Sally and I were childhood sweethearts. We met when we were three years old.

His parents and mine had been close friends for years. The Morelli family and the Vitale family were two of the oldest powers in New Yiz. We had been working side by side for decades, living on the same private estate as next-door neighbors.

I had been in love with Sally for as long as I could remember.

When I was in school, I was always getting picked on by the other boys. One of them was the worst. He sat behind me and pulled my hair, stuffed disgusting things into my backpack, and cornered me on my way home from school.

I went to my teacher in tears. She talked to him about it, but then turned around and told me with a smile that he only did it because he liked me.

I did not believe that for a second, and the boy did not change.

I went home and told my parents. They were furious.

Don Tony Morelli, Sally's father, happened to be visiting our house at the time. When he heard what was going on, he called Sally over and told him to protect me at school from now on.

"... like you would protect your future wife," Don Tony said.

I thought he was joking, but when I turned to look at Sally, the tips of his ears had gone red. And just like that, I felt my own face flush too.

…

The very next day, Sally dragged that boy out and beat him to a pulp. He had always been tall for his age, tough by nature, and his father started training him to fight, shoot, and manage territory when he was only seven.

He left that boy and his friends with blood all over their faces, and before he walked away, he turned to warn the rest of them. "Anyone who messes with Gia Vitale is making an enemy of the Morelli family."

That was the moment I fell for him.

From then on, I became his little shadow, glued to his side wherever he went. Family gatherings, dinner parties, and even internal meetings that were no place for a girl to be… I shamelessly tagged along to all of them.

Sally did not like me following him around. He had been raised to be tough, to be a leader, and in his mind, being seen with a girl like me, someone who cried at the drop of a hat, made him look weak.

Still, I never gave up. I trailed after him day after day, calling out 'Sally' in the sweetest voice I could manage.

A few years of that, and he finally softened. He stopped pushing me away.

I started to notice things. His gaze would linger on me a little longer than it needed to. He would lock eyes with me and then lose his train of thought, or jolt like he had been shocked, stammering and turning red before changing the subject.

Don Tony said that since the two of us were so close, they might as well have us married when we were older.

Sally did not say a word, but he held my hand tight. I saw his ears turn red again.

My heart felt so full it could burst. I announced it loud and proud for everyone to hear. "Sì! I'm going to marry Sally when I grow up!"

Everyone laughed, even Papa.

However, everything changed after Fiona came into the picture.

The Lanza family was from the West and expanding their reach into the East. Fiona had a stunning figure and a striking face. She carried herself like she owned every room she walked into.

The first time we met, she stared at me for a long moment, then burst out laughing.

"Oh my God, I can't. Where did this pink princess come from? Everything on you is pink. Aren't you a little old for this? Are you doing this on purpose? This is so embarrassing."

Every pair of eyes at the party followed her gaze straight to me, and my face went scarlet on the spot.

I loved pink. I always had. For as long as I could remember, almost everything I owned was pink. Pink bags, pink water bottles, pink hair clips, pink t-shirts, pink sweaters, pink phone cases, even my little keychains had to be pink.

It was not like I had never heard comments about it before. I had run into plenty of boys who called me high-maintenance and prissy, and girls who said I was trying too hard to be cute.

Still, most people were kind about it. More girls than not told me I was adorable and that pink suited me perfectly.

This was the first time someone had mocked me so openly, so shamelessly, right to my face and in front of everyone. I stood there, caught between confusion and humiliation, wishing the ground would swallow me whole.

"Sorry, sorry, I'm just really blunt like that. Don't be mad, Principessa." Fiona winked, playful as ever.

"Enough. It's your first day here, so keep it down." Sally's voice cut through, sharp with irritation.

I turned to see him frowning at Fiona, visibly annoyed.

Fiona raised an eyebrow and looked him up and down. "Oh? The Princessa's knight in shining armor?"

