AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter One
Elena
I wear black as always. Black is such a good color for so many things, but is also often the color of grief and mourning. And that is what I’m doing today; I am mourning myself. The life that I would’ve liked to have. The life that I dreamed of when I was a little girl. The life that is mine.
“Elena, dear, are you coming?”
I look to Pavel, my father, who is peeping his head through the door of our cab with a wide grin on his face as if this is the best day of our lives.
My father is not a typical type of man. He has raised me mostly on his own, and he is also a very important figure in the church. And by church, I meanthechurch. The Catholic church.
Though, everything his life stands for, my existence seems to be the opposite of. He made a mistake, gave into temptation, as many men do. I have heard the story many times, and I can’t help but think that I am being blamed for all of his sins.
The sad part of it all is he honestly believes he’s been raising me to be a perfect daughter. The old man thinks he’s done all these amazing things as a single father, but from my perspective, it is quite different.
And on days like today, I’m reminded that just because he is a good Christian man does not mean that he is a good father and understands what I need or want.
Today, we have been on the plane to Rome. Specifically, we have come on an invitation from a group of people known as the Clans. It’s a pretty ominous name, if you ask me, and also pretentious. Everything I know about the Clans is obviously pretentious. But it is that pretentiousness that makes them the target for whom my father believes might be my future husband.
I’ve never been a part of the Clans, never felt like I would be. I have been sheltered from them and pretty much everything, most of my life.
Or at least my father thinks I have been sheltered.
He should try walking into an all-girls religious boarding school some time to see the shitshow that actually goes on behind closed doors. It’s not pretty, and it’s not all that innocent either.
My father has been determined since the moment he became an honorary member of sorts as the priest to the king and queen of the Clans, outdated titles if you will, that I would somehow become one of them. And the only way that would be possible is if I married into it.
I don’t know what it is about Europe and these elite underground groups, but there seems to be an awful lot of them with antiquated ideals, especially regarding women. I should be used to these ideals considering my very own father is a Roman Catholic priest. But having basically raised myself, don’t tell him that, I have a very different opinion of the world, of life, and of religion. And it does not involve being forced to marry a man that I have never met and will never love.
But I know that today is going to be all about introducing me to the eligible bachelors in the Clans and trying to get me to agree to be with one of them. I just hope that my father is reasonable enough to accept a no if I say so. That there’s something left in him, a good heart, to tell him that his daughter does not deserve a life that’s forced upon me.
I reluctantly slide out of the car and follow him in my all-black mourning attire. He says nothing about it and maintains his cheeriness as we walk inside the ritzy hotel where a series of rooms have been blocked out for this event.
This event in particular does interest me, but only for the drama of it all. The Salas’, Carla and Philippe, are celebrating their union, or wedding. Union is the word used, probably to highlight the fact that it is a coming together of two entities that is advantageous to the Clans. To give them more power or some shit like that.
My father tried to explain it a bit to me on the way over so I wasn’t lost when he forced me to make conversation with some man.
But what’s the most interesting is the fact that this is happening a couple months after the fact for the sheer fact that in the middle of their wedding day, the church got bombed.
I kid you not, old school, go up in flames, blew up, gone, fucking bombed.
I’m kind of sad I wasn’t there to see the whole thing go down, just because it would have at least made life a little bit more interesting. Apparently, somebody wanted to kill all the Clan members that had come for this very special wedding.
That’s all I can think of, anyway, with all those people in one spot. It’s like terrorists attacking other terrorists. Kind of ironic. I don’t know who did it or the reasoning, as I am more than out of the loop. I’m in a need to know basis is all, and this doesn’t concern me.
Unless this event gets blown up too.
The happy couple had to get married elsewhere another time and date, and of course, the reception never happened. So, it’s kind of like a do-over.
Inside, the decor is plain. There is an open bar, though everyone’s hands are full of fancy flutes of champagne or glasses of wine rather than the good stuff. The stuff that really is there to get you drunk and make you forget. I’ve never been a fan of wine no matter the fact that I come from a heritage of wine drinkers and cultivators. I like my alcohol hard and fast, also something I don’t mention to my father.
I can already tell this whole thing is going to be a bore, and my father begins pointing out certain individuals, especially the men who are under the age of 50. At least, I hope that they are. I get the feeling that these Clan men are well preserved, regardless of age.
Kind of like the wine they’re drinking.
I try not to snort at my own internal dialogue, and I follow him, my heels clicking against the marble floors. Another pretentious thing the Clans have before them. And then he points to two men in particular. Two men that happen to look exactly alike.
“That is Isaac and his brother Luca,” My father tells me. He hasn’t made it a point to make sure I’ve been paying attention until this moment, and he looks me in the eyes. I try not to roll mine as I look back at him, knowing that this must be the family that he is gunning for me being a part of.
