RISE: THE PREQUEL NOVELLA TO THE SIN AND SECRETS COLLECTION

by Shanna Swenson

  I open my mouth to respond to him but I have no words. I’m confused and lost at his sudden word vomit and I don’t even know what to say back.

  “I mean...I love you too but what’s goin’ on?” I laugh nervously. “You’re makin’ it sound like you’re about to die or somethin’.”

  He gives me a sad smile, opening the door and walks around to my side, opening mine for me. He throws his arm over my petite frame and we walk to the front door of the house. Liona, our house keeper opens the door, greeting the both of us as I slip away, rushing to my room to get changed and freshen up.

  I look at myself in the mirror, the conservative dress that I would have never picked out for myself hides my fit physique. I work hard, I dance, I keep myself fit so I am able to move effortlessly around the studio but you would never be able to tell. Between the uniforms at school and the wardrobe my father has my mother pick out for me, I look like a sixty year old woman. I sigh, fixing an unruly brown curl that continuously falls in front of my blue eyes and tuck it behind another strand.

  “Just another day, Magnolia. This won’t be forever. One day you’ll be a nurse, have a husband and children of your own and you’ll be free.”

  I give myself a reassuring smile and walk down the marble staircase to the back of our house. I hear voices in the main dining hall and when I walk inside, all eyes turn to me. I recognize my father’s associate, Antonio Cervelli and his son, Giacomo. My mother is at the other end of the table next to my brother, and at the head of the table, with his jet black hair, greying sideburns and jawline that could slice a lemon, is my father, Luca Giordano Sr.

  “There is my precious diamond,” my father coos, opening his arms in an embrace as if he didn’t just scold me on the phone a half hour ago.

  “I am so sorry I was late,” I respond, walking to my father and kissing his cheek.

  The rest of the men at the table stand and Antonio kisses both of my cheeks before I walk towards his son and allow him to do the same.

  “Beauty is inadequate, Luca. She is stunning,” Antonio purrs, the sly tone to his voice making the hairs on my arms stand tall.

  I bow my head, my cheeks heating with all this unwanted attention.

  “Thank you,” I say softly.

  I take my seat on the other side of my mother and once the men have started to dig into their dinner, I take my fork and do the same. I’m programmed, groomed to perfection in my Italian household and I was a fool if I didn’t see my father’s next words coming from a mile away.

  “So darling, Antonio here has a proposition for us and I agreed on your behalf.

  “Oh?” I ask, arching an eyebrow.

  “Giacomo has asked for your hand in marriage and I agreed. It would be excellent for our two families to come together as one, producing a pure Italian heir to the empire we have created for ourselves.”

  My heart stops in my chest, my body turning to jelly as I feel the air start to escape my lungs and not fill up again. My head is fuzzy as I try and close my eyes, keeping my body upright instead of falling off my chair like it really wants. My fork hangs in the air, everyone's eyes on me as I feel the nausea start to creep up, threatening to break free.

  “No,” I whisper. “No.”

  My father laughs, his deep, gravelly voice making my body go cold. Dang. I said that out loud.

  “I-I…”

  “Darling, we do not stutter,” my mother whispers.

  “He-he’s ten years older than me, Mama,” I complain.

  Isn’t this illegal? What in the world is happening right now?

  “Magnolia!” my father booms.

  I clear my throat, taking a firm grip on every single piece of semblance I have in my defeated body and shake my head.

  “I’m sorry. That...that sounds like a wonderful proposition. Thank you for offerin', Mr. Cervelli. Daddy, thank you for acceptin'.”

  My father nods in approval, forgetting about my slip up now that I am not putting up a fight, not that I even would...or could.

  “Well, you are officially sixteen now so with parental consent in Georgia, the Cervelli’s have been so gracious to host, next week.”

  “Next week?” I squeak.

  I turn to my father and the look he gives me would strike me dead where I sit. I quickly reel in my emotions, shutting them in the neat little box where I can open them later, cry in the shower or throw myself on top of my best friend Everleigh’s bed and let all of my problems leak from my complacent body.

