CHAPTER 1

(THE PAST)

PIETRO GIACOMETTI

It's been five years since that framed drawing of the sun and rainbow hung in my bedroom. Five years since the thoughts of that girl started occupying my head daily.

Peaches was my first thought and my last thought every single day. She was still the go-happy girl she had been five years ago, she still wore that same bright smile that looked new every fucking time. And yes, she still wore perfume that had the scent of Peaches.

I might have been giving her bottles of those perfume though to ensure she never changed that scent.

I ran my fingers gently over the bracelet Peaches had made for my eighteenth birthday. A cute, pink bracelet that my father thought was childish. I didn't give a fuck about his opinions though. He could keep his opinions to himself.

If I had gotten the bracelet from anyone else, I would probably have thought the same as my father but it was from her and I sure as hell loved the bracelet.

"Pietro." My father's voice boomed behind me and I suppressed a groan before turning away from the plate of cookies I had been staring at.

My father's gaze darted to my wrist first and that look of displeasure flashed on his face but I couldn't care less about his displeasure or his pleasure.

"Get the information out of the guy in the basement. The other guys can't do a single thing properly."

"I will." I said simply. I picked the plate of cookies and made to leave.

"Off to see your little plaything again?" My father's voice stopped me and I clenched my jaws.

"Again, don't call her a plaything." This wasn't the first time I was telling him that.

He looked at the plate of cookies in my hands and sneered.

"You think she will be able to stand being with you in the future? You think she's going to stay the moment she finds out what type of demon you are? Nah, that little ray of sunshine won't be able to stand you. At the end of the day, when she's old enough, she's going to date some nice guy and get married to him."

It wasn't the first time he was telling me those words, namely fatherly advice. But if he knew how badly I had the urge to practice lip sewing on him everytime he said those words, he would keep quiet more around me.

Whether Peaches was willing to stay by my side or not, she was mine. She had sold herself out to me five years ago and she could only ever belong to me, in this lifetime and even in the next.

I walked out of the main mansion and walked towards the little house. While the children of the other workers stayed in apartments in one building, I had made sure Peaches and her father got a separate place to stay.

I didn't want those little bastards and bitches crawling up to her.

At this time, she would be having her bath. In five minutes, she would be done and in another five minutes, she would walk out of her room with her eyes brightening up at the sight of the cookies.

My Peaches was perfect but she had one single flaw. She couldn't say no to anyone and if I wasn't there, Peaches would do everything she was asked to do even if she was in a sickbed.

I pushed open the main door and walked into the house, stopping in the living room. I had only spent a few seconds in the living room when a scream came from her room.

"Journie? Journie! You were peeping on me bathing?!" Caily's scream and those words sent me racing into her room.

And there was the bastard. Panic flashed on his face the moment he set his eye on me.

"Fucking cunt!" I cursed, smashing the plate in my hand against the nearest wall and rushing towards him.

"Pietro!" Peaches called out to me and hell knew I would listen to her in almost every goddamn situation but not this one.

I shoved Journie against the wall and stabbed his right eye with the broken plate in my hand. Caily was mine and mine alone, this bastard setting his eyes on her body made my head ache with anger.

His scream of tortured pain filled my ears as he tried to push me off him but I stabbed into the eye again. He was never going to see again with the same eyes he had looked at the one who belonged to me.

"Pietro stop!!" Peaches sounded scared but the more I stabbed into that eye, the more the rage filled me up and I just couldn't stop.

"Pietro!" She screamed again, the fear in her voice more evident as I made to stab at the left eye.

"Pietro no." her sob made my hand still in the air for a few seconds before I slowly lowered my hand.

I let the bloodied broken plate drop to the floor with a clatter and watched as Journie held onto his bleeding face, trying to make his way out of the room.

A few seconds later, the bastard was out of the room but I knew I was still going to get him. I was going to ruin the other eye and make him permanently blind.

"Pietro." The sniffling from Caily made me feel immense guilt. I hated it every time I was unable to shield this me away from her. I hated the fear in her eyes whenever I lost control in front of her.

And as she looked at me across the room, her light blue eyes glassy with tears, I could see the fear in those pretty eyes of hers.

"Peaches." I took a step closer to her and she took a step back.

"Pietro, wh..."

I hurried my steps, getting to her just before her back would touch the wall.

I reached my hands up to cup her face but stopped, realising how bloodied my hands were.

Damn you Pietro.

"He deserved it." I breathed the words out.

"He is a pervert and he would hurt others in the future if I don't stop him." I justified my action.

"You... You stabbed him." her voice was shaky and the fear was still in her eyes.

"He hurt you." That was a very valid reason. Even if I killed him, that was a reason valid enough.

"Don't be like that, Pietro." her voice broke as tears streamed down her cheeks.

I hated it. Hated seeing tears roll down her rosy cheeks.

"I am sorry I made you see that. I am sorry." I whispered the words to her.

Of course I was only sorry that I made her see it, I wasn't sorry that I did it.

"You looked scary, Pietro" she sobbed and took a step closer to me.

"Don't ever do it again, please... Don't ever hurt anyone please. Promise me you won't" she begged and I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her in for a warm hug.

"I won't."

But I knew I would. Over and over again, I would maim, torture and kill for her.