Chapter 2: The will
1406 Words
Chapter 2: The will
***
Sofia’s Corner Cafe, morning rush.
Natalia moved through the crowded café with practiced ease, jotting down orders and calling them toward the counter.
"One strawberry milkshake!" she said, barely pausing before turning to the next customer, smiling at regulars. She’s built this life carefully, a small apartment above the bakery, quiet evenings with her cat, a stray she named Biscotti, a handful of friends who don’t ask questions. She’s safe. She’s invisible. She’s content.
The bell above the door chimed.
“Welcome to…” Natalia looked up.
The word dead in her throat. Her blood turned ice-cold. The noise around the café gradually faded as a tall man dressed in his usual black suit, white shirt, no tie.
His cold dark eyes find her immediately. He didn’t look away.
He walked to the corner table and took a seat as though he owned the place.
A waitress hurried over, “Sir, what can I get you?”
Aldo leaned back in his chair and rubbed a hand over his jaw.
"Bring me a black coffee," he said. His voice is low, smooth, devastating.
“Right away, sir.”
Natalia forced herself to move.
“Table four, one cappuccino!”
“Order up!”
“One blueberry muffin!”
She buried herself at work, refusing to look towards the corner.
Yet even for a few minutes, she could feel his eyes.
Three hours passed.
He just sits at a corner table and watches her work for three hours.
He never touched anything except the coffee.
Finally, the last customer walked out.
Natalia flipped the sign on the door.
CLOSED.
Natalia took a slow breath before walking towards the corner table.
“What do you want?” She asked, keeping her voice steady.
He slides a document across the table.
Vincent’s will.
“Read it, the order clause.”
She frowned but unfolded the papers.
“Which other clause….”
Her face was drained of color.
This part of the clause, she didn't know about it.
“Natalia is free to choose her own path until her twenty-second birthday. If, by then, the conspiracy behind my death remains unresolved, she is to enter the protection of Aldo De Luca under a legally binding marriage contract with her inheritance.”
“No…”
“ You remember it, princess?” Aldo said quietly.
“We agreed not to honor it…” Natalia murmured.
“Agreed….?” Aldo smirked.
“Ignoring the will was your decision. Five years is long enough.”
Natalia slowly lifted her head. The shock in her eyes faded, replaced by a hard glare. Her jaw tightened as she met Aldo's gaze.
“I'm not a child. I don't need anyone's protection.”
“Yes,” Aldo agreed.” You're twenty-two now.”
His gray eyes locked onto hers.
"Old enough."
He rose from his chair, towering over her.
"It's long enough, Natalia."
Her heart pounded.
"What do you mean?"
Aldo slid another document across the table.
A contract.
"You'll read it tonight."
She stared at the words on the first page.
Marriage Agreement.
Her head snapped up. "You can't be serious."
"I've never been more serious, princess," Aldo's reply came.
Natalia slowly folded the document and placed it on the table. She lifted her gaze to Aldo.
"You don't get to decide my life.”
"I won't sign it."
Aldo held her gaze without a flicker of emotion.
"You have three days."
"And if I refuse?"
Aldo paused with one hand on the café door.
Without looking back, he said, "Then I'll make another decision.”
"What decision?"
He glanced at her over his shoulder.
"Once you won’t like."
The bell chimed as the door closed behind him. The moment Aldo stepped onto the sidewalk, every black SUV started its engine.
His bodyguards fell into formation without a word. Pedestrians instinctively moved aside.
Natalia stood frozen, the contract trembling in her hands. She had never seen people fear someone that much.
Three days.
Three days to decide whether her life belonged to her... or to the man who had just walked away as though the answer had already been made.
Her breathing grew uneven.
"No..."
She grabbed her phone with shaking fingers and scrolled to a familiar name.
Clara.
The call connected to the second ring.
"Natalia? Is everything all right?"
"No." Her voice cracked. "He found me."
