Dangerous Possession

Chapter 3

Mia

I open my eyes slowly, my head is bursting, I feel the pulsations expanding from my temples everywhere. My mouth is kneaded and I struggle to lift my eyelids but, when I do, I find myself looking confused at the white ceiling with the corners in decorated outlines, of my room.

I sit down, my head swirls dangerously and I feel confused, I don't know what happened. I'm under my covers, warm, it's sunny and freezing outside and I'm wearing my pajamas.

I reach towards the bedside table and take the glass of water placed on the white surface with a few tablets next to it that I immediately slip into my throat and swallow.

I close my eyes breathing deeply, my whole body hurts, and I feel my head bursting, as if the previous day I had run a drunken marathon in the middle of the night.

Then a memory comes back to me and my eyes widen.

Fuck

The night before I had gone out, I was at a club, I had a drink and I had started to feel sick, some men had taken me and dragged me away. Involuntarily my body begins to shake and I bring a hand to my aching head.

"Your head won't be the only thing that will hurt" says Noah in Italian and I cry out scared.

I turn abruptly, finding him sitting on the white velvet armchair at the foot of my bed. My brother is completely dressed in black and looks like a black angel of revenge, ready to destroy anything in front of him, his eyes, blue like mine, give off an anger that makes me tremble from head to toe, I retreat against the headboard of the bed and bring the blanket up to my neck, closing myself like a curl as if he could protect me from anything that was falling on me.

I watch him as he hoists himself, with a dangerous calm and slowness, even though his whole body emanates power and anger.

"You should thank Irina if you didn't wake up in a convent, Mia," he says, standing up.

I don't dare say anything, I have nothing to say because this time I know I did a huge bullshit and I would certainly have paid the consequences.

"If it had been up to me, you would have spent a week locked in a cell first, then you would have been sent directly to a convent." He gets dangerously close to the bed and looks at me from above "What you did last night, what happened, is of such gravity that you cannot measure it" he continues.

"I'm sorry" I say in a whisper

He raises an eyebrow, as if my mere talking was an affront to his person "You're sorry?" he spits at me "What would have happened if Jaxon hadn't arrived in time? Who would cry next?" he says pointing to my face, my eyes were filled with tears "I'll tell you what would have happened" he leans forward, resting his hands on the mattress and looking me straight in the eyes "They would have taken you away, and god knows what they would have done to you, this continuous endangerment of yours... it has tired me, Mia. Do you know what the f**k a year I've had? Do you know how much I have suffered in recent times? How many attacks have we had? Irina almost died! I have been attacked, our family is in grave danger, our territories are attacked from all fronts, the last thing I need is to worry about you in this way. I can't spend every day worrying about you running away or bribing someone. I don't need a problem like you, not now," he says.

I'm short of breath Problem?

"From today on everything changes, start preparing your things" he says getting back on straight.

"You said you wouldn't send me away," I say in a faint voice.

"I said I wouldn't send you to a convent, which is different. I didn't say anything about sending you away" he says with an evil smile and I widen my eyes "I received an offer, very succulent, about you"

"Noah..." I start to say but he lifts a finger, silencing me.

"Just because we're in the middle of a war I can't waste you in a convent, but I can use you for an alliance" he says crossing his arms behind his back and lifting his chin proudly "It just so happens that a new player has entered the field, very powerful, who has already annihilated the Irish, and I mean literally, he exterminated them from the first to the last, eradicating the Murray family from our history. I will meet him in two days and I will meet him at that time, but I have already spoken with one of his faithful men, he has expressed very clearly the will of his boss to create an alliance with us and there is no stronger alliance than that through marriage" says Noah.

"Dad promised me that I could marry someone of my choice" I try to say.

"Dad is no longer in charge, he is on his long vacation with mom and now I am in charge" he says with a stern look "You will obey me. You will marry who I will decide, as soon as possible, I want you to be someone else's problem no longer mine".

Having said that, he turns and goes towards the door grabbing the knob "Ah, I forgot" he said turning only his head and looking at me with a proud smile "You will never leave this room again unless it is to slip into your future husband's car" he says and then exits, leaving me alone in my room.

I would like to scream, rebel, cry, but I can't do anything, I can't do anything because I was the one who created this situation, who pulled this destiny upon me and now, the only certainty I had, that of the decision of the man who would be my husband, had been taken away from me.

In a world where women counted for nothing, in a world where we were nothing more than bargaining chips between strong and powerful men, I had managed to escape, but not anymore.

I had played with fire too much, and I had not only burned myself, now I had burned myself and I could only blame my stupidity for all this.