Forced Marriage - The Mafia King’s Bride

Chapter2

LEFT TO DIE

I ran.

I didn't know where I was going.

I only knew I had to get away.

My shoes slipped against the wet pavement as I raced through the darkness, clutching my phone against my chest.

Behind me, footsteps grew louder.

"She's there!"

"Don't let her get away!"

My heart hammered against my ribs.

I had seen something I wasn't supposed to see.

A murder.

Three men.

A body.

And now they wanted me dead.

I turned a corner and pressed myself against the wall.

The footsteps passed.

I held my breath.

One second.

Two.

Three.

Then silence.

I slowly peeked around the corner.

Nobody.

I exhaled.

I was about to run when headlights appeared.

A black car rolled into the street.

My heart dropped.

More men.

The car stopped.

The back door opened.

A man stepped out.

Tall.

Dark suit.

Cold eyes.

I knew that face.

Everyone in my family knew that face.

Drake Romano.

The heir to the Romano empire.

My family's greatest enemy.

For two years, I'd hated him without ever having a reason to meet him.

Tonight, I finally did.

His eyes found mine.

For a brief moment, neither of us moved.

Then recognition settled over his face.

"Sophia Bellini."

My stomach tightened.

I lifted my chin.

"Drake Romano."

His men looked between us.

One of them whispered something into his ear.

Drake's gaze moved toward the warehouse.

Then back to me.

He understood exactly what had happened.

I'd witnessed something connected to his family.

Or at least that's what they thought.

One of the men raised his gun.

"Should we handle her?"

Drake looked at me.

I waited.

I don't know why.

Maybe some foolish part of me expected him to say something.

Anything.

Instead, he simply looked away.

"Do whatever you want."

My heart stopped.

The words were so casual.

As though my life meant nothing.

As though I wasn't standing three meters away.

As though I was already dead.

He walked past me.

Didn't stop.

Didn't look back.

Nothing.

I stared after him.

"You really are a Romano."

He paused.

For half a second, I thought he might turn.

He didn't.

"Unfortunately," he said coldly, "you're a Bellini."

Then he got into his car.

The engine roared.

And he drove away.

I stood frozen.

The men slowly turned toward me.

One of them smiled.

"Looks like you're on your own."

I ran.

A gunshot exploded behind me.

I screamed and sprinted down the street.

Another shot.

A bullet struck the wall beside my head.

I ducked.

My lungs burned.

I couldn't feel my feet anymore.

I just kept moving.

Through an alley.

Across a deserted road.

Over a broken fence.

Until I saw a small gap beneath an old iron gate.

I dropped to the ground and squeezed underneath it.

A hand grabbed my ankle.

I kicked desperately.

"Get off me!"

The man cursed.

I kicked again.

His grip loosened.

I crawled through the gap and scrambled to my feet.

Then I ran.

I didn't stop until the sounds behind me disappeared.

Eventually, I found myself standing beside an old abandoned building.

I collapsed against the wall.

My whole body shook.

I looked at my phone.

The screen was cracked.

But it still worked.

The recording was still there.

I pressed play.

The voices filled the silence.

"He can't know."

"Not if we finish this tonight."

Then the gunshot.

I stopped the recording.

Someone had been killed.

Someone had been hiding something.

And now someone wanted me dead because I had seen it.

But there was something else I couldn't stop thinking about.

Drake.

He had seen me.

He could have helped.

He could have stopped his men.

He could have done anything.

Instead, he'd simply said:

Do whatever you want.

I wiped the rain from my face.

I hated him.

I hated his family.

And now I had another reason to hate him.

I pushed myself upright.

My legs were still shaking.

But I was alive.

Somehow, I'd escaped.

I looked toward the dark road.

"I'll find out who did this."

I slipped my phone into my pocket.

"And when I do..."

My voice trembled.

"...they'll regret leaving me alive."

What I didn't know was that somewhere across the city, Drake Romano was sitting in the back of his car.

One of his men turned toward him.

"Boss."

Drake didn't look up.

"What?"

"The Bellini girl."

His expression remained cold.

"What about her?"

"She got away."

Drake finally looked up.

For the first time that night, his expression changed.

Not concern.

Not worry.

Annoyance.

"Then find her."

The man nodded.

"Alive?"

Drake stared out the window.

A long silence followed.

Then he said,

"No."

The car disappeared into the darkness.

And neither Drake nor I knew that our paths were about to become permanently tangled.

Because three days later...

my father was going to tell me who he had chosen as my husband.