After breakfast, the girls and I decided that we wanted to go out shopping as well as spend some time together to get to know one another, and, of course, I agreed. Who would pass up the chance to go on a shopping spree? Could never be me bitch.

I told the girls about Liyana and they said that they'd love to meet her too. So I send a quick text to Liyana letting her know.

Text message chain below:

Liyana : Yeah sure ;)

Liyana : WAIT BITCH SHUT THE FUCK UP. WHO DID U SAY YOU'RE GOING TO THE MALL WITH?!?!?!

Liyana : Of course I'm coming bitch, is that even a question.

Liyana : love you too babes End of text message chain.

After that, I went into my closet to find a substantial amount of my own clothes filling the walk-in-wardrobe (perks of being a mafia leader: you can order your men around to do things for you, like bring you a closet full of clothes) and chose an outfit.

I chose to wear my cropped, grey, sleeveless Christian Dior sweater vest paired with my grey trousers and my white and grey Air Force mids. As for my accessories, I put on some chunky gold hoop earrings, a gold necklace, a couple of gold rings and my light grey sunglasses. I also styled my hair in voluminous beach waves and did some makeup because I felt like absolute shit today as a result of my panic attack that I got when I woke up from my nightmare this morning.

After I was ready, I made my way downstairs in hopes of finding the girls ready to go. However, when I got downstairs, I only found Amara speaking to Romeo.

Amara sees me and waves me over "hey Amélie, you're kinda early, the others love to go above and beyond so they take forever to get ready, no matter the occasion."

Laughing, I reply "don't worry, Liyana's like that too."

"Amara, can u give Amélie and I a second" his harsh voice cuts through our conversation.

God, I can't bear to look at him after our 'interaction' this morning. I can already feel my cheeks becoming flushed.

"A please would be nice asshole." Amara mutters under her breath as she walks away. Same girl. Same.

"So you didn't want to tell me that you girls are going out?" He asks in a tone that's pissed off.

"I didn't think we'd need to. So drop the pissy attitude" I snapped at him "I'm a grown woman that can take care of myself and others. Plus there will be multiple guards coming along too. So I don't want to hear whatever lecture you had in mind of giving me. Thank you very much." I reply in a clipped tone.

His dress-shoes echo against the tiled floor as he makes his way closer to me. His hand reaches up, wrapping around my neck, choking me, his thumb guiding my chin to look up at him before going back into place and choking me again. Not too hard that it hurts but hard enough to awaken a desire within me that's never been awoken before. His actions send a gush of pleasure straight to my core, igniting a fire inside of me. I've never felt like this before, then again I'm technically still a virgin and the first and last time I did something like that with a man, I didn't choose to, so...

"I'm well aware of your capabilities mia belleza [my beauty]," he begins, his thumb stroking my bottom lip back and forth "I'm pissed off about the fact that you thought you could go shopping without my card amore [love]."

"I don't need your financial aid, amore." I state, mocking him, "I'm pretty well off by myself, and if I were you, I'd watch how you answer me this time. I don't bode well with misogynistic comments." I warned him.

Keeping his eyes trained on me, he answers, "Amélie, when you're in my presence, you'll never even have to pay a dime. Just take my card and buy whatever your heart desires. Buy 7 new extravagant mansions, 15 new sprits cars, 23 new handbags and 67 pairs of heels for all I care. I don't care how much you spend baby, as long as it's on my card, feel free."

"I'm a spender, I don't hold back when it comes to shopping." I warn.

"Well then I guess it's a huge coincidence that your soon-to-be-husband is a zillionaire Amélie." He taunts.

God, just the way he says my name sends another pool of heat straight to my core, wetting my panties. If he were to just unzip my trousers and slide his hand down to my pus-

My inappropriate thoughts were cut off by the girls coming downstairs and Romeo removing his hand away from my neck.

"You girls ready to shop 'till we motherfucking drop?" I ask, my tone cheerful, because shopping works wonders to soothe my aching heart after a day filled with traumatic flashbacks. What can I say? I heal my depression and anxiety with a little bit of retail therapy. No harm done there. At least I don't let my intrusive thoughts get the best of me when I'm upset or anxious.

"Hell yeah bitch!" They all reply, pushing past Romeo and I and rushing out of door, to the car.

Just as I'm about to leave, Romeo takes a hold of my hand and spins me back around to face him. He places his black card in my pocket and says "just for safe keeping, okay?" He shoots me a triumphant smirk and leaves a soft kiss on my knuckles, then another, and another, which makes my heart flutter as well as the butterflies in my stomach. No. Shut the fuck up bitch. You're meant to hate him. REMEMBER!

