Kidnapped By The Italian Mafia

"Madame, we have been expecting you," my butler smiled at me as soon as I pulled up to the front doors. "We have your room ready and food is being prepared for you right now."

"Thank you, Henri, I'm so exhausted," I slammed the door of the van shut behind me and winced at the loud noise. Finally, finally, I was where I needed to be. Tears of relief flooded my eyes and my knees began to feel weakened. "I'm sorry, it just took so much for me to get here."

"I can see that they are happy tears, madame. Please come inside, I'll have Philipe take care of your bags."

"Oh, I don't have any bags, they were all lost in Italy."

Now that I thought about it, I really f.u.c.k.i.n.g hoped that car sank deep in that swamp because all my fake doc.u.ments and cash was there. The deeper, the better. I hadn't seen any evidence of my stuff when I woke up, but then again I hadn't checked the other vans. All of me now wished that I had checked them, because if they had any context clues about me, I needed them gone.

Well whatever, it's not like I could worry about it now. The only thing that mattered to me now was getting inside and taking a long, hot shower because I smelled like dry swamp water and wet dog hair, which was disgusting. My body probably had bacteria crawling all over it, and the mere thought of germs reaching my important parts was enough to send me barreling up the stairs and through the doors of my palatial room.

I immediately made a bee line for the bathroom and hurriedly pulled all my clothes off, gagging when the actual smell of wet dog hair and body odor caught up to me. Good god, I was worse than a lump of dung. There was dirt where there shouldn't have been dirt and my fingernails? God help my fingernails. I would have to dig under them with a manicure pick.

Much to my p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e, the shower water took little to no time to heat up and as soon as I stepped beneath the streams, a smile broke through my face. Who knew something so simple as a hot shower would feel so good? S.e.x was great but exfoliating away grime and dead skin cells after a hard time? Nothing could compare.

By the time I was done, my body was as good as new. My face scrub had really brought back life to my skin, and the lotions that were waiting for me did more than enough to soothe my bright red freshly scrubbed skin.

A set of clothes was waiting for me on the bed when I re-entered the bathroom, and I never thought I'd be so happy to just wear a babydoll silk pyjama set again. It was almost magical, in a way. I quickly changed and headed back downstairs to the main patio where Henri had informed me that my meal was awaiting.

This place had cost me a hefty fortune of ten million euros to buy, and an additional twenty-eight million euros to completely renovate to my liking. It wasn't only the materials and the building that took up my money, it was the buying surrounding land, hiring discreet professionals who would tell no one, get the job done quick, and forget my address once they were done. There was also the matter that maintaining this chateau cost me around three million euros a year.

Overall, this place could easily run my pockets dry, but it was worth it. Also, I'd been receiving money from my relatives for my birthdays and holidays since I was nine years old, and that was an average of a million dollars per person. I'd invested most of my childhood savings in this place, but I hadn't touched the money I had once I started to work.

"Madame, I've taken the liberty of bringing your mail for you to open whilst you have your meal. I shall place it for you on the table," my back was to him, but I could tell Henri was placing the platter with my mail down on the table beside my meal. Even though my stomach was practically chewing on itself, I had to take a moment to admire the view of this place.

The moment my eyes caught sight of the property, I knew it had to be mine, even though it had been ghastly at the time. How far we had come.

"Thank you, Henri," I turned around and gave him a bright smile as he bowed and left to tend to his other duties. The spread that had been placed on the table for me was mouth watering, and considering that it was six in the afternoon, it was a well thought spread. "The land of cheese and wine."

First, to awaken my taste buds, I took a sip of the white wine in the glass, damn near m.o.a.ning at the taste. It had been a while since any form of alcohol entered my lips, and it hadn't dawned on me how much I missed the feeling of drinking wine. Admittedly, now that I was legal, it wasn't as fun anymore. The risk of getting caught drunk and under the legal drinking age was what made it ten times more fun.

The ducks quacking in the pond broke my concentration and I glanced over to them. After the longest twenty four hours of my life, I was finally here. It was surreal. Being surrounded by this much beauty was surreal. The DiBiancci house was beautiful, but nothing could compare to my chateau, maybe because only I knew how much effort had been put into it.

