A Bond by Marriage

Chapter 2

Gia’s POV-

I locked the door before throwing myself on my bed. The book in my hands lay open and I silently stared at it, the pages fluttering and my tears staining the pages with a light ‘tup’. Though the room was in its usual state, enveloped in silence, it felt oddly overwhelming. It was closing in on me, blurring my vision and my mind.

“No…” I inhaled. This was my chance to get out of here, to get out of Riccardo’s reach forever. But… the consequences of it… and what kind of life would I fall into? If I could choose for myself, I wouldn’t choose either. And now, because I had to choose, I did not know what to do. How could I change one prison for another? The world I was born into was forged in cruelty. It knew no mercy, no love. But at least here, I knew the danger. I could always be prepared for the worst. But then surely, nothing could be worse than what I was already living.

One decision— the decision I wasn't even sure was mine— and my life could change. A new place, new people and new everything. I didn’t know if this was a choice between two Hells or a chance of— no, I couldn’t even dare hope. I did not know how many hours or minutes passed with me thinking the same thing again and again, but my heart lurched at the sudden pounding at my door.

“Gia, open the door,” I heard Riccardo slurring. He sounded drunk. He had never come into my room drunk.

My toes and hands curled, trying to ignore his fist against my door. The door rattled and fearing what would happen if I didn’t open the door, I took slow steps to open it. Riccardo almost fell on top of me, but I held him back, away from me. “Oh, Gia… they want to marry you off. You will go away… I don’t want you to go away,” he drawled, cupping my cheek as I tried to push him away, which I soon learned was a mistake. He twisted my hand,a dirty sneer on his face. Drunk or not, he was a monster. A true, vile monster.

“Riccardo, please…”

“Do you want to marry him? Tell me, Gia?” He kicked the door shut before stumbling toward the bed, dragging me with him. “You want to f*****g marry him and leave, don’t you? This is your perfect way out, isn’t it? But mind you, dear mine, you are not going anywhere. Nowhere,” he said, stumbling onto the bed, taking me under him. I felt his hands around my waist, trying to bunch up my dress, and I regretted opening the door. But, hadn’t I tried that in the past?

“Riccardo, please… don’t…” my begging went on deaf ears as it always had.

“You… you are going to marry him, huh? You are going to f**k him, probably even eager to. You are not to be married, Gia. You are not to be his,” he said, panting and groaning in distaste from his futile attempt to reach my bare skin. I turned around to move away but I saw him tripping on his legs, and he fell with a thud and remained laid on the floor, open-mouthed, passed out. Relief knocked through me as I sat there panting hard.

“No, this is good, this is good,” I repeated, my eyes never wavering from his sprawled form on the floor as I stumbled into my bathroom and quickly locked the door. I couldn’t leave him out there. I had to do something. Anything.

Splashing my face, I made up my mind and walked out. Moving around Riccardo’s body, I ran to Aldo’s room on the other side of the house. Never had I thought I would run to Aldo for help against his brother, but I knew this was the only time he would side with me. So, I pounded on his door feverously until he opened it with a gun in his hand and simply looked at me.

“Riccardo, he passed out in my room,” I said before quickly adding, “he came to meet me and ask if I was okay.” Even though the world didn’t know his despicable truth, I always felt the need to justify my cousin’s presence in my room. More so with Aldo, because I didn’t think there was anything Aldo didn’t know about his brother. And if he did know the truth that got Santino killed, then he was probably even worse than his brother.

Stepping aside, I offered him to move before me but he only bobbed his head for me to take the lead. Swallowing, I walked quick steps to my room but stayed outside as Aldo took in the scene and dragged Riccardo out with no questions whatsoever. And why would he ask anything when I had already justified his presence.

Head lolled to the side, I couldn’t help but stare at Riccardo, engraving his state in my mind where he was still a monster but so easy to kill.

No sooner had I locked the door than my knees gave in and I slid against it, disturbed in the head, and my chest heavy, aching with relief and with the burden of choice. My life after marriage might be dangerous, but now I was sure it couldn’t be as bad as the life I was living. There was nothing that could happen worse than this, nothing that could shake me to my core more than this, nothing that could disgust me more than this.

Riccardo had readied me for every bad thing Dino could do to me.

.

“This one?” the young maid asked me again and I nodded, again. “You are saying yes to everything,” she murmured as I played with my fingers nervously. She had been here for fifteen minutes and it seemed I was failing to co-operate with her.

Early in the morning, I was already waiting for my uncle to come downstairs. My answer had been ready since the very second he told me about the proposal. I probably waited to prolong the impression of choice. With Riccardo not present there, I told him my decision with as much courage as I could muster. My uncle didn’t wait a second before delivering my answer. The message from the other side came just as quickly. Dino was coming today to confirm what I hadn't yet been able to come to terms with.

“If you believe me, you should put on this,” the lady said, and I nodded, taking the simple white dress with balloon sleeves and a square neckline with a length just enough to lightly caress the floor as I’d walk. Quickly changing, I came out to see the woman sitting with a curler in her hands. I didn't need her to do that for me.

“I would like to do the rest,” I said and once she left— after much insistence— I did my hair and makeup. I hadn't ever had much to do. With a lot of time and nothing to work on, I was good enough to style my hair and do my face.

Once I was satisfied with how I looked, I waited on the bed, checking myself in the mirror again and again until I heard the long-awaited knock.

.

Lost in my thoughts about Dino, I had almost forgotten about Riccardo, which was a first. But now he stepped down the stairs beside me to where I knew his boss, everyone’s boss— Capo dei capi was waiting for us, for me.

For some strange reason, but fortunately, Riccardo was keeping his distance and, yet again, I couldn’t help but think if it was Aldo’s advice to him, whether my elder cousin knew. But every thought about him drifted away when I saw my uncle entertaining three men, along with Aldo who was sitting there probably just because he was expected to.

“There comes, Gia.” My breath hitched, betraying all the preparation I had done to stay calm. My uncle brought everybody’s attention to me too quickly for my wish. Now, it was too late to turn my back on anything, so I swallowed and we continued descending the stairs, my nails digging in the palms of my hands.

“Smile, sister,” he whispered through a smile of his own.

This felt harder than I had thought. I was not used to having people waiting for me, especially having them stand to greet me and influence my uncle to do so as well. My eyes wandered around the room and I felt surprised to take it all in. It felt so strangely new and different despite the fact that I had been living here for the past six years. Perhaps it was because I always had my head down, eager to make it to my room.

I felt his gaze when we descended the last step. I had meant to take one look but my eyes latched onto the man, utterly fixated. Six years– it had been six years when I had attended the Christmas Party that was thrown by his father with all the Capos invited. That was also my last party. And now I was seeing him again. Under a different situation and for a different purpose. Unlike the last time though, I wasn’t hiding in the corner, no. I was standing right before him and the difference in our stature hit me.

Dino Accomazzi was indisputably bigger. His body, but even so his authority. Tall and towering, his strength showed itself in his broad shoulders and face sculpted from a slab of marble. But those brown eyes were still as cold as my life. He was just... after the past years of my life, it seemed I was incapable of appreciating beauty anymore. Besides, what truly revealed a person couldn’t be revealed to the eyes. You couldn’t read anyone’s heart or soul.