I snatch my hand out of his and reach up on my top toes to press a feather light kiss to his cheek, just so we're even now. When I pull back, his face is one of complete shock which lights up my face in a smile, which seems to start a domino effect as Romeo breaks out into a breathtakingly handsome smile.

"I'll see you later Romeo." And with that being said, I turn and leave.

When I got to my G-wagon, the girls were already blasting music which immediately lifted my spirits.

It took about 20 minutes to get to the mall and when we got there Liyana was already shopping in Chanel. So we decided to join her and Valentina and the twins instantly clicked with her - which I knew would happen.

As they went off with a couple of my guards, Amara and I stuck together and went around all the shops whilst talking about Romeo.

What? I just can't help myself, okay? I'm nosey.

5 hours and about 1,000 shopping bags later, Amara and I were laughing our heads off. She was telling me about childhood stories about how the girls would have regular contests between themselves to see who could make Romeo laugh the hardest because he was always in business mode. Apparently, one time, the 5 of them were sitting at the dinner table and someone had said something so funny that the water Romeo was drinking flew out of his nose and went everywhere.

"Sometimes we call him dragon breather just to take the piss out of him." Amara adds on.

At this point, our laughter was dying down as the others made their way back to us.

As they came closer, I realised that Valentina was missing (She doesn't like me much, but hopefully we can get closer soon).

The looks on the faces of Liyana and the twins made my heart drop.

"Where is she?" I say in a stern tone.

"We were upstairs in Victoria Secret and Tina said she needed the bathroom, but she said she'd be quick, so we thought nothing of it. But then, 20 minutes later she wasn't back and then 30 minutes later she wasn't back either. So we sent the guards to go after her but they haven't come back yet e-." I don't even wait for Lucia to finish talking, as I already dropped all of my shopping bags and sprinted towards the stairs.

When I got to the bathrooms upstairs, I pulled out my knives and cautiously made my way inside.

When I made my way inside, I saw Valentina and the 4 guards I sent with the girls tied up.

I quickly made my way to Valentina first and untied her telling her to run back downstairs. She warns me that this was a trap, and that I shouldn't have come here but I just usher her out calmly, reassuring her that I'll be fine, which I may not be. But I don't care, as long as she's safe, that's my only purpose. I told Romeo I was capable of taking care of myself and his sisters and as long as I keep my word about keeping his sisters safe, I don't really mind what happens to me.

After I untied the guard's' rope, I told them to leave and do their job properly, and take the girls home. They answered with a collective 'oui patronne' and left.

As I tried to make my way to the door, a large hand clasped around mine and harshly pulled me back to them. This time I didn't get the butterflies that I got with Romeo, no, my heart was beating heavily, and not in a good way.

"Как ты думаешь, куда ты идешь, моя невинная девушка? [Where do you think you're going my innocent girl?]" A lumpy, ugly middle-aged man said to me evilly.

The faint smell of alcohol lingering on his breath was potent and gave me an instant headache.

Shit. Now is not the time to be getting flashbacks. Stay focused bitch.

Upon further inspection, I see that the man has a rather large scar running from just under the corner of his eye, right down to his jawline.

"Не волнуйся, маленькая девочка, я позабочусь о тебе некоторое время, потому что ты единственная, кто может помочь моей проблеме там внизу. [Don't worry little girl, I'm going to take care of you for a while because you are the only one that can help my problem down there]" he said while looking down at his crotch area.

I understood what he was saying and was trying to mask my fear but I doubt I was doing much.

I tried to break out of his hold on me but my attempts were futile, as his bruising grip on me would not loosen.

Shit. Please don't tell me what I think is about to happen, is actually about to happen.

All of a sudden I was thrown onto the bathroom counter and a heavy weight lay on me soon after.

I try to push him off of me but nothing happens.

He begins placing poisonous kisses down my neck, making his way to my breasts. He takes my sweater vest off and unclips my bra. Shit. Is this really about to happen? Again? Don't panic, don't panic, don't panic.

I'm panicking.

His weight on me feels like a tonne of bricks laying heavily on my heart.

Maybe my father was right, I am a grosse pute [fat whore]. Maybe I deserve this.

I bang my fists again his back but nothing happens. I feel his hand creeping up to my neck and grab a hold of me, choking me to the point that my skin was bruising. I screech in hopes of someone hearing me. I felt him bite my skin a few times which would definitely leave a traumatising mark. I couldn't move, I was shell shocked, I simply could not move.

He bites my breasts extremely hard and I scream at the top of my lungs making him clamp his other hand over my mouth to keep me from making more noise. As tears flow out of my eyes like a waterfall, he makes his way down to the start of my trousers. Please don't tell me he's about to-

Is this it? Will this day haunt me for months to come?