Chapter Three
1089 Words
Chapter Three
Mila Ortega
I opened my eyes, and everything was different. The air smelled clean, crisp, almost cold. The blood stained marbles of my father’s house was replaced with a rather shiny floor.
My body felt lighter, like I’d been floating for hours.
I sat up slowly, my head spinning. The light was dim, but enough for me to see that this wasn’t anywhere I had been to before.
The walls were bare, the furniture simple, yet the expensive taste was clear.
I touched my arms, my legs— no ropes, no blood.
I looked down, I wasn’t wearing a hoodie and moms jeans. I was in a gown— a hospital gown.
Is this the hospital?
Where am I? I wondered, did someone find me?
The last thing I remember was the gruesome death of my father and Nik kidnapping my mother.
“Mom!”
Panic hit me like a punch, fast and hard. What if that monster killed my mom?!
“Hello?!” I called out, “Anybody here?!”
Before I could think of what to do, the door creaked open across the room. My stomach sank.
Someone walked in.
I squinted my eyes to get a good look.
Nikolai.
He stepped in, hands in his pockets, his face unreadable. He leaned against the doorframe, tilting his head slightly, studying me like I was an easy puzzle.
I glared back at him, my pulse racing. “Where’s my mom?”
“Dead.”
My hands weakened and dropped to my side. The racing in my heart seemed to have stopped. I wasn’t breathing. I wasn’t thinking. I tried to speak but words failed me.
“How…” I stuttered, “How could you do this?”
“Kill me too!” I screamed, “I would rather die than live at your mercy!”
He didn’t answer right away. Instead, his lips curved into the smallest hint of a smile— one that didn’t reach his eyes.
“You Ortegas think there’s no other way to handle things except by murdering people and lying,” his remark was filled with disdain and contempt.
My tears flowed. I hated his voice, however calm and gentle it sounded. I wanted to put something through his chest. I wanted to erase him from this earth too.
“Your mother is alive,” he cut out my thoughts. “She changed your clothes. Come to the dining hall when you’re ready.”
It took a minute for his words to sink in. My mom… is still alive?
I ran out of the room, filled with both relief and apprehension.
I followed behind him at a safe distance, my heart thudding and threatening to fall out of my chest.
As I stepped into the dining hall, I halted in my tracks, blinking slowly. Mother wasn’t here.
“Where’s she?” I asked, my chest heaving in response to the growing apprehension.
Nikolai was silent, regarding me as though I hadn’t spoken a language he understood. Instead, he produced a document, sliding it across the table.
“What was the last thing I said to you, Ortega?”
“I can’t remember.” I returned, darting my gaze away.
“Don’t play with me!” He roared and my stomach clenched into a knot.
There was something different in his eyes this time. Something that commanded my fear even though I wanted to face him head on.
“What did I say to you?” He repeated.
“I don’t remember,” I stood my ground, despite the blaring warning in his eyes.
Nikolai’s lips curled into a sinister smile, one that dried up the moment our eyes met.
“Allow me to remind you.”
He tapped his finger, two men approached, their steps sturdy and determined.
Without warning, they yanked me out of Nikolai’s presence and threw me outside.
It wasn’t long until I saw my mother on her knees in the middle of a muddy yard. She was surrounded by men armed to the teeth, their cold eyes fixed on her like wolves ready to pounce.
She was trembling, her hands tied behind her back, her clothes soaked from the rain.
“Mom!” I tried to run to her, but the guards grabbed my arms, holding me back with iron grips.
Nikolai came out, his footsteps slow and deliberate. He stopped beside me, his gaze lingering on my features.
“Let her go,” I begged, twisting against the guards hold. “Please, let her go…”
Nikolai crouched down to my level, his face mere inches from mine. His expression was calm, but his eyes were ice.
“Do you remember now?”
I nodded, swallowing hard. My defiance was gone. My anger was buried under the fear clawing at my chest. I already lost my father, I couldn’t lose my mom too.
With a simple nod towards one of his men, the guard handed me a document.
It was a contract— one binding me to him in marriage.
My hands trembled as I stared at the paper. My mind raced with memories of my father, of the life my family had before Nikolai’s wrath tore them apart. If I signed this, I’d forever be at his mercy— my life, my future— would all belong to him.
But then I looked at my mom. Her eyes met mine, and my heart clenched against my chest.
“Why are you doing this?” I whispered, my voice barely audible. “Why me?”
Nikolai’s jaw tightened, and for a split second something flashed in his eyes.
“Your father owes me his life,” he said coldly. “And you… you’re the payment.”
Tears streamed down my face as I gripped the pen. It was either my mother’s life or my own.
But what was my life without my mother in it?
I pressed the pen onto the paper, my heart shattering with every stroke of my signature.
As I handed the document back to him, Nikolai stood, his gaze lingering on me for a moment.
“Untie her,” he declared, his eyes not leaving me for a second.
They cut my mom loose, and she dropped to the floor, sobbing, shivering.
Nikolai and his men turned away, and I ran to my mom.
“It’s okay mom, we’re okay now…”
But deep down, I knew we weren’t okay. We couldn’t ever be okay.
Not when I had become Nikolai’s bride.
- Writer
