An Arranged Marriage To The Mafia...?

Dry and hoarse my throat felt as if it were completely on fire, burning from the inside out, dying and screaming for even the slightest drop of cool, sweet water. My mind ran on dazed and confused and if I were able to make conscious and aware judgement I would have concluded a heavy concussion from the over-powered blow on Benjamin Draver's gun handle two nights before at the Radev home.

Two night before had been the last time I had ever seen a Radev alive and according to Mason I never would again. He had bragged continuously about how my father had shot and killed Antonio instantly, dead before his body had seeped red across the linoleum. About how Ethan had slipped and lowered his weapon as his father's body fell to the floor and how at that moment Mason had acted and pulled the trigger on my fiance, leaving him spluttering where he stood as the moved and swarmed about the house after Maria, how they had ruthlessly killed her as she sobbed and pleaded in her bedroom.

Tears poured from my red and swollen eyes and a hiccup of sobs fell from my tired lungs, the searing pain beyond my rib cage growing to an almost unbearable hurt. Never in the years that prepared me for my arranged marriage did I ever expect to sustain even the slightest feeling for Ethaniel Radev and yet now as I thought about him lying lifeless where I had sat by him only hours before I couldn't help but understand total, complete heartbreak and loss.

"Not again..." Mason's chilling voice broken the silence and his feet shuffled down the narrow stairs, "Tell me you aren't crying over that pathetic excuse for a family again"

I refused to make eye contact as he waltzed his way over, tears still streaming my already soggy cheeks and sharp sobs filling the once silent room.

"Why so sad little sister?" His fingertips laced with my cheek and I turned my face further away, his chilling laugh causing a fear-filled whimper to leave my chapped lips, "Don't cry, we're a family again..."

"I am not your sister and you will never be my family." My voice broke under the pressure of loose tears but I regained the strength to stare up at him alarming eyes just as the back of his hand made harsh contact with the side of my cheek, a burning inferno spreading instantly across my skin and bringing more tears to my already swimming eyes.

"That's enough Mason." My father's voice lifted the light just slightly, my heart beating with relief before I remembered that he too was now a part of the enemy and it now as he stepped further into the light that I could see the apparent changes he had already under gone. His face was hollow and eyes sunken to a beady stare, his lips gathered in a snarl and attire less than his usual perfectly fashioned suits and ties. He avoided making eyes contact with my sad expression instead turning to the side to focus his attention to Mason. "We have things to attend to."

They spoke in code, as if my over hearing would interfere with their plans, that somehow I would foil their missions and business dedcisions.

"What about Amelia?" Mason's voice raised a little louder and his focus moved to my depressing existance.

"Benjamin will watch her." As my father's voice filled the air Benjamin Draver's figure moved fluidly down the steps and fear immediately rose through my chest. "have her untied, we're not savage."

I aimed my stare directly at my father while he avoided my gaze. It angered me how much he had changed, how his opinions and beliefs had suffered under the desires of power and revenge. How he had fallen to a helpless victim of Mason's relentless scheme and how he had become the hand that murdered those closest to him. His face kept hidden from my view as if he were too afraid of what my eyes would portray, as if he were almost ashamed of the mistakes he had made.

"Just let me go." My wrists pulled at the ties that bound them together and my voice filled with sudden confidence.

"Amelia that's-"

"Out of the question." My father's voice cut of Mason's upcoming snide comment almost immediately, his eyes boaring into mine for the first time since he had waltzed him way into the small suffocated roof.

"You're not here as a prisoner," Mason's comment made me scoff in sarcasim, "You're here as an example. With the Radev's out of the way that only leaves you left. To them you're already a Radev, a disgusting piece of filth they would do anything to have destroyed. As your true family we took it upon ourselves to stage your kidnap until the mess dies down and the last of Antonio's men are taken care of, by then we'll simply state you're realised you're mistakes and returned to the Samuels."

"I would never admit you were my true family, not after all you've done."

"Don't be rash Amelia." My father's body shifted toward the staircase while he motioned for Mason to follow suit. "Benjamin watch over her, I want her exactly where she is now when we return."

Benajmin's face turned to a crooked smile and he shuffled past my father and Mason, watching silently as they fled up the stairs and closed the wooden door behind them, his attention immediately turning to my fragile and vulnerable state tied to the wooden chair, his face enough to have bile burning my throat in pure fear.