An Arranged Marriage To The Mafia...?

Lace, frills, silks, satins, bows, buttons, pearls, diamonds. The sheer glamour made my head spin uncontrollably, my stomach knotted with giddy anticipation and nerves. My brain buzzed and fizzed at the ever growing lists of neccessities.

Planning a wedding in less than a week was no where near as simple or easy as it seemed in cinemas. There were multiple extremes that needed to be taken care of almost immediately; the church, the reception, the guest list, the dress. Then there were the additional costs which could almost be over looked; the catering, the seating plans, the small insignificant traditions. I was only thankful to have Maria readily available to organise anything and everything, my main priority was to ensure my dress fit and that I walked down the aisle on the day.

My eyes wandered along small photographs of cakes while Maria fussed over frostings and trimmings with a baker. My mind was burnt out from the amounts of stress I seemed to have suffered in only the past few days. Louis had proposed and offered me the world and I had denied. He now spoke in minimalistic tones and kept mostly to himself. Ethan had happily told me that there had been nothing more that he wanted than for me to refuse him cousin, only now acted distant and behaved toward me in exactly the same way. Of course Maria, Antonio and Guieseppi were aware of everything that had occured, Maria had voiced her outrage at her nephew and had slightly praised me for sticking with her son, though I knew all too well she held a grudge. Antonio had said almost nothing and Guieseppi had spoken privately to his son for hours.

"Amelia." Maria's voice cut through my fuzzy vision of photographed cakes and icing, her head motioning in the direction of the door. I took this as my hint that the cake had been taken care of and slowly followed her out through the front door. "You know, you could at least look slightly excited about this wedding..."

I smiled shortly and nodded my head in a subtle yes motion. To me I felt there was nothing to be excited for. I was marrying a man who I wasn't in love with and who wasn't in love with me. "I am." I lied quickly, "I'm just... tired of all the planning."

Maria smiled understandingly and reached inside her purse. "Why don't you take the car home dear. I still have pleanty to do and I can always call Antonio to pick me up on his way home."

For a second I hesitated, debating if leaving would convince her I had no interest in this wedding or whether she was genuinely concerned and thought I needed rest. I decided against my initial induendo and thanked her softly as I took the keys from her aging hands.

I shoved the key to the ignition and sighed contently as the black BMW purred into life, slowly I applied the accelerator and moved out of the parking space, thick sunglasses over my eyes held the sun from blasting my vision while I drove down bare streets and shallow hills.

The tyres rolled over hills and bumps and potholes with ease, my eyes scanned the rear vision mirror and a nagging feeling rose from the pit of my stomach; I was being followed.

Two unmarked shadowing cars followed me along every curve in the european roads, they traced my patterns down busy streets until the amount of cars and people thinned and the cobble stone roads became abandoned. With a burst of confidence that had adreneline filled my bloodstream I pulled the BMW up along side a spare curb and sat silently holding my breath, relief washed over me as both cars sped past and up ahead of me, the driver's invisable behind thick tinted windows. I waited a few long moments before I let the car pull out and back along my original path.

Within a few seconds of entering a single lane dirt road I could see one of the dark cars re-enter my path. Panic rose quickly and I could feel my finger tips tremble against the steering wheel, my foot lowered down over the accelerator and the engine came to life. If I hadn't of noticed the single car now following me, my eyes would have remained on the road before me, I would have taken notice of the intersection I was entering but most importantly I would have seen the second black car speeding down a side street well before it collected against the shiny metal of the passanger side, throwing the car across the street and sliding into a sky scraping power pole.

Blurry darkeness swirled around my eyes and confusion lifted itself from everywhere before I could recall exactly what had happend. I pushed myself upright in a confusion and incoherent realisation and searched around the outisde of the car for a single person. Unluckily the street was narrow and lifeless with few if any people ever travelling down it. It was the only road in the entire town that connected the cbd to Guieseppi's home.

The smell of dust from the earth road burned through my nostrils and filled my lungs, the sound of an engine easing down along the dirt road pushed the last ounce of adreneline around my nervous system. Desperation had be trying my hardest to free myself from the driver's seat, but twisted metal and jolted interior had my perectly pinned inside the seat belt. Sunlight was beginning to grow scarce and a chill had filled the air, the sounds of breaks being applied made goosebumps rise along my skin. Gravel crunched under the weight of somebody's eager steps and I held my breath in anticipation, anticipation that these next few moments would be my last.

"Amelia?" A muffled voice bellowed through the tinted window and twisted metal door. I sat still, scared and dizzy in my seat. "Amelia?" Fingers, hands, arms pryed against the metal door, yet I did nothing, I made no response, no movement, not even a subtle flinch as the door crunched open and a soft breeze played along my hair. I heard my name once again and suddenly recognised the thick, strong voice through my cloudy, dark haze of confusion.

Ethan fingers brushed against my hairline and I felt something warm and wet against my forehead. Arms felt around my sides and my body involuntarily shudder and flinch away from the pressure. I could hear him curse under his breath and I knew in the back of my mind that he was talking to me, telling me things, begging for me to do as he instructed, but his voice was now nothing more than a whisper blending in with the background.

Lungs expanded in my chest as the pressure of the seatbelt suddenly vanished, arms fell underneath me and I felt the cool air touch down along my skin as Ethan pulled me from the battered car, my head lulled along his shoulder while his hold tightened over me. Gently he placed my body down into the passanger seat of his dark car and I could just make out his figure crouching before me, eyes assessing my deteriorating condition. His voice sliced through the air but my brain couldn't quite make out the words he was saying, a dark fog was clouding over everything, a tiredness like nothing else eating away at my conscious brain.

I felt the car motion quickly down the street while Ethan drove at careful speeds, he directed the air vents to face me, allowing freezing cold air to wash over my face and have goosebumbs and shivvers rocketting through my system. I mumbled something in outrage and lazily tried to push the air away. Ethan pushed my hands away and in response turned the pressure of the air higher.

"Amelia, you have to stay awake." His voice was soft yet demanding, though I didn't want to listen. "Amelia, don't go to sleep..."

I heard nothing more from Ethan, his voice became a droning sound in the back of my head, a soft whisper than meshed with the sound of a burning engine, yet I was still aware of the icy air speeding over my skin, the traction of tyres driving along lumpy roads and the bright lights of hospital wings.