Chapter 1 : Bloody Altar
The pin of my wedding dress on my back was the only thing that prevented me from fainting. In front of me was a man holding a gun, but I was too scared to even look at him.
I looked at my father in pity, who was at the mercy of this man with a gun in his hand, sitting in the front row of the church chapel.
It was supposed to be a happy day, my wedding day. I was getting married to the governor's son, but instead the whole aisle was filled with the bloodshed of my bridesmaids.
"Please, Lucian Vane," my father cried at his feet.
" Please don't hurt us. She's innocent. She knows nothing about the money!"
Lucian Vane didn't look like a guest at a wedding; he looked like a Devil, like an Angel of Death in a charcoal suit.
He looked very heartless, not bothered by the dead bodies he had just killed on the floor, the alive guests screaming on the ground in panic and tears, or even the fact that he had turned a wedding into a slaughterhouse.
He just stood there, using a flick knife to clear his fingernails.
"Innocence?" He smirked. "That's a luxury your family stopped having, the moment you decided to steal from Lucan Vane's account," he said, his voice was very sharp enough that it could send fear and shivers to anyone, even without him doing anything.
He was scary and tall. He moved towards me slowly, his leather shoes clicking against the floor. He paused and stopped a few inches away from me. He stretched his gun towards my forehead, but I stood still. I tried to hide that I wasn't scared.
His eyes were a scary void of mercy. "You look so beautiful when you're scared, Bianca," he said. He came really close to me, and I felt the powerful scent of his expensive cologne and gunpowder.
"It's such a pity that this white dress is about to get ruined," he said.
"Then kill me," I said, my voice shaking, but I kept my eyes completely on him.
"And better do it now! I won't beg you to save my life, like my father did," I fired. Lucian looked at me with curiosity, then he grabbed my throat so tightly, I struggled to breathe.
"I should kill you?" he said with a dark smirk.
"I won't, Bianca. Death is too simple. I won't let you go so simply like that," He said as he turned to my father. "The debt you owe me is twenty million dollars. You have just 5 minutes left to transfer the first half of my money, or I will start taking her fingers and toes, one after the other, for every 1 million you owe," He screamed.
"I wish I could," my father panicked
"All accounts are frozen! And the governor....."
"The Governor is on his way to the Hudson River, in a truck," Lucian said, looking at me.
"It seems your fiancée will not make it to your wedding."
The whole room was on fire, and I stood completely pale. My fiancé, the man I was supposed to be getting married to, was probably dead, or maybe even worse, I couldn't tell.
And in my present, stood a monster, the devil himself, his hand still tightly gripping my neck.
"Let me go, Lucian" I screamed
"I have an idea," I screamed
Lucian said, looking at me with dark, scary eyes.
"Say it, little pet, I am listening"
"I know you want the Rossi name, the shipping routes that belong to my father," I said, my voice shaking.
I knew exactly what Lucian wanted; it wasn't just money, it was the legitimacy of the Rossi bloodline
"To pay off the debt, take me instead, not as a hostage, but take me as a wife," I said
The whole chapel became cold, my father stopped sobbing, and even the soldiers were shocked. Lucian loosened his grip, but his hands were still on my neck.
"A wife?" He said
"And you think you're worth $20 million, Bianca?"
"I am the key to the port of New York," I said, my heart beating so fast.
"Exactly what you'll possess if you marry the Rossi heir. You're not just getting the money, you're getting the entire empire," I said.
Lucian looked at me with cold, predatory eyes, like he was calculating.
"Silvio," Lucian screamed. "Leave before I turn," he said as my father instantly ran off without looking back like a complete coward. He had always been right from the onset.
"Clear the room" Lucian commanded one of his soldiers
"I need to spend some time with my bride to be" All the soldiers left at once, leaving only both of us in a complete tomb silence chapel with red candles at the altar
Lucian moved gently towards me, and he began to remove the necklace from my neck, his touch gentle for a man who had done a m******e
"You really have a lot of nerves, Bianca. I wonder how long it will take me to break it" he said. "You can't break me" I fired back. He whirled me round, placing his hand on my back, dragging me towards his chest
He was so tall that I had to stretch my neck to see him. "This isn't a movie" he said
"There's no happily ever after. The moment you step your feet out of this chapel, you are completely mine and everything that belongs to you. Body, soul and even the breath you breathe is mine now
Only I will decide when you eat, what you do, when you sleep, and who to talk to. Do you really understand the price of your father's debt?"
"I do" I said in a low voice
"Prove it then" He commanded.
"Kiss me, seal the contract" I stood, shocked.
The same man who ruined my family and wedding. The same man who had turned my wedding into a blood field, but do I really have a choice?
As I came closer and looked at his mean, beautiful lips, I felt something really deep inside of me; it wasn't fear. It was a dark attraction that felt so wrong that I almost screamed. I came closer, my lips trembling
And just as our lips were about to get closer, Lucian pulled back with a dark smile. "Let's not do it here" he said. "I don't want to share my property with God. Let's go to my estate. He said, moving inches forward
"Don't pack your clothes, it’s not necessary”
He grabbed my hand with force and dragged me out of the chapel, stepping over the bodies without caring. I followed him, my white dress dragging through a trail of bodies soaked in blood, leaving a trail of blood behind us.