Chapter 1 1

Aurora

The brewing aroma of musky wine fills the air, making me feel alive. As I walk down the familiar streets toward my apartment, I catch sight of the grapevine that winds its way through my neighbourhood it’s quiet, unassuming, yet full of life. I live next to a huge grapevine which is owned by an old man. I usually see him in the evenings but he just smiles at me and doesn’t say a word. I find him nice but a little weird at the same time. Well just like a I living a hell of a life maybe he is living one too…

I run a small coffee shop in the heart of a quiet town, surrounded by nothing but kind hearted and gracious people. It’s a peaceful life, far removed from the mafia life I left behind, the life I hated deeply. My family background is a mess, a tangle of chaos I’ve attempted hard to run from.

I’ve made two close friends: Sofia and Gio. I am lucky that I’ve landed here from all the chaos. In this small town with kind people, quiet streets, and two friends who feel like home. It makes my life feels much better than before.

I stride into my apartment and set the grocery bags down with a soft thud. The place greets me with its usual stillness, wrapped in warm baby pink walls that somehow make everything feel softer. The living room blends into the kitchen with no doors, no divisions, just space that feels like mine. I never bothered with a dining table. Living alone has its own rhythm, and mine means dinner in the living room on the couch, usually with some softmusic playing in the background after each stressful days.

I pull out a piece of steak, set it on the counter, and grab two potatoes from the bag. As they boil, I season the steak and drop it into the pan. It sizzles instantly, filling the apartment with that rich, mouth-watering scent. I uncork a bottle of grape wine, pour myself a glass, and lean back against the counter next to me.

This life is peace. Not perfect and not destroyed completely, but it is just mine and it always makes me feel good.

I think of Sofia and Giovanni. Sofia always knows when something’s wrong, like she’s tuned into a frequency no one else can hear. She shows up without asking, and somehow that’s exactly what I need. Gio is like the big brother I never had, he looks after me and always offers help for things I’ve never asked for.

Tonight, with wine in hand and dinner on the stove, I feel okay. Maybe even more than okay.

After finishing dinner, I curl up on the couch with my half-empty glass of wine and reach for my phone. It’s a habit I haven’t been able to break, always checking, just in case. I scroll through my notifications with my heart thudding a little too fast than normal, half-hoping there’s nothing there.

No messages. No missed calls. Nothing from them.

Good.

I don’t want anything from that cruel city. Not a word, not a memory, not a whisper of what I left behind. That place only knew how to break me down, how to twist love into something sharp. I escaped it once, and I have no intention of letting it pull me back.

I set my phone face down on the coffee table and let out a long breath. Outside, the streetlights cast a soft glow through the windows, painting golden lines on the walls. In this quiet town, in this new life I gave to myself, I remind myself that silence can be a blessing sometimes.

The reason I left runs deeper than most could ever understand.

After my father’s tragic death, my mother married a man everyone feared, a Don named Mr. Rizzoto. From that moment on, everything changed. I gained a stepbrother, Luca Rizzoto, vicious as poison. He was reckless, greedy, and cold. When he borrowed money from the Cosa Nostra and couldn’t pay it back, he offered me as repayment.

Just like that, I became a bargaining chip.

I was supposed to marry a man, someone powerful, someone unknown. I know he will be a well known mafia boss, or maybe a capo or an underboss, and I never saw his face. I never even heard his name. But I was promised to him like property. And before the wedding could take place, I ran from him.

I emptied my bank account, fifty thousand dollars to my name, and I disappeared under a blink. I didn’t look back. I came to this quiet town, rented a small apartment, and started over. With what little I had, I opened a coffee shopThe morning embers. It wasn’t much, but it was mine. It still is.

My stepfather never cared about me. In his world, a girl is nothing—useless to his business, a shadow in the mansion he calls home. And my mother... she became a ghost after marrying him. Her voice no longer holds weight. Her orders echo in silence, her words didn’t had any meaning in the house of Don Rizzoto. I feel bad for her but this is the life she chose that’s why I ever said a word…

Escape was my only option. My only hope for a life that could belong to me.

I know he’s out there—the man I was supposed to marry. The one the mafia gave my name to. I’ve never seen his face, never heard his voice, but I know he exists. And I know he’s looking for me.

He could find me. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday for sure. And when he does, I don’t know what he’ll do. He might kill me. Cut me into pieces. Force me into marriage again. Or even worse. In his world, I’m not a person. I’m property. A debt paid. A name handed over in a deal.

That’s what haunts me every second...

Even in the peace I’ve built here, even in the comfort of this quiet town and the warmth of my little apartment, there’s always a sliver of fear. It creeps into my dreams, twists through my thoughts when the streets fall silent, when the shadows move just a little too strangely.

That’s why, when I arrived, I became someone new.

I told everyone my name was Aurora. Just Aurora. No last name. No history. I buried my ID and passport deep in a hidden spot in the house, so far gone that even I would have to think twice about how to find them. There’s no trace of who I am. Only Aurora lives here now.