CHAPTER THREE

MYRA

“Fuck no, Dad!” Luca's voice thundered as the dining room door flew open and slammed it back against the wall with a crack that made me jump. Luca stood there his eyes solely fixed on my dad’s, breathing like he’d just run a mile. His shirt was badly rumpled, there was a fresh, bleeding cut on his cheek and his knuckle was busted and bleeding. Did he get in a fight with someone again? 

My father’s face went from calm to stone in a second. “Luca, sit down. And speak to me respectfully.” 

“Hell no, Dad! There is no way in hell I’m letting you do this to her! She’s till young, for fuck’s sake! And you are just…selling her off!”

“I am not selling her off!” My father replied– his voice low and dangerous, I could feel the anger raging from the vibration that came with every word. Luca and Dad rarely ever argued but whenever they did it was like they would continue till they burned down the house. “You need to stop acting like you don’t know how this works. You know better than anyone this is for her safety. For ours as well. I have held the Bravata off for years after she turned eighteen. I can’t do it anymore, especially not with their threats. And you know what happens to anyone who betrays the Mafia. It’s not just me, I am protecting her future as well. My decision is final. She is getting married, and it will happen in the next month.

The finality in his voice was terrifying. A month. My life was being decided in a month and I could do nothing but to sit and watch it happen. 

“No, Dad you can’t!” Luca’s eyes turned wild and pleading. “Do you even know who you are giving her to? It’s that fucking twat, Damon! He’s over sixty for fucks’s sake–” Wait what, he’s over sixty five, that’s over my father’s age! Dad couldn’t possibly be serious right, I turned my eyes widened facing my father who still looked at Luca like he was ready to beat the hell out of him, he wasn’t even focused on me. I turned to mom to see her eyes just fixed on the table as though she was analyzing how the table was made, even she was blatantly avoiding the questions in my eyes. 

“That man is closer to death than anyone in the Bravata! How is he supposed to protect her from his fucking grave? You know he is just going to use her for his kids and there is no way in hell I would let that old man blood flow through her kids or even touch her in the first place. Dad, I swear, if you still go through with this, I’ll kill that man myself!” 

I had never seen Luca so angry and I was sure this wasn’t just about the man’s age, it was probably more deeper than I thought. I was mad at dad yes but Luca on the other hand was fuming with a kind of rage I had never witnessed. He literally just threatened not just Dad but Damon as well. The name made a short circuited wave through my brain, fishing out memories of him. My blood ran cold. Damon. The name was a death sentence. The pictures I had seen of him flashed in my mind–a cold eyed, gray haired man, who looked like he never smiled a day in his life. I had also heard rumors about him that he was a Manwhore. 

“Luca, calm down,” My mom said, her voice a soothing sound trying to break through the storm already brewing. 

“Don’t get involved with this, Mom!” Luca shot back, his voice still slightly raised.

Oh no. That was a mistake.

Even before Luca could mutter other words to apologise. Dad abruptly stood up so fast the chair screeched back. “Don’t you dare speak to my wife in that tone Luca, if you still want your tongue glued to your mouth. Myra will get married and she will be with someone safe. And I sure as fuck would like to see you try stop me.” 

The two of them were like bulls about to charge at each other, the air crackling with so much tension, I could feel its metallic taste in my mouth.

Luca took in a sharp breath, his fists clenching and unclenching. He looked away from my father’s furious face to my terrified one. 

“Dad,” he said, his voice suddenly dropping, losing its fire and turning deadly calm. “I want to talk to my sister. Alone.” He didn’t wait for an answer, he strode, grabbed my hand and pulled me up to my feet. 

—------------------------------------------------------

Luca shut his bedroom door behind us, the click of the sound resounding through the walls of the room in finality, oh he was mad, really mad. The anger was rolling off him like waves, and it looked like I would be the unfortunate one to drown in them. Luca’s usual anger was silent, calm and vengeful but tonight it was loud, crazy and reckless. It had been anyone else, not my dad, I could only wonder the havoc he would have caused.

“Look, Luca,” I started, trying to sound calmer than I actually was. Luca had done way too much for me and he had protected me from the very moment I came into this world. He was the best big bro, but we both had to accept that Dad’s word was final and I had prepared myself for this and now I just had to accept it. I would struggle but I would pull through. I really didn’t want to be the reason for a war between dad and Luca. It would turn bloody and I can’t stand it. “I’ve accepted it already, okay? I’m going to get married. You know this was meant to happen. This argument is pointless. And…maybe it won’t be that bad.” I was trying to convince myself as much as him. 

“Are you fucking kidding me, Myra?” He spun around to face me, his eyes blazing and here I thought my words would calm him down, it just made things worse. “Do you even know how much of a bastard Damon is? And you’re willing to marry him, are you nuts? Do you know how many women he has assaulted and used, how many he has gotten pregnant and left them without title? Do you think when you have the title of his wife, he is going to treat you any differently? No Myra, you being married to him just means you have to be stuck with all the abuse till his fucking death!” Luca lashed. 

‘Abuse’ the word resounded in my mind, sucking up the walls of my heart. No I couldn’t go through it again, I can’t be abused again, he won’t abuse me would he, Luca is just bluffing. The air thickened, I could barely breathe, fuck no! There was no way I was going to have a panic attack in front of Luca if I did, he was going to find out about everything. He was going to see me as weak, I am not weak! REPRESS, REPRESS, REPRESS. I chanted in my head, trying to convince my soul from breaking down. Happy thoughts Myra, think happy thoughts. I breathe in forcing the air around me to lose weight. I was fine, I was alright and I was not weak.

“I don’t give care what you think, I’m going to get you out of this one way or the other, so I’m giving you two options. Because, munchkin I know you want to get out of this too, you don’t have to pretend to bve all tough, you don’t want this so I would help you out” 

‘Munchkin’ ‘Munckin’ It has been exactly 7 years since my brother called me by that nickname, it made my heart melt, in fact my everything was melting. He stopped calling me that and now he did it, I couldn;t even find the next words to say to him and I didn’t want to ask him why he called me that or maybe he might just never call me that again if I had reminded him.

“These are your options, One you run away” The emotional fog cleared up almost instantly at the word ‘Run’ Me Myra, Run. Those two two words weren’t even fit to be in the same sentences, there was no way, I was going to run from this. I was not a coward. I am not weak.

“No, absolutely not, Luca. I’m not running away, like a little scaredy cat. I am not a coward and you know that” 

He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, he only does that when he is stressed out, which obviously he currently was and so was I.

“Yes I know you were going to be adamant about this so that leaves us the second option. Zyran.”