"What did you just say? What's wrong with you?" Sally snapped and got to his feet, stepping in front of me. Everyone rushed in to break it up, pulling him toward the pool and steering Fiona off to the garden.

I did not know if it was a coincidence, but after that day, Fiona started showing up around Sally more and more. And somewhere along the way, without me ever noticing, they became very close friends.

I was not sure when exactly Sally and Fiona became close. It just happened one day, out of nowhere. The strawberry juice he used to bring me every morning was suddenly replaced with plain milk.

"You know I hate plain milk. How do you not know that?" I stared at the carton in my hand, annoyed.

"Come on, the only reason you even liked strawberry juice was that the bottle was pink. You're too old to be drinking strawberry juice every day. Milk is healthier." Sally patted me on the head.

Fiona was holding a carton of plain milk too. She turned to me with a sheepish little smile. "Sorry, pink princess. I like plain milk, so I asked Sal to get this instead."

She paused, then added, "Besides, strawberry juice is sickeningly sweet. Is that really what girls like you drink?"

I set the milk down and looked her dead in the eye. "Do you always give people nicknames they didn't ask for?"

She stiffened, then put on a look of surprise and innocence. "Wow, why so serious? I was just joking. You're way too sensitive, gosh."

"Whether I'm sensitive or you just have a guilty conscience, you know the answer to that."

"Alright, Gia. That's enough." Sally stepped in, looking like he had a headache. "Fiona didn't mean it. She just sometimes says things without thinking. Don't take it to heart."

I was so angry my eyes stung. I shoved Sally hard, then turned back to Fiona. "If you don't know how to talk to people, then don't talk at all!"

Sally flinched in surprise and wrapped his arm around my waist without thinking. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry. Don't be mad. I'll bring you strawberry juice tomorrow, alright?"

Fiona's expression shifted the moment she saw that. She stared at me, hard.

After that, she came for me every single time we crossed paths.

If I pulled out a pack of tissues with pink packaging, she would make a huge scene. "Oh, wow! Even your tissues have to be pink? Do you think you're a princess or something?"

If I wiped my shoes with a wet wipe, she would nudge the boys who liked to tease me and roll her eyes. "The princess' clean freak tendencies are out of control."

At a friend's birthday party, I sat down to catch my breath after dancing, and Fiona shouted across the room, "The princess is tired! Someone get over here and give her a massage!"

Every time, the boys who hung around her would play right along, each one laughing harder than the last like it was the funniest thing they had ever seen.

Sally pushed back at first, telling her to knock it off. However, Fiona waved him off. "It's just a joke. Gia takes herself way too seriously. I'm actually helping her loosen up and get along with everyone."

Sally thought about it for a moment, then nodded. "Gia does act kind of like a princess. Are all girls like this these days?"

Fiona punched him lightly on the shoulder. "Hey, hey, hey, don't lump me in with those prissy little girls. I'm nothing like them."

Sally smiled at that.

My heart sank.

The truth was, I always knew Sally thought I was high-maintenance—that I was too delicate, too temperamental. I supposed for most boys who grew up in the mafia, liking pink, being a clean freak, and not being physically strong was all it took to earn the princess label.

One day, I finally snapped.

I had just come back from a vacation with my parents at our family's beachside estate in Florica. My skin had tanned quite a bit from the sun, though it had happened before, so I did not think much of it.

That evening, I wore a pink dress to a party.

Fiona spotted me and raised her voice for everyone to hear. "Oh my God! Gia, you're still wearing pink? Don't you think that looks awful on you? You seriously don't see how ridiculous you look?"

She was not done. "I'm sorry, I can't. This is killing me. What kind of princess looks like that? You look more like an old witch!"

She and a group of boys collapsed into laughter.

Sally seemed to find it funny too. The corner of his mouth twitched upward.

In that moment, a wave of helplessness and humiliation swallowed me whole. I felt the blood rush to my head, and my fists clenched at my sides.

With their laughter still ringing in my ears, I grabbed my glass and threw the drink right in her face.

