me, “Stop, Jen. Stop it. I can’t let you go. Do you hear me? I won’t let you go. You have absolutely no idea what Lorenzo is capable of. He can hurt me, but he can’t hurt you. Do you hear me? I won’t let him hurt you. If you stay, he won’t hurt you.”

Her words hit me deep. I stopped and slowly lifted up my gaze to meet hers. “He won’t hurt me, but…but….” And suddenly the event from last night all made sense. Lorenzo dragging Amelia away. Her, disappearing for the whole night, and only reappearing now. I took one step closer to her, and then two, until I fell into her arms and hugged her so tight. “Mel, did he do something to you last night?”

Amelia avoided my eyes, her lips trembling. I was scared to hear the words coming from her mouth, but I had to know, so I asked again, my voice raspy, “Did he do something to you, Mel? Tell me. Please. Did you make him promise not to hurt me if he could…”

My words were left unspoken. But she knew what I’d meant.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“He did something to you last night, didn’t he?”

“Jen. Please don’t make me say it. I…”

She didn’t elaborate further.

“Mel. I’m so sorry. I was just selfish. All I wanted was to save myself. I wanted to go back home. I wanted to go back to Giovanni, and I forgot that you have been here all this time.”

“I’m in debt to Lorenzo,” Amelia finally said. “I can’t go.”

“What did you do? Why are you in debt to him?”

“Pa owes him money. Even in this lifetime, I could never repay him.”

So it was the same problem. Money. Our own father, selling both his daughters for the sake of a debt payment. What kind of father was he, to do that to his own kids? And my dislike for him increased by another tenfold. I didn’t dislike him when he’d sold me to Giovanni. I had only wanted to search for answers, find out his reasons as to why he’d sold me. But this, knowing this knowledge that he’d also sold Amelia, that was the last straw on the camel’s back. I decided to banish him from my family tree. I would only have one kin now, and that was Amelia. I didn’t care where he disappeared to, anymore, because at the end of the day, it was his two daughters who had to suffer.

But this money problem was also good. It was simple to solve. Use money to fix the money problem. It was easy as making cheese omelets.

If I’d only known this sooner, I would have eased Amelia’s pain long ago. If only I had known she was here, as prisoner of Lorenzo, I would have asked Giovanni to save her a long time ago.Exclusive content © by Nô(v)el/Dr/ama.Org.

But it was not too late. It was never too late. Because I was here now. When Giovanni came, he’d take both of us home, and Amelia and I could go back to live our normal lives again.

“Giovanni will come,” I assured my sister, grasping her hand tight. “He’ll come to rescue me. He’ll rescue you, too. He’s rich. He has money. He loves me. He’ll do anything to make me happy. And you are part of my happiness, Mel. Come home with me, please.”

“I want to get out of here, but I’m not willing to risk losing your life.”

“Mel. Stop it. I’m not going to die. No one can kill me. You have no idea what Giovanni is capable of. He’ll protect me. He’ll run into fire and cross the ocean, just to be with me. I’m sure he’s on his way now.”

And just when I had finished saying those words to convince my sister to come with me, rescue had arrived in the form of Giovanni’s loud voice downstairs. I took my sister’s hand and opened the door, thanking Ma up in heaven that the door wasn’t locked, and ran downstairs to see Giovanni in a verbal combat with Lorenzo.

“Gio,” I called out his name and ran straight into his arms.