Married To The Ruthless Mafia Lord

Chapter 3

Clara’s POV

I had always dreamt of a fairy tale wedding, where my Prince Charming would go down on one knee, propose to me, I say yes, and we get married happily. But this right here wasn’t it. This felt like a nightmare I was willingly walking into because I had no choice.

I had witnessed three men being shot dead in front of me. How was I not supposed to fear this man called Zane? And now I’m walking down the aisle with a forced bouquet of flowers in my hands at 10 pm, about to get married into his strange family.

The church had just two other men, aside from the priest, Mr. Jones Bellucci, Zane’s dad, and Zane himself.

“We are gathered here to celebrate the love between these two people,” the priest began, and Zane looked like he’d explode any moment from now.

If this was a marriage to keep me safe, then what’s in it for Zane? Because he sure doesn’t look pleased to be standing here with me. Now that I take a closer look at him, I noticed his brown-grey eyes, unlike anything I’d ever seen.

“You may kiss the bride,” the priest announced.

I waited patiently for a kiss from Zane, and I know I shouldn’t be doing that, but I did want him to kiss me. Now, where the heck was this attraction suddenly from? He hurt and insulted me earlier, but here I was dreaming about a stupid kiss.

“We’ll skip that part,” Zane replied, startling the priest for a moment. Of course, he wouldn’t kiss me. What was I thinking?

The priest gave his final blessing and left. The three men who were seated now walked up to us. “Clara, I’m glad you agreed to marry my son. I swore to your dad I wouldn’t let anything happen to you, so let us take care of you,” Mr. Jones said as he patted me on the shoulder.

“This is my brother Bruno and his son Asher. Zane’s cousin. If there’s anything you need, let us know immediately,” Mr. Jones continued, while Zane couldn’t care less and focused on his phone.

“Hi, I’m Asher, your brother-in-law, or should I say cousin-in-law? Welcome to the Adam’s family.” Asher extended his hand forward and winked at me. That was definitely a wink I couldn’t mistake for something else. I shook his hand and smiled.

“You can stop shaking my wife’s hand now, Asher. If that’s all, Dad, Uncle, we’d like to be on our way now,” Zane intervened, separating my hand from Asher’s grip. And did he just say wife? Well, that’s a new development. When today began, I never thought I’d get married and be called someone’s wife. The thought of it made me chuckle a bit.

“Okay, son, y’all can get going. Everything is settled,” Mr. Jones said.

Zane pulled me by the arm as we made our way out of the church and into the car. “Bongo, leave us alone for a while,” he ordered, and Bongo got out of the car.

He yanked me by my arm for the second time tonight. “You think that was funny? Stay away from my f*****g cousin, you slut. Aren’t you ashamed? I pick you up from the gutter to save your ass, and you dare flirt with Asher immediately after we get married? Who raised you?”

I closed my eyes, sucking in the pain he was inflicting on my arm. “Let go, Zane, you’re hurting me,” I managed to say.

“Listen to me, Clara, when we get home, a contract will be waiting for you on your bed. Read through it and sign,” he continued.

“Zane, please let go of me. It hurts,” I cried, tears rolling down my face, but he didn’t care. I think I just married a monster, and I was going to regret this.

Suddenly, there was a gunshot. My body stiffened, my eyes opened wide in terror, and Zane’s eyes widened as well. I followed his gaze to see who had been shot. There he lay, Mr. Jones Bellucci, with a bullet wound to his chest, slowly making his way to the floor as men hovered around him.

Zane opened the car door in an instant and dashed toward his father. I followed right behind him.

“Dad!” he yelled. “Don’t stand there, incompetent fools, get him into the car now!”

Moments later, we arrived at St. Luke’s Hospital, property of the Bellucci family. “You all better make sure my dad survives this,” Zane warned, as a group of nurses and doctors took Mr. Jones into the ICU. I sat down on the visitor’s chair outside and prayed he made it out alive.

“Uncle, how on earth was Dad the only target? And have the bastards been caught?” Zane questioned Mr. Bruno, while Asher took a seat beside me.

“Are you okay, Clara? I hope you’re not too scared. The old man has had worse injuries. He’ll be fine, don’t worry,” he said, squeezing my hand on my lap.

“I’m fine, Asher, thank you for asking. It’s just that in one day, a lot has happened to me, and it’s too much to take in. I buried my dad, my house got burnt down after being broken into, dead bodies dropped in front of me, I got married, and now Mr. Jones was shot,” my voice came out in cracked whispers.

“You’ll be fine, Clara, trust me. It’s all for your safety,” he whispered.

All for my safety, how? I wanted to ask but kept my question to myself. How is someone being saved by getting married to a ruthless man like Zane?

“I’m sure you know what our family deals with and why there is so much chaos,” Asher continued.

What did he mean? All I know about the Bellucci family is they own multiple businesses and they were wealthy because my dad worked for them for a long while.

Asher let out a sinister laugh. “From the look on your face, it seems you’re clueless.”

I shook my head.

“Neither Uncle Jones nor Zane told you this?” He asked.

“Please just tell me.” I said.

“Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you just married the next in line to become the Mafia Don, so welcome to the Mafia world, where we eat bullets for breakfast Clara.”