Page 41 of DeLuca: The Devil

Ahh his sister. Well, that explains the way she looks. I don’t know much about my husband, but I do know he’s over-the-top gorgeous. It must run in the family.

She comes over to my bedside and takes my hand, “Giada, I’m so sorry this happened to you, too.”

I glance at Domenic and then back to her, “I’m sorry, but I don’t remember you.”

Smiling gently, she says, “Oh, we only met once, thanks to this big ogre keeping you all to himself. I’m Dalia, Dom’s sister.”

I giggle, “Big ogre. Fitting.”

He growls and she waves her fingers at him, “Giada and I are going to talk. Run along now. I’ll let you know when you can come back.”

I’m shocked to my core when Domenic replies, “Fine. I’ll get a coffee.”

I laugh even though it hurts so much, “I can’t believe you talked to him like that. I don’t remember him, but I have a feeling most people don’t get away with that.”

She takes the seat beside my bed, “Only me and, well I guess you, now.”

Setting her purse on the table beside my bed, she sighs audibly, “You don’t know me, but I wanted you to be aware, you aren’t alone. I’ve been through a similar hell to what you have. I’m always here for you. You’re family.”

“Thank you. Domenic told me you were kidnapped. I’m sorry about your mom.”

A pained expression flashes across her face, “Thank you. We were taken as retaliation for shit Dom started, but I don’t blame him, I never have. It’s the nature of our world.”

“So, it seems.”

“We were both beaten and raped repeatedly. I didn’t think I would ever get out alive.”

I close my eyes because watching her remember is too much, especially when I know what it’s like.

“How did your mom die?”

Opening my eyes, I spot her wiping tears away, “They literally fucked her to death.”

I gasp in response, “I’m sorry.”

“As my father’s wife, and Dom’s mother, they blamed her. Thirty men took her over and over. She developed an infection and died. Do you know how relieved I was when they told me she was dead?”

She shakes her head as if she’s trying to push away the terrible thoughts, “I was comforted that they couldn’t hurt her anymore. Listening to her screams became unbearable. That was part of their game. Making me watch and listen.”

“Dalia, I’m sorry. God, that’s terrible.”

She smiles softly, “I don’t tell you this to make you feel bad for me. I want you to know, you aren’t alone, and you will get through this. It may seem impossible right now, but it’s not. It never goes away, but every day, the trauma dims ever so slightly until one day, you finally feel like you don’t wish you were dead.”

I close my eyes again, “It was so horrible. All I can remember eating before coming to the hospital for a year is dog food. We were kept caged like animals and forced to eat and drink from a bowl like a dog. Then we had to fight another woman. I had to kill other women with my bare hands to survive.”

A tear rolls down my cheek, “I may come from a mafia family, but I never thought I’d ever take a life. That’s not me. The worst part is my own father was one of my captors. One of my rapists.”

Dalia cries for me, actually cries for me, “I’m sorry. The men of this world are rarely good men, but that’s heinous even for a mafia don.”

More tears flow from both of us, “I always knew he didn’t care about me but that was more than I ever expected from him. It was like he enjoyed the pain he and Enzo gave me. Like, it was the best experience of his life. The louder I cried, the worse it got.”

“When did you lose your memory?”

I glance at her as I think, “I’m not sure, to be honest. Suddenly, I couldn’t remember being taken. I was just there. It was so confusing. Then, I woke up in the hospital with Domenic telling me we were married.”

She smiles, “I know he’s,” she is clearly searching for the word she wants to use, “difficult. Overbearing, but he really does love you, Giada.”

I laugh, “He’s a big overbearing ogre.”

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