The Mafia Lord's Wrong Bride

Chapter 1: Bloodied Suit and a White Gown Katerina's POV Imagine thinking that your twin sister was having the time of her life only for you to go back home because of her sudden death. "I'm sorry we didn't tell you, Katerina. Y-Your sister didn't want us to." My mother stuttered beside me but I paid her no mine because my eyes were busy looking at the corpse laying on the cold table. Her face identical to mine was beyond recognition, but the shining silver bracelet with butterfly embroidery wrapped around her wrist was enough for me to recognize her. My eyes were filled with tears and I was choking back my own sob. I remembered the smile she gave me a year ago when I left to pursue my dream to become a piano teacher in Switzerland. And now I will no longer see her beautiful smile that resembled mine. I had just finished my class when I received a call from Mom telling me that Melissa jumped from the top of a bridge to kill herself. I rushed home and I wasn't even sure how I got here unscathed, considering I wasn't acting like myself. I could vaguely remember almost falling down the stairs and bumping into a lot of people. I think I even tripped and almost bashed my skull open if a stranger didn't catch me. "What happened? Why did she become like this?" I asked Mom and Dad, my voice was hoarse from crying and screaming. Finally after what seems like forever, when my tears dried, when my throat hurt and when the walls of the cold morgue that holds my sister's body got tired of hearing my wails, I finally found the will to ask why. "A few days after you left, I met my best friend, Elena, whom I thought I would never see again because we lost communication. We reconciled and we remembered the promise we made back when we were young. The promise that we will have our first born marry each other." Mom started between sniffles and wiping her own tears. "We worked together and got your sister engaged to her son. I-I thought she was happy at first, Kate, I don't know what happened that led her to do this." She cried and my Dad took her in his arms. "She'd send us updates and we thought they were getting along. E-Everything was so sudden, Kate. Forgive us for hiding it from you. Your sister didn't want to worry you over this. They are getting married tomorrow... we don't know what happened." Apparently, the man she's getting married to doesn't know about her death yet and not even his family. I was the first they gave the news to the moment they heard. I was devastated and I admit, I am angry that they hid this from me, but I know that just as I lost a sister, they also lost a daughter. "I want to be alone." I went home and entered Melissa's room with a heavy heart. I thought my tears dried up already, but as memories hit me, fresh tears started falling again. I slumped on her bed, hating the way everything was in order but Melissa had always been a clean freak while I couldn't care less what my room looked like. "Melissa..." I cried her name and hugged her pillow. Through blurry eyes, I saw a folded paper underneath her pillow and I picked it up. It was my sister's suicide note before she took her life. In the letter, she apologized for hiding secrets from me, and she proceeded to tell me how happy she was at first, but then her fiancè, Alejando Santini, started getting violent and possessive over her that she could no longer take it. 'Destroy him for me, sister. Make him pay for what he did to me. Please... Please don't let me die in vain.' I crumpled the paper and gripped the sheet tight just as a shout of anger tore from my throat. My grief was instantly replaced with rage and I wanted nothing but that man's downfall. Between the two of us, it was Melissa who's the stronger one and I was always the weaker and fragile sister, but today, I was filled with a huge amount of hatred for a man I haven't even met. "I promise, sister. I promise I will destroy him for you. I won't stop until he loses everything. Even if it will cost me my life." I said through gritted teeth. When I went back to the hospital to help my parents with the funeral, I saw my mother shaking in fear and my father was trying his best to calm him down. "What happened, Dad?" I asked Dad and touched my mother's back. Dad wasn't any better. I could see fear in his eyes even if he's trying to act tough for mom. "We received a call from Alejandro, Kate. He warned us not to think about even running away." He replied, his voice shaking a little and it made me wonder just who that man is. "What do we do, Kate? We can't afford to make an enemy out of the Santini family, especially Alejandro. He'd kill us the moment he finds out that your sister killed herself." "But won't that be better?" Mom suddenly said with a tear-filled face. "We should die for failing to protect our daughter, Arnold! We should be blamed for this! This is my fault!" Mom hysterically said and grabbed my hands. "G-Go back to Switzerland and hide there, Katerina! Do not let that monster find you or you will face the same fate as Melissa! I don't want to lose you, too!" She started screaming and crying loudly and Dad and I did our best to calm her down until she fainted. "I will take Melissa's place. I will marry that man." I declared while looking at my mother's face and gently wiped her tears away. Dad's head snapped to me in shock. "No!" He firmly shook his head and grabbed my shoulder. "You don't know who that man is, Kate! It was too late for us to find out what kind of a man we entrusted your sister to! Alejandro Santini is a monster. He's a leader of the Italian Mafia, Katerina! We already lost your twin, we can't lose you, too!" I smiled even though my body was paralyzed by fear. My parents' grief and my sister's smile fueled my body and I have never been this determined in my entire life. I took my Dad's hands in mine and squeezed them. "I won't die, Dad. I won't let that man hurt you and I will make him pay for my sister's death." Tears filled Dad's eyes and he hung his head in shame. "I'm sorry we aren't strong enough to protect you both." My eyes hardened and I balled my fists. "Being weak isn't our fault, but being trampled by the strong and refusing to fight back is." Regretfully, we couldn't even mourn Melissa's death to avoid suspicion. We cremated her body with silent tears falling down our eyes. Together with her ashes was my promise to avenge her death. We buried her in the crematorium and I asked them everything I needed to know about Alejandro Santini and his family. Alejandro inherited the Mafia from his father and he has an older brother and a younger sister. According to them, he was known to be ruthless and he did not care if his enemy was a man or a woman. He was feared by his enemies and he's also incredibly wealthy enough to be called a billionaire, but I know that money costs a lot of lives. I would be lying if I said that didn't affect me or that I wasn't scared. Of course I was, but no matter how powerful he is, he's still a man and he must have a weakness. And I will find that weakness and use it against him. My parents insisted that I take a rest after a long flight, but I couldn't get myself to. Instead, I prepared for the wedding tomorrow. The wedding gown was shown to me and I smiled a little when I envisioned Melissa wearing it. "You would look so beautiful wearing this, sister." I said to myself and let out a sad sigh. Tomorrow, my life is about to change. * They say the most important event of a woman's life is her wedding while wearing a beautiful and elegant wedding gown, but I felt nothing but emptiness. Behind the veil wasn't a sweet smile of a bride, but a miserable look of a woman who lost a loved one. But most importantly, I've been in the car for half an hour now and Alejandro hasn't arrived! "Wait, maybe he's the one who backed out?" I thought out loud, hope blooming in my chest. Just as I was celebrating that possibility, a convoy of sleek black cars and big bikes arrived. From where I was sitting, I watched how a line of men lined up to greet a man who stepped out of the car. A wave of shock hit me, not only because of the handsome face I did not expect, but because his white suit was tainted with blood! He did not seem to mind, however, and buttoned up his bloodied suit like it was invisible. I contemplated jumping out of the car and running for my life but my hatred nailed me to the spot and before I knew it, he was already opening the door and our eyes connected like fire and ice. His sharp eyes were filled with coldness while my almond eyes were filled with fiery rage. "Pardon me for being late. A group thought it'd be wise to stop me from getting tied down today," he looked down at the blood in his shirt and gave me a playful smirk. His playful demeanor should have given me the impression that he wasn't as they said, but I think it only made him more dangerous. "Though I'm sure he learned that he made a big mistake. Do you mind a little blood?" He said it so casually like he just did not possibly just kill someone. He held out his hand to me and I resisted the urge to vomit. Just how many lives died in those hands today? In the end, I forced myself to accept the hand that will probably end my life someday.