HER DARKEST OBSESSION

Who is Bridget Marino?

Chapter Four:

Bridget's POV

I walked away from Jayden’s room, the sound of my heels striking the marble floor bouncing off the walls of the mansion. The rhythmic click of each step gives me a brief sense of control, a familiar routine in a life filled with calculated decisions. But beneath that cool, composed exterior, I’m still just eighteen. I’m still a high school senior with exams to study for, friends who expect me to hang out on weekends, and teachers who think I’m just another spoiled rich girl. They don’t know the half of it.

Balancing school and the family business has become second nature to me. One minute, I’m managing logistics for our most important shipments, and the next, I’m texting my best friend about tomorrow’s math test. It’s exhausting, but it’s my life. Most days, I feel like I’m living two lives: the mafia princess by day and the teenager by night. But in reality, both worlds have bled into each other.

As I make my way to my office, I pass the dining room where the table is already set for tomorrow morning. Jayden will meet Maria here, and she’ll help him sort out what he needs for his new life. On the surface, it looks like I’m doing him a favor, but deep down, it’s just another move in the game I’m playing. I don’t have time to feel guilty about it.

I reach my office, a smaller space tucked away from the grandeur of the mansion. The desk is scattered with files, not homework but real work—the kind my friends would never understand. I’m supposed to be worried about prom, not the numbers for our family’s latest business deal.

My brother, Leo, has always taken the brunt of the responsibility. He’s the head of the family, and I know he carries the weight of our parents’ death on his shoulders. I was only two when they died—too young to remember them. But Leo, he remembers everything, and I think it’s shaped who he’s become. He was forced to grow up fast and raise me in a world where emotions are liabilities.

Leo once told me, “Feelings are for people who can afford to lose. We can’t.” So I learned to hide mine, to bury them beneath the cold, controlled version of myself that everyone sees. But I’m not heartless. People think I don’t feel anything—that I’m just this ice-cold, calculating person who runs half of our business while still keeping up with schoolwork. They don’t see the part of me that misses the parents I never knew, or the part of me that just wants to feel something real for once.

A knock on the door pulls me out of my thoughts, and Leo walks in. He’s dressed in his usual black suit, his face as hard as always, but I can see the concern hidden in his eyes.

“Everything set up with the new boy?” he asks, leaning against the door frame.

“Yeah, he’ll meet Maria in the morning,” I reply, looking back down at the file on my desk. “He’ll fall in line.”

Leo watches me for a moment, and I can feel his eyes scanning my face like he’s looking for cracks in my armor. “You’re not getting too attached, are you? I know how you get it.”

I bristled at that. “I’m fine, Leo. This isn’t about attachment. It’s about business.”

He lets out a quiet sigh, stepping further into the room. “I know you think you have to be this way, Bridget. But you don’t have to prove anything to anyone, least of all me.”

I hate when he does this—when he acts like he’s still the older brother who raised me, who taught me how to survive in this world. It’s like he forgets that I’m not a little girl anymore. I’ve seen the way people look at me—like I’m just an extension of him, another cog in the machine. But I’m more than that. I have to be.

“People expect me to be cold and calculated,” I say, staring out the window. That’s what they see, and that’s what I give them. But it doesn’t mean I don’t feel things, Leo. I just don’t let them show.”

He sits down across from me, his expression softening in a way it rarely does. “I know. But don’t let it eat you alive. You’ve got enough weight on your shoulders without adding more to it.”

I swallowed hard, the lump in my throat threatening to surface. I hate this—feeling vulnerable, even in front of him. Especially in front of him. “I can handle it. I have to.”

Leo nodded, standing up and walking toward the door. Before he leaves, he turns back to me. “You’re still just a kid, Bridget. Don’t forget that. Even with everything on your plate, you don’t have to be an adult all the time.”

I didn’t answer. I can’t. Because the truth is, I’ve forgotten what it feels like to just be a teenager.

When he’s gone, I stare at the file in front of me, the weight of it feeling heavier than it should. Jayden’s file, his debts, his sister’s problems—all of it tied up in a neat little package that I’m expected to handle with the same ruthless efficiency I’ve always shown.

But for just a moment, I let myself feel the sadness, the frustration of it all. The loneliness. It’s fleeting, though, because soon enough, I push it back down, locking it away where no one can see it.

I may be eighteen, but in this world, I don’t get the luxury of feeling like a normal girl. Not when there’s business to run, debts to collect, and a family legacy to uphold. Tomorrow, it’s back to business as usual. But for tonight, I let myself breathe.