AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Today was the day.
A day I'd hoped would never arrive.
Unfortunately, that was not my decision to make.
It was in the hands of my father, and he’d already made it many years ago.
My heart beat as loudly as my feet along the uneven pavement as the rain pelted on my flesh. Running used to be my saviour and escape, but it didn't seem that way today. Today, I was drowning. For the first time in my life, I felt as if I were powerless, as if I had no control, and no matter how much I wanted to grasp it with both hands and never let go, I couldn’t.
Growing up, I’d vowed to never fall in love, that I would never give my heart to anybody, whether to someone in the mafia or another. There's nothing wrong with marriage, per se; many mafia families find it a realistic option. I never considered it a possibility when I was younger. That was until I became eighteen. It was a typical birthday, and my parents went all out as they always did, but there was concern and anguish behind their smiles. Miles, my elder brother, had the identical look on his face. A few seconds later, I understood the reason as my entire universe came crashing down around me.
The news from my father slammed into me like a tonne of bricks: I was to be married at twenty-one. I'd been engaged to the heir of the Sicilian Mafia since before I was born.
Lorenzo Ricci.
It was finally time, after three years of keeping my distance, making myself inaccessible and scarce. Tonight, I was supposed to meet my fiancé. He was a man I'd only ever heard of in passing. Men quivered at simply hearing his name—a name that had shook the Mafia world since he was sixteen years old. He was set to become Don once his father stepped down after the wedding, but his father wanted to make sure he had me as his son’s wife before allowing Lorenzo to take over.
Our fathers had become allies the day they were born; their fathers were already established allies, so it only seemed logical to continue the Bratva-Sicilian Mafia connection. When the boys were born, the alliance was naturally passed on to them. I often wondered what my role was in all of this. It was what my father wanted for me.
My father was thePakhanof the Bratva.
Hated by many.
Respected by more.
I was his second and final child, and his dream of having a girl had finally come true.
He had groomed and readied Miles to take his position asPakhan. However, despite being my father's son, he still had to earn it, work for it, and earn the same love and respect that my father had earned over the years.
My father had trained me too. He, my grandfather, and my brother took turns whenever they had the opportunity, around about the same time Lorenzo's name became well-known. It didn't concern me that Lorenzo was seven years my senior. It wouldn't change our fathers’ plans.
I refused to be a trophy wife, or become submissive. That'd been what he anticipated or perhaps desired, but I wasn’t going to give him the joy of adding another notch on his bedpost.
Whether I liked it or not, I was going to marry Lorenzo and bring our families together for the rest of our lives. Our fathers promised that our offspring would strengthen the tie between us all.
Before I had even drawn my first breath, my life was no longer mine; my fate had been determined, and with each passing day, I felt myself sinking... the surface becoming a faraway sliver of light.
I collapsed upon the sodden grass to the right of my route and buried my head back in the soil, oblivious to the fact that my icy-blonde hair had become almost dark. For the thirteenth time, my headphones told me that my father was calling me. I could picture him; his deep silver eyes narrowing into slits, and his dark, thick brows furrowing into a snarl as he nearly smashed his phone down onto his desk. But I couldn't bring myself to respond because I knew what awaited me if I picked up his call, his disapproving, dissatisfied tone. The road was deafeningly quiet; not a single car or person had gone by in the last hour, and thankfully, no bodyguard had followed me when I crept out through the rear wall.Amateurs.
Our house wasn’t straightforward to sneak out of since we had more guards than I could count. They patrolled outside the low walls, around the beautifully kept gardens, the front gates, and even the rooftop. Papa had the rooftop levelled and made accessible so we could have guards keep an eye on things from up there as well.
I couldn’t picture standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Lorenzo, hundreds of eyes fixated on us as we recited our vows. I would have had both sets of parents and Miles if it were up to me, which it wasn’t. My father had put his foot down once again by inviting all our partners, even the families who had missed out on an alliance because of my hand in marriage. They clearly didn't realise I'd been promised to Lorenzo since birth, so many attempted to persuade my father, and some resorted to even bribery, which almost got them a bullet in thehead because my father loathed bribes.
* * *
The sun had fallen when I arrived at the rear gate. An enraged guard marched towards me, his face bloody and bruised. He put his hand up to his earpiece, presumably to alert my father I had finally got home.
"Your father is waiting for you in his office, Anastacia."
"Artem, what happened to your face?" I already knew what must’ve happened.
My father.
"Your father was not pleased with the fact that you managed to slip away this afternoon." He narrowed his eyes slightly, his frown still intact.
My shoulder collided with his bicep as I pushed past his tall figure. But before I went any farther, I glanced behind me.
"Papa wasn't playing games, was he?"
