Born a heiresses, Thrown to the MAFIA'S WORLD

Alison is standing on the beach of Teli Island with her feet half buried in the sand. The sun is going down and the whole place looks calm like nothing serious ever happens there. She is wearing a simple white linen beach gown and her hair is loose. People around the resort are busy with normal activities, guests walking around, staff moving, children playing near the palm trees. She is not there as a tourist. She is there because her father sent her abroad to supervise one of their resort branches in Italy. Her parents are King and Queen of Solaria, a wealthy royal country in Europe, which makes Alison a princess, even though in modern times that word doesn’t carry the same weight anymore. To her, it is not something special. It is just pressure. This trip is supposed to be a mix of work and freedom. Her father framed it as a gift for her twentieth birthday, he knew how she longed for freedom and that, he gave her, but in reality it is also about responsibility. She is expected to not just supervise the resort but to represent the royal family at the Hakunu festival happening on the island, a yearly celebration the local community holds. She is supposed to attend, smile, donate gifts, interact with people, and make sure the royal family is seen in a good light. She is never really alone; even when she is trying to enjoy herself, there is always someone watching or reporting back. That afternoon she steps closer to the water just to breathe. For once, she is not surrounded by strict instructions. She watches the waves come in and go back, thinking about nothing serious. Then she notices something strange in the water. At first it looks like a debris or a fish being pushed by the tide, but she then realizes that it is too big to be a fish. It is also too heavy and too stiff to be anything alive. She squints, trying to understand what she is seeing. The shape keeps moving towards the shore until it finally reaches the shallow water. It is a body. A man. Alison sees this for a second before her brain takes time to accept what she is looking at. A human body on a luxury resort beach is not something she expects to see. She freezes for a moment. Then she moves closer. She stands right in front of the half-dead man washed up on the shore and looks at him properly for the first time. Even in that condition, there is something about him. His features are sharp, attractive in a way that is hard to ignore. For a few seconds she just stands there longer than she should, almost staring without realizing it. Then she snaps out of it. A body on a luxury resort ? It's an emergency!!!. She immediately calls for help. The children nearby who were making baskets under the palm trees hear her voice and run immediately. They alert the adults and within minutes people are rushing toward the shore. The body is pulled out of the water and checked. He is alive, barely breathing, unconscious, soaked, and injured. The resort staff immediately calls for emergency services from the mainland. Alison does not leave. She stays there the entire time, watching everything being done. When someone asks who will take responsibility for medical costs and treatment, she authorizes it under her father’s name without hesitation. Everything he needs is arranged on the island before he is transported. After that, the situation slowly settles. The beach goes back to normal because that is how places like this work. Problems are handled quickly and life continues. That evening, the Hakunu festival begins. The island is filled with music, lights, dancing, and celebration. Alison attends because she is required to. She greets people, smiles when necessary, gives out gifts, and plays her role as the princess of Solaria. To everyone watching, she looks composed and perfect, exactly how she has been trained to appear. But her mind is not fully present. She keeps remembering the body in the water. Later that night when the festival is still going on, fireworks lighting the sky and people celebrating around her, Alison steps away for a moment and stands alone near the edge of the celebration area. She looks out toward the sea. And for reasons she does not fully understand, she quietly hopes the man is alive. Not because she knows him. But because something about the moment he was pulled from the water does not leave her thoughts.