Page 142 of Vicious Little Princess

Thisroom.

This tiny fucking room.

The lone lightbulb in the center of the ceiling that had such a creepy and kind of sickening shade of muted yellow light emanating from it. And the chill and the damp, the kind that went right through your bones.

No wonder I was shuddering.

It wasn’t just adrenaline because I’d woken up bound after being beaten and stolen away from the Manor.

My jacket had been taken, so my arms were bare in my strappy black tank. Thankfully, I’d been wearing pants instead of a skirt or a dress, so at least my legs weren’t suffering from exposure to the freezing damp as much as my arms were.

Another involuntary shudder took me over as I stared out at the room.

I couldn’t believe he’d done this.

My father was really heading right into the psychological torment of it all.

This was the cold room in the Leone Estate. A place in which I’d spent far too much of my childhood.

When my mom had gone back to work after I’d turned four, my father had agreed to work from home running his despicable empire so I wouldn’t be raised solely by nannies.

Little had she known that it would have been a much better option for me.

It wasn’t her fault. She hadn’t realized how sadistic Santino Leone was capable of being to his own blood. At least not back then.

He’d started by locking me in this room whenever I’d had a tantrum until I shut up and stopped making a sound. That had evolved to shoving me in here whenever I’d shown any emotion or any sort of reaction that he hadn’t approved of. I’d be in here for hours in this tiny, damp and cold space until I’d begun to feel the walls closing in on me and started screaming to be let out. That had only led to him keeping me locked in here longer. So many times I’d screamed until my voice was hoarse.

It was how my claustrophobia had been born. Something I’d managed to combat over the years and learn to deal with—or bury too at times. Yet, he was clearly trying to awaken that in me.

Trying to unnerve me and get under my skin.

Trying to break me.

That would just be the beginning, no doubt.

His words to me that day in his office when he’d forced me to sign that sickening contract played on my mind.

“You’re sentencing your own daughter to a life of abuse, degradation, and humiliation?”

“I warned you that there would be a price to pay for severing ties with the Family.”

He’d been almost gleeful about handing down that punishment to me.

Going by Angelo’s message, he now knew that I’d struck at him, so it would be a whole lot worse.

Basically, he wouldn’t let me leave here alive.

And it wouldn’t be a quick kill either. He’d want me to suffer.

I gritted my teeth, forcing myself past the panic that being in this room was inducing, focusing on what needed to be done instead.

“This little baby needs taking care of, Caterina.”

“This child is a gift.”

“You’re carrying our baby and that’s everything.”

The guys’ words ran through my mind.

---