The Princess and the Devil✔️

41

"Jason you're going to want to sit down for this."

"Umm okay?" he walked around the couch and sat down in the other recliner.

I breathed in. "umm okay, we-where should I start?"

"Just start from the beginning Sydney," said Amelia.

I nodded. "My dad was an American navy captain stationed in Florence and my mom was an Italian school teacher. When they met it was love at first sight. Mom was best friends with Ariana and Giovanni, Chris' parents. The four of them were inseparable, they were the best friends. When Mom and Ariana got pregnant with Chris, Connor and I around the same time, my Dad and Giovanni were thrilled. Ariana had Chris a few days before they had Connor and me. We lived in a huge house next to Chris and his parents, we went to a private Catholic school together. To sum it up life was great... When we were twelve my parents took us to New York on spring break to visit because my dad was born there. Connor and I snuck out one night to see all the lights... and the-there was a fire."

Amelia grabbed my hand. "Sydney breathe," she had me take three breaths with her to calm down. "Take your time."

I nodded and continued. "When my parents died, we moved in with our grandparents, who still lived in New York. They were our only living relatives, my mom's parents died when she was a teenager and neither of my parents had any siblings. We were there for about a week before they died, both in their sleep. Because we were American citizens we were put into foster care. At that point in time, they never cared about keeping siblings together, Connor and I were put in separate houses in New York. We would sneak out every night to see each other. Eventually, we ran away. We were fourteen when the police found us living on the street in Chicago and brought us to social services. Connor and I ended up living in different houses but near enough that we went to the same school."

I took a breath in. "I met Dante Summers at school. He was two years older than me, so you could imagine how special I felt when he started to show interest in me. We started dating about a month later, and everything was great. He was so attractive, sweet, I felt safe with him; safer than I had felt in years. He made me feel like I was perfect like I was the most special thing in the whole world. And on our three month anniversary, he took me on a date, everything was great. We started kissing bu-but he started to go further than I wanted. He- he put his hand up my dress. I told him to stop bu-but he didn't want to. He ripped off my dress and underwear. He- he raped me." Everyone was quiet. After a few moments of silence, Jason stormed upstairs in a rage.

I couldn't breathe. It felt like my throat was closing up. Amelia kneeled down in front of me and took my hands in hers. "Sydney, I need you to breathe. Please, Syd, breathe with me. In out in and out." I did what she said and started breathing in and out. "That's it. Good job."

"He hates me. He's disgusted by me,"I said in a whisper.

"I'll be back," said Sean as he lifted Sam off his lap and set her down before he grabbed Chris and they both went upstairs...