A soft breeze touched my face and I sighed in content. That content didn't last long because my stomach growled, and as soon as I looked at the table, all coherent thought disappeared. My fork dug into what was either smoked salmon or pickled ginger… either way, I didn't care but it would have been preferable if it was pickled ginger.

As I ate, my thoughts drifted to the duties I would have to perform in the coming week. First things first, I couldn't possibly leave the estate until my face changed, so it would be necessary to call my favoured cosmetic surgeon for a house visit. The second thing I would have to do was go to the salon for a dye job. Considering how much my hair had changed, I thought a nice red colour would do, but a second opinion was necessary.

"Nazareth," I called out to the maid that was walking by on her way to put out food for the birds in the pond. "How do you feel about my hair being red?"

"Pardon? Rouge naturel?" She looked at the mop of hair on my head that was currently wet and possibly dripping onto my open robe.

"Oui, kind of a natural red but a little dark. Like a mix between redhead and brunette. Do you think that would suit me?" my hand fingered the ends of my hair and brought them up for my eyes to look at. This past month had been complete hell and I could tell by the split ends that were now present. I would have rather died a painful death than lived to suffer split ends. Once you had them, they were impossible to get rid of. My hair was almost down to my a.s.s so I would need a trim anyway.

"Oui. C'est très jolie, mademoiselle," she smiled politely and gave me a slight bow to continue on her way. 'It is very pretty, miss'. I was getting used to being treated like royalty in this house and I had only arrived today… my entitlement was beginning to sneak up on me. Pretty privilege was now amplified by rich privilege and staff who bowed like I was the queen or something. Well… some day I would be. The very thought brought a smile to my face.

The ducks quacking happily captured my attention again and I saw Nazareth standing beside the pond with the bags of food, throwing what looked like crumbs into the lake. At one point even the swans came near her to receive a portion of the meal, and I watched, enraptured as they shared it with each other.

When I bought the swans, I'd made sure to install a comfortable kennel for them to be in whenever there was a storm. The ducks had their own little space in the kennel too, and Henri informed me that they would automatically find their way into it whenever the rain became too uncomfortable for them to bear with outside.

Diverting my eyes away from the scene and deeming myself less desperate from hunger, I grabbed the first letter on the platter and began to open it, reading the name of the sender. It was from the French government, congratulating me on the purchase of such a noble estate and wishing me to take good care of it. My eyes swept over the landscape of my home once again. I'd say that much was coming true.

I put down the letter and grabbed a second one, dragging my finger under the flap to rip through the glue. It was from the city for the renovation of my plumbing. Letter after letter, I opened them all and pursed my lips when they were just notices from the government about the renovation of my place.

I noticed that the recipient address on all of the letters were using the name from my French identity, which made me feel proud momentarily. Giving myself a new identity before buying this place had been a good move. In America, I was Katarina Montenegro, The Spanish Princess and perpetual tease. In France, I was Isabella VanBurren. No backstory, no drama, no criminal allies. Just Isabella VanBurren.

"Madame, I've taken the liberty of calling Dr. Laverne to schedule your house visit tomorrow, I hope this is suitable for you," Henri stood in front of me and I looked up from the letter I was reading to catch the last part of his bow. I had told them all multiple times that they didn't need to bow to me, but none of them listened.

"That's perfect, when does he arrive?"

"Ten in the morning, madame," I took this opportunity to get a good look at my butler, observing his serious face, noting the way the wrinkles on his forehead and corners of his eyes only added to his charm. Henri was relatively young to be my butler. He was only eighteen years older than me, but the state I'd found him in when I offered him a job was more than enough explanation for the signs of aging. Still, he was a very handsome man, and I'd caught my heart fluttering more than once around him.

"Thank you, Henri," he bowed once more and went off to do whatever it was butlers did. I had always grown up with staff around the house, but a butler? A personal butler? That was surreal to me.

The rest of the evening was spent in pleasant solitude. I took a walk in the maze and spent some time reading in the rose garden, just relaxing until my eyes decided they were too tired to keep me awake for long. Once I was back inside the house, I bid my staff an early goodnight and quickly completed my night time routine in the bathroom. By the time I was done, all of my body felt heavy, and it took a massive amount of effort to even drag the comforters back far enough to crawl under them. Before long, sleep overtook me.