Fiona froze, frantically wiping at her dripping face. She had done her makeup perfectly that night, and the water sent it streaking down her cheeks.

She sputtered and coughed. "What the hell? Are you insane?"

"Oh my God." I mimicked her tone. "With all that fake lash glue, foundation, lipstick, and whatever that eyeshadow is supposed to be, I'd say you're the one who looks like a clown."

I turned to leave, but a few of the boys stepped in to block my path.

Sally walked over and took the glass out of my hand. "Gia, apologize."

He looked down at me with furrowed brows and spoke in a cold voice.

My eyes burned as I stared back at him. "Did you not hear what she said to me? She called me an old witch."

"That's a separate issue. You already said your piece. Now you need to apologize for throwing a drink in her face.

"You made a mistake, so own it. Stop acting like a child." He said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Just apologize. Fiona won't hold it against you."

I let out a cold laugh. "Not a chance. The only way I'm apologizing to her is over her dead body."

Sally's eyes went wide, then he slapped me across the face.

I left the party before it was over and told the driver to take me straight back to the Vitale estate. The moment I got to my room, I tore the place apart. I ripped through the bookshelves, the closets, the storage cabinets, pulling everything out until the room was a mess.

I grabbed a large cardboard box and dug out every single thing Sally had ever given me, throwing it all inside.

The necklace he gave me for my 12th birthday, the custom bracelet he shyly pressed into my hand on Valentine's Day when I turned 13, the jacket he got me for New Year's when I was 15 that he picked out without me having to say a word because he just knew I would love it, and the diary with the pink cover that he gave me when I was ten. I had filled every page with my girlhood secrets and daydreams.

It took an entire box to fit it all.

Once I was sure I had not missed a single thing, I carried the box downstairs, marched right up to the front of the Morelli estate in full view of their guards and staff, and threw the whole thing in the trash.

When I was done, my parents still were not home. I called Mama.

"Hey, baby, what's wrong?"

"Mama. When you get home tonight, go next door and tell Don Tony and Donna Rose that Sally and I are done. And one more thing."

My voice went cold. "Starting today, Sally is not allowed to set foot in our house. Tell him to stay the hell away from me."

When Mama came home, she took one look at the handprint on my face and her expression shifted between panic and fury. I told her everything that had been going on.

By the time I finished, she was livid. She turned around and went straight to the Morelli estate.

Sally's mother, Donna Rose Conti, still had no idea what had happened.

Mama did not waste a single breath. She laid out the entire story, piece by piece. How Sally slapped me hard across the face, how he stood by and did nothing while that Lanza girl bullied and humiliated me for months, and how, in the end, he stepped in front of Fiona to protect her instead of me.

The color drained from Donna Rose's face.

Mama said, "Our Principessa has never been mistreated a day in her life. The code of silence never taught her how to forgive a man who raised his hand to her."

The truth was, our two families had always been close. The bond went back a generation, years and years of friendship and loyalty, and today it cracked because of me.

Still, Mama did not blame me. She pulled me into her arms, gentle and steady. "No one gets to hurt our Gia. Whatever you decide, your Papa and I are behind you."

Everything I had been holding in finally broke loose. My nose stung and my throat tightened as I buried my face against her and cried.

Papa flew back from Sicilica that same night. He saw the mark on my face and said nothing for a long time. His expression was unreadable, hard and still.

The next morning, Don Tony came to our door in person to apologize. Papa refused to see him. The staff stopped Don Tony in the foyer and told him that Papa had left early for the docks to handle a shipment and would not be back for some time.

Don Tony stood in the entryway, jaw tight, face like stone. He knew it was an excuse. Of course he did. But there was nothing he could do except grip his hat and leave.

After that day, everything between the two families went cold. The weekly dinners they used to share stopped entirely.

Business continued on the surface, but everyone could see the truth. The relationship between the Vitale and Morelli families was on the verge of falling apart.