I became the Mafia Bride

New York City - September 2025 They were already closing in by the time we reached the elevators. We were on the twentieth floor when I saw them—thirty, maybe more—filling the corridor behind us with controlled steps and too much certainty. No shouting. No panic. Just men who knew we were out of options. The higher we ran, the quieter the building became. Someone called my name. I didn’t know how they knew it. Cassius’s hand locked around my wrist and yanked me forward. We burst onto the top floor—the last one. I knew that much. I’d memorized the directory. Thirty floors. There was nowhere left to go. We dove into the elevator. I knew it was worthless to head towards the ground floor. We would’ve been heading to our own demise. They caught up to us. A shot rang out. One of the men, with no hesitation, immediately fired another. Cassius pushed me to the side covering me, before hitting the button and closing the door. Another shot rang out, I could tell it directly hit the elevator door. “I’m going to die, I’m going to die” the words came out shaking. Cassius held me tighter in his arms, “not while I’m here” reassuring me. My breath stuttered as I stared at the panel. There was no floor above thirty yet the numbers on the panel kept increasing, way above thirty. The light in the elevator flickered as the elevator came to a halt. Floor fifty-five, there were only thirty floors. When the doors opened, my jaw dropped. I was standing in my bedroom, stepping out of my own closet. My lamp was still on. My perfume still hung faintly in the air. Cassius was beside me. But…… It hadn’t started like that. Months earlier, my biggest fear had been being late. I stood outside the hospital during shift change, watching nurses move in and out with coffee cups and tired smiles. The automatic doors hissed open and shut like they had no idea how much they mattered. I checked my watch. My phone. My watch again. My mother was asleep when I slipped into her room. She looked smaller every time I saw her, like the bed was slowly winning. I adjusted the blanket she didn’t need and kissed her forehead, careful not to wake her. This had become routine. Before work. Before everything. “You’re going to be late again,” Sadie murmured. She was curled into the chair by the window, hair twisted into a messy knot. She’d slept there. I could tell. “I’m not,” I said. “I planned for traffic.” She smiled anyway. She always did. “You’re twenty-three,” she said softly. “And you’re starting your dream job. Not many are in this position” She stood and hugged me, quick but grounding. Sadie had that effect. While I was the older sister, she was the one who always held our family together. She was kind of like a carbon copy of our mother, strict, no nonsense but loving. “You earned this, Sienna.” I nodded because if I spoke, I’d c***k. The building rose out of the city like a challenge. Verizon Industries, all tall glass building. It screamed money that didn’t worry about hospital bills or time off requests. I stood across the street longer than necessary, adjusted my bag, and reminded myself I belonged here. I’d worked too hard not to. Inside, everything was clean and efficient. Security smiled. My badge worked on the first try. That small victory counted. I smiled The elevator carried me up to the fifteenth floor. I exhaled. The office was open and bright, with glass walls and glowing screens. I had been to orientation over the weekend. A company policy to make new working staff look coordinated and blend in naturally. I found my desk in Research and Finance. Set my bag down. Smoothed my blouse. Not far from my desk I could see the other new hires. I recognized them from orientation. “That’s yours?” I looked up. A woman with sharp eyes and a knowing smile gestured to the desk beside mine. “I’m Andrea,” she said. “You look like you’re pretending not to panic.” I smiled despite myself. “Is it that obvious?” “Only to people who’ve already survived it.” She laughed. That helped. The rules were subtle. Not written anywhere obvious, but present all the same. Certain doors didn’t open. Certain floors required extra clearance. People didn’t linger in hallways for long. Everything ran on quiet precision. It wasn’t alarming. Just exact. Around noon, the mood shifted. Laughter rolled in from the stairs. I glanced up. A man walked in as he belonged. Tall. Relaxed. Dark hair. The kind of confidence that didn’t reach for attention but still claimed it. He joked with HR. Listened when people spoke. Smiled like this was all mildly amusing. “He’s finally in”, Andrea whispered. “Who’s that?” "Cassius Moretti," Andrea said, and I didn't miss the way her voice dropped. Around us, I noticed the shift. People are straightening in their chairs. Eyes tracking his movement across the floor. "He's important?" I asked. "His family is." Andrea turned back to her screen. "Very." The way she said it made it clear she wasn't going to elaborate. I had never seen Cassius before, well not until now. Except everyone noticed him. What really stood out was who stepped out of their office. Mathilda Armstrong, CEO of Verizon Industries. She smiled when she saw him and spoke to him longer than necessary, laughed softly, and touched his arm as if it were familiar. People noticed. I noticed. She invited him into his office and the mood shifted again, this time back to its usual busy nature. Everyone focused again. Cassius never looked my way. By the end of the day, my head was full and my body exhausted. “Want to grab something after work?” Andrea asked. “Another time, promise, it’s 5:30 already and I have be at the hospital by 6:00.” “Oh okay, catch you later then, bye Sienna”. I packed slowly, said goodbye to Andrea, and stepped into the elevator. Finally. The ride down was smooth at first. 22… 21… 20… The lights dimmed. Just for a second. Then again. The numbers blurred, flickered, snapped back. 19… 18… The elevator jerked. My hand flew to the railing. “No,” I whispered, pressing the lobby button. Nothing. The numbers stopped making sense. The elevator halted. Silence. Then the doors slid open. White. Blinding, endless white. No doors. No walls. No edges. Just space. I stood frozen in the doorway, my heart pounding hard enough to hurt. This wasn’t Verizon Industries. This wasn’t any floor I knew. I stood frozen in the elevator doorway, my mind trying and failing to make sense of what I was seeing. Where was I?​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​