01| Coerced Marriage

'Darkness thrives on the threads of helplessness'

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Relentless, feeble sobs escaped her mouth, and endless lines of tears gushed down her soft cheeks while she pressed the side of her face against the window brim of the private plane. It was the day of her mother's death when she cried this much last time. Folding her legs and hugging them closer to her chest, she curled herself in a small defensive form.

The devil, seated across the table in front of her, was now her husband. The mere thought of which scares the daylight out of her, how she is going to survive with it until he sets her free is a whole different concern.

⌞ A few hours back⌝

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Daniel's middle aged consigliere produced some paper and put it on the front table. Two of the maids were standing at a far distance to provide if something was needed. A few men were standing outside the room and Miliani, shaking like a little leaf, was forcefully made to sit beside Daniel.

Till then, Miliani was fearing if he would force her to marry someone among the men present there, but when the fretful realisation gnawed on her that she was about to be wedlocked by the man she could not hold herself stable in front of -was too overwhelming and intimidating for her to take in.

Daniel, with his beautiful cursive writing, signed the papers almost immediately. He was just a small step away from ascending to the pinnacle of his authority. Should he be bothered by this girl's reluctance and snivels? .. never. He strived hard, fought for years and made himself the toughest for this day to achieve.

All of the people involved in murdering his parents were now eliminated by him and his elder brother Kevin. And the last rat hiding in the Romano's shelter for years was now being tortured lavishly to death here in the basement - it was Adam, Miliani's biological father. He worked as a general physician for the Knight family, but he didn't think twice before conspiring with the Knights' rival. The Romanos paid Adam a hefty amount of money and a secure escape to Italy for which he easily poisoned Daniel's mother in the Romano's favour and left behind his wife and two daughters, one of them being Rose - Daniel's brother Kevin's wife. In Italy, he had already lured a blind woman into love, fathering Miliani to secure legal residence during the course of this conspiracy.

And a day earlier of the marriage when Tristian Romano, Daniel's rival cousin attacked his territory like a moron inviting his own death Daniel and his brother did not let that opportunity slide and executed him right on that fucking spot.

Daniel's mother was the daughter of one of the three founding members of the Romano empire and the long-standing rivalry between the Knights and the Romanos had simmered for years, ever since his mother dared to elope with his father, shattering the Romanos' matrimonial commitments among the founding families. With Tristian Romano's death and no one left in his bloodline alive, Daniel now had the ultimate power to take over the position through his maternal lineage.

But the days of waiting were over. Daniel couldn't wait to use this opportunity to dominate by their own rules until he finished off the remaining two Romano families and reigned over the entire territory like a true Knight, like an indomitable conqueror. His vengeance would only be satisfied the day he utterly dominated the enemies' domain.

Months back, at a deceitful meeting concerning treaties between the Knights and the Romanos, Daniel's intrigue was piqued by Miliani's existence. He found it fascinating how Tristian, that impotent wretch, kept the girl for his twisted experiments. Tristian, unable to accept his own impotence, would scour for the purest of virgins, desperately attempting to produce an heir. Miliani was just another in Tristian's line of victims. Although this was not Daniel's concern, also, he was not one to torment Miliani for being Adam's daughter. Instead, he saw her as a pawn to bait and humiliate Tristian, pushing him into a reckless mistake. Daniel's sinister machinations were meticulously executed, with Miliani as the unwitting centrepiece of his dark game.

Miliani's existence hadn't mattered to Daniel until now. To be declared one of the heads of the empire, he needed a wife. "Romanos and their idiotic rules", he thought with a smirk as it was only a matter of days. He could have got anyone but for some reason, he decided on Miliani.

Daniel shot an irritated gaze at Miliani's hesitancy.

"I-I want to talk to Rose," trembling with fear, she requested. Rose was Daniel's brother's wife and also Adam's daughter from his first marriage... and, when Mili got to know about her half sister after coming to this Knight's mansion, she had one hope. The ray of hope that the kind-hearted woman Rose showed her... made her feel that she could have a life ... a truly free one until Daniel crossed her path, again, shattering every illusion of freedom with the cruellest bind of all - a forced marriage.

"Nessuno può impedirmelo," his lips curved into a cruel smirk. He immediately gripped her upper arm and made her hold the pen with the other. (No one can stop me from this)

"Sign fast," he demanded which went unfollowed as her fingers were trembling poorly. He exerted a little more force on his grip making the terrified girl yelp. Mili found herself utterly helpless.

"Mili, do not ever make me say the same thing twice. Trust me, you would not like it," he warned her in his deep, throaty voice, sending a wave of chill running down her spine. Miliani could not bear up with the increasing force of his grip and his dominance over her helpless configure. A bead of tears dropped on the paper where she just signed battling against her shaky fingers and racing heart.

A satisfied grin emerged on his chiselled face at his victory. Daniel appreciates her docility, one of the reasons why he chose Miliani to be particular. He has witnessed his brother going through unnecessary lengths to deal with rebelliousness, even though he believes it would have taken him not more than a single day to tame a brat, but he was unwilling to waste a single second on that.

The consigliere quickly put up the papers and wiped out the water with his handkerchief before it could spoil the signatures. A maid stepped closer with the boxes of rings and put them on the table. Daniel slid his hand from her upper arm to her hand and brought it closer to him.

"Don't worry, bunny, you are just going to be a dummy wife," Daniel informed the sobbing mess and a shiny and heavy brilliantly cut round diamond ring was slid down her clumsy finger. Daniel did not wait for her to do the same and put his ring himself before getting up and going ahead to discuss something with the consigliere.

The maids neared Mili as she needed to be prepared to leave for Sicily in a few hours.