Finding Her

C H A P T E R - F I F T E E N

Princess Ellie

V A L E R I U S ' S    P O V :

I stand here in a place I'd never thought I'd ever step foot in again.

A kids playground.

One with climbing bars and slides and a rock wall. The asphalt takes me back to when I was Eleonora's age. I hated play time. I was the loser who didn't have enough coordination to play in the ball game with the other kids. My papà quickly knocked some sense into me when he found out kids were picking on me.

I quickly learned that being an Armani meant I had to be vicious.

There was one hell of a talking to and a lot of practice fighting. I'd stay up late at night to practice what I'd say to them, the bullies. Within a week I had them all scared of me. It was one of the first times I thought my papà was proud of me.

Then, I realized I loved the thrill of the power. People fearing you, avoiding you because they're just that scared. The exhilaration that came from it all was something unmatched.

"When is this thing starting?" Marcello asks me in Italian. I roll my eyes.

"If I knew you were going to complain this much, I would have left you at home." I hiss back at him in Italian, the lady next to me clutches her purse tighter. I mentally roll my eyes.

We live in Italy but this is an Italian-American school. Italian is my mother-tongue but when speaking American you have more options to describe things. What they call a "play on words." Like how I can call Marcello a 'fucking dickwad' and have it actually make sense to anyone else speaking American. It's like magic.

The woman is clearly American and can only pick up my tone, not my words. Hence the purse clutching and the stare.

"When is this supposed to start?" Fabio asks me after his conversation with papà ends.

I audibly groan. Fucking dickwads.

Before I could snap back at him, Marcello shouts. "Oh! Oh there, look! Here they come!" His finger waves in my face and I slap it away, immediately directing my attention to the concrete stairs that has piles of kids waking down in ridiculous costumes.

"Where's Eleonora?" Marcello chirps up quickly.

"These kids look like they could be in high school and you're asking where your five-year-old nipote is?" Fabio shakes his head.

"These are the kids that are ten. Upper primary school. They're going in oldest to youngest." I tell them since they can't read a room and the groan.

"What is he doing?" I hear Enzo mumbles to us, referring to our papà who had his camera out taking photos of kids he doesn't know with a smile on his face. "He knows none of these kids are Eleonora.. right?"

"Oh, just let the old man live." Fabio grumbles.

I ready my attention back to the kids coming down the stairs. I will for the line to go faster.

Yes, I did see Ellie this morning with her outfit on but  I haven't seen her with her group of friends. I have my phone out and ready to take pictures of her.