Chapter 1 Escaping the Noise

"Listen to yourself woman! What are you yapping on about?" 

Matteo Bernardi's face was red, veins standing stiff, his words slightly slurred. 

"Have some dignity, Matteo!" Martha rasped, holding herself rigid in her nightdress. 

It was past midnight and thirty years of marriage had not softened the sting in her husband's words. 

"I can bloody well do whatever the hell I want!" Matteo growled, staggering a little. 

"Of course you can, you are Don, but it's getting shameless parading around with your whores!"

Matteo swung his hand viciously. 

The smack cut across the room to where Eloise was eavesdropping. She had spent ten years watching this cycle get repeated. 

"You forget your place woman!" Matteo snarled. "How dare you speak to me that way!"

Martha held her cheek, it stung where her husband struck her. 

"I cannot make you love me. God knows I've tried my best since I was betrothed to you."

Eloise swallowed hard behind the door. She had never heard such pain in her mother's voice. 

"I've done everything I can to please you--"

"You've given me nothing but misery!" Matteo spat, "I'm a laughing stock among my friends and enemies!" 

"You screwed up the only thing you had to do, bear me healthy sons that will continue my legacy and you dare raise your voice at me."

Eloise watched her mother hang her head in shame. Matteo didn't bother to stop. 

He began pacing around like a caged animal, breath heavy with drink and rage, pointing at Martha as though she were the cause of every failure in his life. 

"Twenty years," he snarled, his voice dripping with resentment. "Twenty years and what do I have to show for it? A sickly girl who can barely stand straight without fainting."

Eloise felt a stab in her chest. She should have been used to this by now but somehow the pain never left. 

"She's weak," Matteo continued, deliberately cruel. "Always has been, always will be, a useless thing. What man would want her? What alliance could she secure?"

Martha lifted her head, her eyes were glassy with unshed tears. 

"She's still your daughter—"

"My daughter?" He laughed, the sound was sharp and humorless. 

"She's an embarrassment. The only child you could give me and she can't even secure a decent match. Do you know what that makes me look like?"

Eloise's hand tightened into a fist, each word slicing deeper than the last. She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from making a sound. 

"To be reduced to this!" Matteo raged on bitterly, "Head of the Bernardi family and yet it's my brother's daughter who is worthy. Who is betrothed to Massimo Caputo."

Martha's voice shrank, barely audible. "It's only a matter of time before Eloise is taken, with Rose betrothed to Massimo, surely—"

Matteo whirled on her. "Do you know how fucking embarrassing that is?" He roared. 

"The most powerful Don marries my brother's blood, and not mine while my daughter hides behind books like some freak."

That was it 

Eloise stepped back from the door, heart hammering, her breath uneven. She couldn't hear anymore, she refused to.

She turned around and ran.

Her bare feet hardly made a sound as she moved down the corridor, past columns and ancestral portraits lining the wall. The Caputo estate loomed around her, vast and suffocating—the stronghold of the most powerful Mafia family in Italy. 

She slammed her bedroom door shut and leaned against it, sliding down until she was sitting on the cold floor 

'She can't even secure a good match.'

The words echoed in her mind. 

This was her life, reduced to nothing but a womb, a bargaining chip, a failure. If anything, she was glad Rose was the one marrying Massimo Caputo. Glad she won't be paraded and appraised like livestock. Glad—God help her—that she was invincible.

She couldn't go back to sleep anymore. 

So she pulled out the books she'd smuggled into her suitcase; they were dog-eared with well-worn spines. Her refuge. Her rebellion. She opened Jane Austen and let the familiar words wash over her.

But even Elizabeth Bennet couldn't save her tonight. The walls felt like they were closing in on her and suddenly Eloise couldn't breathe.

She rose impulsively, moving to the window. The Italian night smelt of freedom and adventure. Her hands trembled as she climbed out, heart racing. The drop was steep but she took her time, lowering herself carefully. 

When her feet finally touched the ground, she didn't look back. She wandered off into the estate, carrying nothing but fury and hurt. The night air whipped at her face and for a fleeting second, Eloise almost turned back. 

But pride hardened her spine and she kept walking, marching forward with her nose in the air. The Caputo estate stretched endlessly with shadows looming from the sides, the path twisted, and the hedges seemed to grow bigger.

Eloise began to panic. She slowed down, realizing she didn't know how to get back. That's when she heard voices.

The sound of laughter and a lighter being flicked. She soon stumbled upon them; three men lingering near the servants' quarters, cigarettes glowing in the dark. Eloise froze, then turned back abruptly, but it was too late.

"Well, look at this," one of them drawled, "what do we have here?"

Her stomach dropped. She tried to straighten, summoning dignity, but the thin nightdress clung to her skin. Another man stepped forward, fingers closing around her wrist, shoving her towards the others..

"Let go of me!" She snapped, forcing steel into her voice. 

"I am Eloise Bernardi. Daughter of Marco Bernardi. A guest of the Caputo family. Release me at once!"

The men burst into laughter. 

"Bernardi?" One scoffed, "You?"

"No Bernardi daughter would be wandering out here," another said, eyes roaming, filled with lust. "You are a stray and slipped where you don't belong."

"Practically begging for it," the first added.

"No!" Eloise screamed in fright, fighting tooth and nail as they dragged her backwards. 

One covered her mouth, another restrained her hands; the third was about to rip her clothes when a voice commanded through the chaos.

"Let her go at once."