The Mafia's Duplicate Bride

Chapter 1

"What should we do? her car is crashed and it's up in flames, _Charlene_ Charlene might be dead."Yolanda, Victoria's secretary said, shaking her head vigorously. She'd just been going through the bank details of the Anderson family when she caught sight of the last debit from the account. It was from a hotel in Boston and then from a cruise ship in Italy. But now, getting a call from a stranger telling her Charlene was involved in a ghastly accident in Italy told her all she needed to know. Standing on her feet, she walked towards Victoria's office, her heart in her mouth.

Victoria wasn't a nice woman, she took her work seriously and cut off whatever and whoever she saw as a threat or distraction to it. she's known for her strict rules during working hours.

As Yolanda knocked and walked in, she was surprised to see Victoria quiet, staring blankly at her screen with her eyes void of any emotions.

"Get Charlotte from school, she's needed here and right now." Yolanda nodded and almost sprinted out of the office, thankful she didn't get to deliver such news to Victoria. She didn't want to end her job just yet, the pay was good and she needed the money badly.

As Yolanda walked out, Victoria pushed everything on her table to the floor, her eyes filled with tears immediately as she bit her lower lip to keep from screaming out loudly. Her daughter is gone and there is nothing she can do to bring her back. "Damn it.!" she cursed under her breath, picking up her phone and dialing her husband's line.

"I'm sure you received the news, we have to act fast or we'll be in a big mess with Kendrick's family, we cannot call off this wedding now, that was our only hope of being in a good line with them and now__ oh I really can't believe Charlene is gone."

"So what do you suggest we do?" Thomas asked.

"I've sent for Charlotte, she has to pretend to be Charlene and that wedding has to push through," she said quietly, not wanting any passerby to hear whatever she was discussing with her husband.

"We should be truthful, this could land us both in prison, we are owing and this act when exposed could lead us not only to prison but to the end of our legacy and all that we've labored hard to get." Victoria chuckled, looking at her husband. "You mean you could land in prison if this comes to the public because it's your signature and not mine that happens to appear on the documents get a grip on yourself, Thomas, we'll sort this out right here and now."

"What do you mean? how?" he asked as she chuckled over the phone,I'd suggest you come over here and right now, leave your office and come over right now.

In fifteen minutes time,he was already in her office, pacing to and fro waiting for Charlotte's and Yolanda arrival. Just then, Victoria's phone beeped.

She picked up the phone, smiled, and waved it at him. "They're here and we have to tell her what she needs to know and do concerning this situation."

*

*

As the door opened, Charlotte walked in looking angry, her face a mixture of anguish and tiredness. "Can anyone care to tell me what's going on and why the hell was I whisked off school to come to your off-bound office?" Charlotte asked angrily, placing her bag on the marble table which contrasted with the wooden floor. "Sit Charlotte we have some things to talk about as a family," Victoria said, turning around to go and sit down.

"Go on, tell me."

"Your sister is dead." Victoria calmly said, turning to stare at Thomas for support. He'd always been the best person to talk to Charlotte while she'd taken the role of talking to Charlene. Her heart squeezed in her chest as she realized her daughter was no more. Charlene was dead and there was nothing she could do about it.

"What do you mean my sister is dead? I spoke to her last night and__" she stopped talking, her eyes fixed on both her parents. "You're lying, you're so good at it that__"

"Enough! Charlotte." her father screamed hitting the table as she gasped.

"The union between your sister and Kendrick would have saved us from this debt but now, she's no more and there's nothing we can do than__" Victoria stopped talking as she turned to look at Thomas pleading with him with her eyes.

"Wait, you want me to take my sister's place? is that where you're driving? huh? tell me." she screamed, standing on her feet.

"Calm down Charlotte, calm down," Thomas whispered, trying to hold her as she shook her head, not believing what her parents were saying and what they wanted her to do.

"So you'll be deceiving then or what? then what happens to the real me? tell me!"

"We'll come up with something, for now, go home we'll talk when we get home."

*

*

Charlotte banged the door, her head feeling so heavy as she crashed on her bed. Her sister Charlene was very notorious, at sixteen she moved out of the house, rented her apartment, got a job with a modeling agency, and drove a car without being licensed to do so.

She rolled with the most notorious kids at school and this made her father sentence her to home schooling. Her eyes took in the framed artwork which housed a picture of both of them when they were five years old on a vacation to Switzerland.

"It's definitely wrong,defi_nitely wrong." she muttered under her breath,her body shaking terribly as tears rolled down her cheeks. "Why? why?" she asked, taking her eyes to the door to see her nanny Flora standing with her palm covering her mouth.

"It's alright sweetie, it's gonna be okay." she whispered, kissing Charlotte's cheeks and forehead.

"She didn't have to go now,sh__she" she stuttered, tears rolling down her cheeks profusely as her nanny rocked her back and forth.

"Okay let's do this, you'll freshen up and I'll bring your dinner to you."

"Alright, thanks nanny."

*

*

Kendrick walked into the hotel with several guards walking behind him. He had a meeting with the owner of the hotel and after that, he'd be heading to his family's mansion for dinner.

"Her number is not going through." Jerald his most trusted guard said.

"Try it once more. why's her number not going through? try it one more time."

As they ascended the elevator, he kept on thinking about the meeting he had to be in right now. The spoilt and rude daughter of the owner of the hotel was probably waiting for him and she'd throw several tantrums he knew her so well.

"I'd like the meeting to be brief, nothing lengthy. Let her know before hand," he said to Jerald before walking into the suite prepared for him.

Tonight he'd be meeting with his father's murderers daughter and he couldn't wait to break her, make her father feel what his sister felt when they lost their father. His sister had been the closet to their dad, she'd lost it when he died and so did his mother.

He picked his phone, punched the keys, and put a call through to his private investigator.

“I want him dead before morning, it's an order.” He flung the

phone on the bed and smiled, waiting for the news to circulate in the morning.