Silence.
"...Aldo?"
"How did you know?" Natalia whispered.
Another silence.
"Clara... how did you know?"
"I always knew this day would come."
Natalia's heart lurched.
"He gave me a contract." She swallowed hard. "A marriage contract."
A sharp intake of breath came from the other end.
"So... Vincent will finally catch up with you."
"What are you talking about?" Natalia demanded. "I was there when the lawyer read the will five years ago. It only said I had a choice to choose between Aldo's care and staying with you!"
"It said more than that."
Natalia frowned.
"What?"
"You never stayed long enough to hear the entire will."
"What do you mean?"
"You walked out, remember? You refused Aldo's guardianship before the lawyer finished explaining Vincent's conditions."
Natalia's grip on the phone tightened.
"There was another clause."
Her pulse quickened.
"What clause?"
"If you refused Aldo's guardianship till you turned twenty-two..." Clara's voice faltered. "...the only alternative Vincent left was marriage."
The words stole the air from Natalia's lungs.
"What?"
"Vincent knew the enemies he had made. He knew what would happen if you were left alone, and with the inheritance in your hands."
"No..."
"He wanted Aldo to protect you in the only way the mafia would respect."
Natalia shook her head.
"No..."
"By making you untouchable."
Tears burned behind Natalia's eyes.
"This can't be true."
"It is."
"Why didn't anyone tell me?"
"You refused to listen."
The cafe felt unbearably silent.
Clara's voice softened.
"Vincent loved you, Natalia. He knew what this world does to women without protection."
Natalia stared at the contract lying on the table.
Her fingers slowly loosened.
A bitter laugh escaped her lips.
"So that's what I was..."
Her voice broke.
"He sold me to his best friend.”
“No,he was protecting you in any possible way he could.”
The line hung between them.
"Natalia…"
She ended the call.
Her hands shook as she dropped the phone onto the couch.
"No..."
She rushed to the window and looked out.
Nothing.
She let out a shaky breath.
"I'm losing my mind."
A pair of headlights turned the corner.
A black SUV rolled to a stop across the street.
Its engine remained running.
Natalia frowned.
Five minutes passed.
Ten.
It never moved.
***
The next morning...
Natalia locked her apartment door and headed downstairs.
The same black SUV was still there.
A man in a black suit stood beside it, speaking quietly into an earpiece.
The moment he noticed her, he straightened.
Her stomach tightened.
He wasn't looking at the building.He was looking at her.
She hurried away.
***
At the café...
Sofia leaned closer as Natalia tied on her apron.
"Natalia..."
“Yes…?"
"Do you know those men outside?"
Natalia stiffened.
"What men?"
"The ones in black suits." Sofia lowered her voice.
"They've been here since we opened."
Natalia slowly turned toward the window.
Two black SUVs.
Four men.
None of them entered and none of them ordered coffee.
They simply just watched.
"They're probably waiting for someone," Natalia whispered, trying to convince herself.
Sofia wasn't convinced. "They've been watching you."
***
That evening...
Natalia stepped out of the café.
One of the suited men opened the rear door of a black SUV.
"No," she muttered.
She turned and walked in the opposite direction.
The SUV followed.
She crossed the street.
It followed.
She stopped.
So did the SUV.
Fear curled in her chest. She pulled out her phone and dialed Clara.
"They're following me."
"What?"
"They're everywhere, Clara."
"Listen to me carefully," Clara said. "Go home."
"I don't want to go home!"
"Natalia…."
"He promised me three days."
Her voice cracked.
"It's only the first."
Silence.
Then Clara whispered,
"Aldo De Luca doesn't make empty promises."
Natalia looked over her shoulder.
The black SUV was still there.
Waiting, watching, for the first time in five years...
She realized she couldn't run, nor could she hide.
Aldo De Luca owned Port Blackwood.
And somehow...
He had already turned her life into a prison without ever touching her.
- Writer