  “Of course.” I respond.

  My father nods as we all pick up our forks again, digging into our dinner but I have no appetite. I chance a quick look at my brother and I see the pity on his face. His little speech from the car now makes sense and I furrow my brows at him. So much for all the love you claimed to have, I want to say, but I look back down at my plate and try to finish my dinner.

  Conversation continues around the table but it all sounds like a jumbled blur of noise until one word makes me feel like fainting.

  “Maybe a baby by next year!” my father laughs, slapping a hand down at the table.

  I look up and notice everyone smiling at me and I point at myself, putting my fork down.

  “M-me? Me to have a baby next year?”

  “Darling…”

  My mother’s condescending voice makes me want to flip this table over, tossing all the food off, making a mess of this entire dining room and rip every single stupid painting off the wall. Sixteen! I’m sixteen years old and they want me to have a baby?

  “We are hoping for four or five children from the two of you. Imagine the bloodline. Pure Sicilian blood running this city,” Antonio brags.

  I finally steal a glance at Giacomo and he has a pained smile on his face. Maybe he doesn’t want this either. Maybe when we are alone I can get him to call this all off. He looks over at me and then he smiles, the same sly smile his father is sporting and I know in that moment, my life was already written for me the day I was born. There is nothing or no one in this world that will be able to rewrite it for me.

  "Earth to Magnolia! Girl, pay attention! You came over here all distraught, now you're zonin' out. What is up?"

  I shake my head, sitting on my best friend Everleigh's bed, and sigh.

  "I know, I'm sorry. Do you...do you remember last year when I came runnin' over here, tellin' you that my daddy had me married off to Giacomo and they were talkin' babies?"

  "Of course I do!" she huffs. "I thought it was crazy talk until y'all actually did it a week later. What did that piece of crap do now?"

  I close my eyes, trying to block out Giacomo's words, my father's words as it all finally made sense. The weight of the truth falling heavy on my shoulders with no signs of ever letting up.

  "Did he hurt you?" Everleigh whispers, lifting my chin to look at her.

  I shake my head wiping the tears that start to fall.

  "Just his normal crap."

  "Lia, that ain't normal. A man should never yell at his wife the way that stupid dick yells at you."

  "You don't understand, Ev. Your family is...they're different."

  "Well then don't get me started on yours because I can start with your selfish, pussy brother and make my way around to the rest of them."

  I laugh, wiping at my eyes and lay back in her bed, covering my face.

  "They were never gonna let me graduate and become a nurse."

  "What?" she yells. "Say that again because I'm pretty sure you said the only way you agreed to this shit show was to go to school and be a nurse and now you're tellin' me it was...what? A lie?"

  "Yeah," I breathe. "It was all a lie. I just overheard them. As soon as I get pregnant, I'm out of school and shackled to Giacomo forever in his swanky apartment never havin' my own life."

  "But Lia, it's been a year and it hasn't happened. Maybe...I don't know, maybe you…"

  "We're goin' to the doctor tomorrow. If everything is fine, he wants to put me on hormones."

  Everleigh la
ughs, rolling her eyes until she realizes that I'm not laughing. I'm dead serious.

  "Magnolia Marie! You are fuckin' seventeen years old, you're not goin' through hormone treatments!"

  "I didn't come here so you can just reiterate how incredibly sucky my life is, Ev. I came because I need support from my best friend. I need to know you'll be there for me, fight to see me because if I can't have some sort of normalcy, I'll...I'll…"

  "Nope, you sure as shit won't. I'll be in your life forever, Lia. I will bang down that dang apartment door and bust my way in to see your ass if he don't allow it. Do you understand me?"

  Everleigh’s bedroom door opens and in walks my brother and I scoff, rolling my eyes.

  “Who the fuck let you in here?” Everleigh snaps.

  “Oh, Ev, you know I love when you talk dirty to me.”

  “You’re a pig, Luca!”

  “Can we stop fightin'? I’m in a crisis over here,” I groan.

