Chapter 1: 1. Ginevra
"I don't know, Maya. Maybe it's better if we forget about it," I whispered, trying to calm the anxiety that I was beginning to feel.
"Ginevra, come on, let yourself go for once! Aren't you tired of always having to obey your family's rules? Don't tell me that a part of you wants nothing more than to stray and have fun like all the girls of our age do! "
my friend snorted.
Of course, I wanted it! But it was not so easy for those who had Italian Rinaldi blood in their veins.
Being the daughter of a mafia boss meant having a preset life, sealed in a collection of rules and limits dictated by a father, who was a master for all intents and purposes.
Even though I was the youngest daughter, I was by no means freer and every mistake or transgression was always punished severely. This is why I had learned very early to respect the wishes of my family.
I had always behaved perfectly, but in the last few years, since I started college, I had begun to resent my father's rigid rules and my mother's perfection mania.
It all changed when I met a reality as vast as the university, with its students who were not selected and evaluated in the same fashion as the female students of the Catholic school I had attended up to then.
I had learned there were different lifestyles and that without my father's presence on the school board, nobody cared that I was a Rinaldi.
For the first time in my life I had allowed myself to be myself and to embrace new ideals that my father loathed.
During the past two years I had become the black sheep of the family, the one to be avoided or treated as a poor misfit, but the truth was that I had never felt so alive before.
I had slowly broken the small chains that anchored me to the family, but I was still extremely far from total freedom and from doing what I wanted, like making a clear decision about my sentimental or professional future.
Until then, I had limited myself to watching Maya, the daughter of the accountant of the Rinaldi estate and my only friend, while violating the rules of her family, that followed slavishly my father's rules.
I had envied Maya every time she phoned me, asking me to cover her for her, when she wanted to meet with friends disliked by her parents or when she was dating a boy.
I had always admired her bravery with which she challenged the wishes of his family.
Many times, I had wanted to be like her, but the weight of my last name had always stopped me.
However, Maya was right: I could not continue like that. I had just finished my last year of college and I still hadn't felt the thrill of a little escapade, of a secret meeting with a boy or of a little foolishness, like an evening out with people I didn't know.
"Ok, let's do it! ", I exclaimed enthusiastically, with my voice still full of apprehension.
"You will see everything will be fine. I've done it hundreds of times and I can assure you I've never had a problem, "Maya reassured me.
"I'm only afraid that someone will recognize me or that my father will find out."
"I have taken all the necessary precautions. Look here," she said, handing me a wavy blonde wig.
"You're kidding, aren't you?"
"Honey, you're the daughter of the owner of half of Rockart City. Don't even think of going around without attracting attention. "
"Nobody knows who I am anymore. For two years my father has no longer included me in his meetings and hasn't even invited me to his inauguration ceremonies. By now, people think he has two children. Not three. I have not been as this side since I became a vegetarian and started talking about civil rights. "
"Hasn't he forgiven you for being a vegetarian yet?" Maya chuckled.
"No, when we eat together, he always makes sure I have a steak on the plate, which I discard every time, making him go on a rampage. Now, most of the time, I eat alone in the annex where they relegated me," I said dejectedly. It was hard never to feel accepted by one's family.
"Cool! There you are alone, and you can do whatever you want! "
"Maybe! Remember there are cameras everywhere in my house and surveillance is always present. There is no privacy and I often ask myself if I will ever be able to separate myself from my family and live my life. I'd like to find a job, get married to a man I love ... "
"As long as you stay in Rockart City, that will never happen. East of the Safe River nothing happens without your father's permission... Your only hope is to go very far from here, to a place your father can never reach, because you also know very well that he will never let you do what you want. He will do everything to keep you from working, to make sure that you cannot be responsible for your own finances and cut the umbilical cord that still chains you to him at twenty-three years of age! "
"And he certainly wouldn't let me marry whoever I want."
"Forget it! Ginevra, just think of all the love relationships you have had so far. "
"I only had one. It lasted three days, in my final year of high school. "
"Daniel Spencer, right?"
"Yup. I barely managed to give him my first kiss, before I knew that he and his whole family had been exiled forever from Rockart City. "
"All for a kiss ... Just think what would have happened we had slept together."
"I would have ended up in the dungeons of the castle like prisoners of war," I laughed weakly, although in reality I had always thought that I would have seriously ended up like that. I still hadn't forgotten my father's outburst and slap when he found out that I had a crush on David Spencer's son, the man who made him lose a deal two years earlier.
Edoardo Rinaldi was a man who carried a grudge for a lifetime.
"Well, I can guarantee you that nothing will happen to you this time and your father will never find out," Maya cheered me up, placing the blonde wig over my brown shoulder hair, which came up behind me.
I looked in the mirror.
I was laughing because I was unrecognizable with all that black eyeliner and hair that reached my waist. Also, the dress that Maya made me wear was the complete opposite of my classic bon ton look.
That strapless red dress and black leather jacket with three-quarter sleeves gave me a cosmopolitan, go-getting, and sinful woman's aura. Everything I was not.
"Is your father not going to ask you about all these purchases?" I exclaimed surprised.
"My father is not as cautious as yours, but he checks all my credit card purchases and my mother slips into my walk-in closet once a month if my father complains about the bank statement."
"Your mother is the same as mine. You don't think she will scold you for this extravagant shopping? "
"My mother knows nothing about this second life of mine. I have an agreement with the salesgirl. She lets me try on these clothes at home for a day and I bring them back intact the following afternoon, when I go to exchange them for something more suited to my mother's taste," she revealed, showing me the tag still attached to the dress, before hiding it inside the neckline, in the right armpit.
"You're brilliant!"
"I know but remember to treat this dress with care because tomorrow I have to bring it back to the store and it must be in perfect condition."
"I promise!"
"Well, let's go out then. The maid left me the keys to the car she uses to do the shopping and, the way we look now, nobody will recognize us when we go to exit. Not even the bodyguard who brought you here and who checks you from the parking lot outside the gate. "
"I hope so, otherwise I'm dead."
"As a precaution, we will leave the cell phones here, so the GPS signal from the phone does not foil our plan; in addition, we will only carry cash and the fake document that I gave you. Remember that tonight I won't be Maya Gerber, but Chelsea Faye and you won't be Ginevra Rinaldi but rather Mia Madison from Los Angeles. "
"You thought about everything, huh?"
"Ginevra, after five years of secret escapes, I could even escape from a prison," chuckled Maya, easing the tension.
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