Chapter Five

Chapter Five

It was humiliating, succumbing to man she hated. She also hated the dress—sultry, provocative with an open back and a slit almost reaching the bane of her thighs. She felt like a slave, a prostitute almost being sold to the highest bidder—like a woman from Pompeii.

Alex Maldov would pay for this, she wasn’t sure how but he would pay for ruining her life. One minute she was a fashion designer, with big plans to open her own high-end fashion store in Manhattan— Now she was about to marry a mafia boss with her deceptive father walking her down the stupid aisle.

She wanted to look ugly, dabbled her makeup the wrong way, put on an incredulous amount of mascara that made her look like a hooker from 21st street, an ugly shade of red lipstick to put the cherry on top—and yet she still looked beautiful, a chaotic mess but still beautiful.

She heard a knock on her door and turned around to see her father, he was clad in a suit and she rolled her eyes unable to stand the sight of him. Charles moved closer to his daughter and tried to touch her, she slapped away his hands.

“Don’t touch me.” Her voice already crackled from crying all through the night.

“Olivia this is my fault.”

“No it’s my fault.” She corrected , “it’s my fault for having such a liar of a father. Yet I’m going to be stuck in a marriage with a man I barely know cause I don’t want you to die. Fuck you Charles.”

He deserved every ounce of berating from his daughter, his past mistakes led their family to ruin and left him in the hands of the mafia, her anger was only due. “Ollie I’m really—

“Don’t call me that.” She said curtly.

He sighed, “There’s nothing I can do to make you forgive me Olivia. As your father I’m supposed to be your sole protector and I—

“Sold me to the mafia,” she scoffed as she interjected, “What do you want dad?”

“I’m here with a plan Olivia. We can rid our selves of this life once and for all, live happily but this can only work if you marry Alex Maldov.”

“I don’t want to hear it.” She dismissed him with the wave of a hand, “If you’re telling me to kill somebody it’s not going to happen.”

Charles crouched to where his daughter as he clasped his hands over his daughter’s, she saw the look in his eyes again, “You’re not killing anybody Olivia but I—

“Dad??” She cut him off again, this annoyed him greatly, “Were you going to prison??”

Damn Maldov, Charles thought as he nipped his bottom lip, Olivia should’ve never found out about his going to jail, he chuckled softly instead, “Maldov is a liar. You should know that.”

She knew he was lying. Alex Maldov was the devil himself but he had no reason to lie, all of a sudden her every perfect and loving father changed in her eyes—he was a man who kept secrets, dangerous secrets she intended on finding out one way or another.

“We can talk about your plan later. I just want to be alone.”

He nodded and got up, just then Marco came into the room, “The ceremony is ready ma’am. Mr Maldov wants you to have these.”

She looked down at the bouquet of flowers in his hands—they were Black hollyhocks , surprisingly her favorite flowers. She wondered if her father told him about it, still it didn’t matter—he was the devil and she was about to marry him.

*******

At Thirteen Olivia dreamed of her perfect wedding. At the back of a cottage, close to a creek in a small field of daisies. She dreamed of her wedding dress being as puffy as a hot air balloon with a crown of flowers adorned on her head, and her husband dressed as a handsome prince from her fairytale novel—that was all it was, a dream.

This wasn’t her fairytale wedding, it was nothing short of a nightmare. There were no respectable guests except fully suited men she tagged to be his henchmen, all rough and looking at her with their lewd eyes. They weren’t getting married in a church, but a rather small chapel at ye back of the house—the irony, she thought.

Her face was drained of color, walking down the aisle with the flowers already withering probably from the despair she felt inside of her. Alex was at the altar with a perfectly tailored suit—extra polished even, his handsomeness wasn’t soothing her mood in any way.

He gasped seeing his wife walk down to him. Amused by her noticed effort to look ugly, he stretched his hand as a nice gesture. Olivia ignored it, climbing the short stairs and evading eye contact with her soon to be husband.

The officiator almost made her laugh at ridiculous he looked, adorned in a priest’s uniform with a full sleeve of tattoos on both arms. She shut her eyes for a moment, unable to fathom how this was soon to be her new life.

“You look beautiful.” Alex whispered to her, “As my wife I’ll make you wear red even more.”

“I’m not a puppet or a piece of property.” She replied still not wanting to look at hiim.

“Property or not…once this is over you’re mine forever and I have no intention of letting you go.” He said and her heart skipped a beat as he placed his huge hand over hers.

At the normal wedding his words were nothing short of a declaration of love—-to Olivia, his words were a threat, a threat of being trapped in his world . She wanted to go home, scream and wake up from this horrid nightmare.

The priest pulled her out of her thoughts, “Do you take Alex Maldov to be your lawfully wedded—-

“She says yes,” Alex answered before she could open her mouth, squeezing her hand lightly as if to warn her of any intended objection, “Get on with it priest.”

Frowning deeply the officiator turned to his boss, “Boss, do you take Olivia Camden to be your lawfully wedded wife, in—

“I do,” He excitedly answered, “I do with all my heart.”

Annoyed at the abrupt interruption of his words, the priest shrugged lightly and said with reluctance, “I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may now kiss the bride.”

Everyone cheered loudly, egging the now wedded couple to kiss. Olivia was stunned, shocked at the sudden realization of how messed her life was about to be when Alex pulled her closer. She almost screamed seeing the devilish smirk at the corner of his lips—he was going to kiss her!!

“I’ve been wanting to do this since you came into that pub.” He whispered, lowering his head to take her lips with his—a sharp pang of pain coursed through his veins the moment it touched—his wife just bit him.