  “Nolie, Mom told me that you overheard Dad and the Cervelli's. I just wanted to make sure you were okay,” Luca soothes, wrapping his arms around me.

  “Am I okay? Luca, they destroyed my dreams! All I ever wanted to do was become a nurse and dance and there’s no way either of those things are happenin'. Giacomo is...he’s…”

  “He’s a piece of crap, Luca. He says horrible shit to her, he doesn’t let her do a damn thing and you just sit there and do nothin' about it! They want to put her on hormones for fucks sake! Do you know how dangerous that is for her at this age? She’s seventeen! Be a damn brother!”

  I wince at Everleigh’s tone and when Luca’s arms loosen around me and he stands, my heart sinks.

  “Everleigh, our family is different than yours. She is to do what her husband wants, that's just how it is.”

  I press my lips together, knowing that was my reality anyway but hearing it come out of my brother's mouth just solidifies it.

  “Oh really? Well good luck findin' a wife that will do what you say, asshole,” Everleigh growls.

  “Well luckily I don’t have to worry about that. I’m sure my family has an Italian girl lined up to marry me just like Magnolia. Sometimes you have to put your family before yourself,” Luca snaps, walking out of Everleigh’s bedroom and shutting the door.

  I watch Everleigh’s mouth open and close in shock and then anger starts to take hold.

  “We’ll get through this,” she whispers, coming to sit down next to me, hugging me and kissing me on top of the head.

  I close my eyes, picturing a different life, Everleigh’s life, with loving parents and a choice as to what she wants to do with her future. I only picture it for a few minutes because I know there is no way in Hell that is ever going to happen.

  I’m trapped in this life and I have no choice but to live it.

  I walk out of the college dance studio with my friend Eden, texting Everleigh to meet us for lunch. Everleigh and I graduated high school with Eden, although we ran in different circles. We connected again during our freshman dance class and the three of us have become inseparable for the past year, aside from when Giacomo gets in the way and splits it all up. Only Everleigh knows about my situation, the embarrassment and shame of what my life has become is too much to share with anyone else.

  “She’s meetin' us at the sushi place?” Eden asks as we get into the limo waiting outside.

  I don't know much about her situation, only that her parents aren't around and Vince, the owner of The Devil’s Playground, takes care of her.

  “Yep. She’ll be there in ten," Eden answers as she pulls up the partition, giving us privacy.

  I buckle my seatbelt and my phone starts to buzz in my hands. I always dread that ringtone and as soon as I answer it, I get my daily lashing.

  “Where the fuck are you?” Giacomo snaps.

  “I-I’m at school. I just finished class, I’m gettin' lunch before my next one. You know I have a late day on Tuesday’s,” I answer softly.

  “Are you talking back to me?”

  “No, I—”

  “Who are you getting lunch with?”

  “Everleigh and Eden.”

  “What class did you just have?”

  “Giacomo, I—”

  “What class, Magnolia,” he seethes.

  I close my eyes and sigh, shaking my head.

  “Dance.”

  “I thought I told you to drop that fucking class! You’re pushing your body too hard, this is why you’re not getting pregnant.”

  “That’s not the reason. You heard the doctor and—”

  “Drop that class, Magnolia. Now I’m going to have to fuck you twice today, just to make sure we’re on the same page. Do you understand me?”

  His voice is low and menacing and I swallow down my fear, glancing over at Eden as I see her jaw tense.

  “Giacomo, that doesn’t actually help, it makes it—”

  “I don’t give a fuck. If I want to take you twice, I’ll take you twice. You're my wife, Magnolia, don't forget your place. Skip lunch and get your ass to my office before your next class.”

  He hangs up the phone and anger courses through my veins, but I push it down just like I’ve been doing my entire life.

  “Geez, I heard rumors but I wasn’t convinced. Why the hell did you marry that dickhead?” Eden asks from next to me.

  “Can you drop me off at his office? He’s on 5th and Gerald,” I whisper.

  “Magnolia, are you serious? He just cursed you out and basically said he was just gonna take you whether you wanted him to or not. Regardless if you’re married, I’m pretty sure that’s sexual assault,” Eden snaps.

