Mafiella: Never Betray The Family

Summer vacation was supposed to be boring. Instead, Stella got kidnapped.

Fresh off the bus from the secretive Valentina’s Academy, Stella expects a return to normalcy. What she gets is a sack over her head and a one-way trip to a desert hideout—along with a brooding, unshaven guy she doesn’t trust, but also can’t ignore.

Who took her? Why now? And why are they keeping her alive?

Discovering she's the granddaughter of a disgraced mafia kingpin was shocking enough. But now it seems someone wants her out of the picture—badly. The old family territory was stolen years ago in a brutal coup. So why is the past coming for her now?

To survive, Stella will need to trust her instincts and use every trick Valentina’s taught her. Because in this game, nothing is black and white—and the line between hero and villain might just disappear altogether.

A twisted, suspenseful Beauty and the Beast retelling with mafia secrets, desert standoffs, and a fierce heroine who won’t go down without a fight.

A disquieting swirling sensation enveloped her as if she were at the center of a tornado or spinning in circles. Stella reached out to steady herself but caught air. Too dizzy to open her eyes, she withdrew her hands and tucked herself into a ball, willing the nausea to disappear. That was when she heard a familiar voice.


Her eyes flew open, and she was blinded by a burst of bright light. Immediately, Stella squeezed her eyes shut and instead listened. Was she home? Well, not home, but at Margaux’s. Flashes of fragmented memories passed through her mind. A car, voices, being roughly carried, an oppressive heat that made her press her face to the coolness against her cheek and…Ethan. That’s right. He’d come to meet her bus, but what had happened next? A sickening sensation rolled through her stomach, and Stella turned to the side, vomiting across the floor.


“Damn it,” someone shouted. “She’s barfing again. How much did you give her?”


“Dunno,” a man replied. “Whatever was in the syringe.”


“Get a rag, idiot.”

Stella rolled onto her back, which was a mistake. If the dizzy sensation was bad before, it was three times worse now. She turned on her side again, noticing the sharp pains in her shoulder and hip bone. I must’ve been like this for a while, she thought, shifting uncomfortably. Footsteps approached, and something dropped in front of her. Stella opened her eyes in thin slits and saw a black work boot pushing the rag around the floor. It brushed roughly against her face as they cleaned up after her. She turned away, willing her stomach to cooperate.


“She smells,” the man said.


“Not our problem,” the woman replied.


"Can we get out of here now?” the man asked, walking away.

He had left the soaked rag on the floor inches from Stella’s face. She gingerly reached up, grasped the rag, and threw it across the room, hitting the man in the back.

“What the—!” he yelled.


The woman laughed.


The man crossed the room in two giant strides and landed a swift kick to her ribs. Stella doubled over, but instead of spewing across the floor, she dry-heaved, which felt ten times worse, but there was nothing left in her stomach to release.


“She’s empty. Now can we go?” he asked.


"Not until we get the order,” the woman replied. “Get cleaned up, idiot.”


Thinking hurt; everything hurt. Instead of focusing on the pain, which was threatening to overwhelm her senses, Stella tried to piece together the last…hours, days? She had no idea how much time had passed. Was anyone aware she was missing? Was anyone looking for her? Other than Ethan, who knew nothing about her new life. Did this even have something to do with the mafia, or could it be an unrelated kidnapping? She had no idea, and as she reached for some tool from her year at Valentina’s, it was clear she was too incapacitated to fight back, and that was the worst feeling of all.