  “You don’t know anything about it!” I yell. “I had no choice! Just...drop me at his office. Please.”

  I wipe a tear from my cheek and Eden exhales, shaking her head as she instructs the driver of our change and we drive in silence to Giacomo’s office.

  I ignore Everleigh’s text messages and when the car pulls in front of Giacomo’s building, Eden grips my hand and squeezes.

  “There are a lot of things out of our control, Magnolia, believe me I understand more than you know. I’m here for you if you need me, okay?”

  I give her a nod and get out of the car, walking into the expansive building and straight to the elevators. I take it to the top floor, bypassing Giacomo’s secretary and slip into his office. He’s yelling at someone on the phone as I sit in the guest chair, nausea starting to creep up my belly. I haven’t eaten since breakfast and the injections are doing a number on my body. If it isn’t the headaches or dizziness, it's the sore breasts and the nausea. Dammit.

  “I have to go. My wife just came by for an afternoon delight. Bye man.”

  Giacomo’s voice is amused as he hangs up and walks over to me, both hands on the arms of the chair, caging me in.

  “Eat then fuck or fuck then eat?” he asks.

  “How nice of you to give me a choice,” I snap, through gritted teeth.

  My attitude has been at an all time high recently too and Giacomo’s smile fades as he roughly pushes my chin to look at him.

  “I’ll let it slide because it’s not you, it’s all the shit we’re injecting you with, but mark my words when you give me a child, I won’t let you talk to me like that without consequences.”

  I move my face away from his hands as he pulls me to my feet and takes my bag from my shoulder.

  “Well? What will it be?”

  “I need to eat. This round is a lot harder on me than the others were.”

  Giacomo lifts my chin again, softly kissing my lips as he runs a thumb down my cheek.

  “Tough love, Topolina. You should only be worried when I have no more love.”

  He walks around to the other side of his desk and takes out a bottle of whiskey, pouring himself a glass into a clear tumbler.

  “You’re drinkin' on the job now?” I ask, walking towards the floor to ceiling windows and looking out.

  “You think you’re the only one being pressured fr
om your family?” he scoffs. “If we don’t produce an heir within the year, the company will be passed along to my father's associate. That won’t be good for either of us, Magnolia, I can assure you.”

  I look at him over my shoulder and he downs the liquid in one gulp, wincing as he pours another.

  “Drinkin' lowers your sperm count, Giacomo. If I’m bein' used as a human pin cushion, the least you can do is—”

  He briskly walks over to me as I back up, the coolness of the window against my back.

  “Don’t push me, Magnolia and don’t you dare talk back to me.”

  His teeth are gritted as he slams his palm against the window next to my head. I flinch, my breathing fast and heavy as he burns a hole into my face with his dark eyes. Having a baby with Giacomo isn’t something I want, but maybe not having a baby with him would be even worse.

  The following week, Everleigh, Eden and I sit at the school cafeteria, none of us talking as we eat our salads. The elephant in the room is me. I’ve avoided Everleigh as much as possible this week, knowing Eden told her about the conversation she overheard and not wanting to face her disappointment and pity. I couldn’t avoid it today though, without missing the only thing that actually keeps my spirits up. Dance class.

  They cornered me at the end of class and forced me to lunch and here we are...in awkwardness.

  “Okay, so I guess I’ll start. How can we get you to divorce that asshole?” Eden asks, dropping her fork and turning to look at me.

  “Eden...you don’t understand it,” I sigh.

  “Oh, girlie, you have no idea how much I understand it but we’re not talkin' about me. There is always a way out, Magnolia. Maybe not right now, but you can start the steps now. He controls all the money I’m guessin'?”

  I nod, moving around the lettuce in my salad, not looking up.

  “I get fifty dollars a week for food if I don’t eat with him, which most of the time I do anyway.”

  “Fifty dollars? I didn’t know about that, Lia. What if you need a book or clothes? That won’t buy you shit,” Everleigh chimes in.