Mafia Brides; Obsession of the Bratva

"Are you really going to marry my ex?" My voice broke, my eyes resting on her reflection in the full-length mirror in the bridal suite.

My sister, Lorelai slowly turned, her eyes thin. She brought her hand to wrap around her stomach.

"Are you still on this? I am pregnant for him. Who else should I marry?"

"You know he is my ex. Not even an ex of a year ago, one fucking week. You are going to marry a man who dumped your own sister over text a week ago and vanished? Apparently to you?"

"Sister?" She asked, laughing. "You are not my sister, Julienne. Your father just happened to provide the sperm that made me. It doesn't make me his daughter. It doesn't make him related to me."

My lips quivered hard, and my fingers clenched into tight fists. How could she stand there and say that to my face when I did everything to fight for her? When I made sure she knew how much I loved her, even when I knew it was her mother's affair with my father, who killed my own mother?

"You are fucking heartless," I said, a single tear rolling down my cheek.

I wasn't sure why I was crying. Was it for the fact that my own sister was pregnant and marrying the man that, up until last week, I was in Rome with, planning a life? Or was it that she seemed to have zero remorse doing it?

"I am logical," she said with a shrug. "Go check. Will your father even attend the wedding? Why do I have to acknowledge a man who never acknowledged me?"

"Then what about me?! I shared everything with you. You repaid me by taking the man I loved."

"No, he left you. You are gracious with sharing, Julienne. Unfortunately, I am not. If you will excuse me, my stylists would like a final fix before the ceremony starts."

I stood there, tears running down my cheeks. I felt stupid for saying nothing at that cursed dinner the night I returned from Rome. I still had that text in my phone and I was dragging the pieces of my heart beneath my feet.

Only to sit at dinner and watch Lorelai announce to us that she was marrying Hades.

Only, he wasn't Hades. He was Alan. A painter, and for a glorious year, the best thing that has happened to me.

I turned, sniffing hard. "I just want to say this one last time. You can drag this mistake up until the point where the priest asks if you want to take him as your husband. Believe me, Lorelai, you can still say no. You can still choose your sister, and I will overlook the fact that there is no way you fell pregnant in a week."

I didn't wait for her to answer me, and I walked out of the bridal suite, towards my own room. The black bridesmaid dress was hanging in the room, like a testament to my own failure.

Tears stung the back of my eyes fast and hard, and I gripped the edge of my chair, my body trembling from the force of it.

My eyes caught the diamond infinity ring on the dresser where I had kept it after that revelation. Alan... or Hades as I now knew him to be had given it to me just the night before he shattered my illusions of us and ran away without another word.

He had called me his best kept secret. He had called me...

A knock came on the door, and I turned, immediately wiping away the tears on my cheeks. Before I could say a word, the door opened, and the scent hit me before anything else.

I sucked in a sharp breath as he walked in, the door closing behind him. I hated how I didn't even need to see his face before knowing it was him.

Hades was dressed in a pristine black suit, his hair, that he always put in a messy man bun that I loved to loosen, was now in a wolf cut that framed his sharp features. His eyes were now dark and intense, and the dimpled smile that used to add light to them was gone.

He looked every inch the son of the Bianchi Mafia family that I now knew he was.

His head tilted to the side as he took me in. "You have been crying again."

"Get out," I said, straightening. I covered the distance, intending to push him back.

My hand hit his chest, and his hand immediately wrapped around my wrist.

"You don't look happy to see me," he said, his voice low as he pulled me further, my body hitting his.

I hated how much I remembered just how good that body felt under me, above me, every fucking place around me.

"Let me go."

He pulled me even closer, one hand holding my hands together, his other hand running gently down my neck.

"Let the wedding happen, Julienne."

I met his eyes. "Why should I? You are shameless, aren't you? You dare stand there after cheating on me and then disappearing? How dare you?"

He turned seamlessly, pinning me back on the wall, his leg sliding between both of mine, keeping me hooked to the wall by both sheer strength and the weakness of my own mind and body.

"If I apologize, would that make it okay?"

"Nothing will make it okay. Get out of my room. Now."

His eyes darted across both of mine, and then slowly drifted down to my lips.

He gave a small smile, but this smile was different, dark, predatory. Perfect for Hades Bianchi, but not Alan.

"Your body tells me very, very different things. Look at you, Julienne. You look like a woman who remembers exactly how well I fit inside you."

My lips parted, and he suddenly leaned in, his tongue sliding right in to my mouth, one hand wrapping around my neck.

I sucked in a sharp breath, my body immediately ablaze, my defences cracking in the most shameless way possible.

Here I am, someone who prides herself on justice, pinned against a wall and kissing the man who is about to marry my sister.

His lips took mine slow, and I could feel his warm moisture invading me, reminding me of all the reasons my world had revolved around him for a whole year.

He broke the kiss, his face still pressing into mine. The room was silent apart from our rapid breaths.

"You still taste so good when you are angry."

My eyes widened, and reality crashed on me like ice cold water.

Without thinking it through, I slapped him hard across the face, my nail digging into his cheek.

"You don't get both of us."

He turned to me, and his eyes darted down to my lips again. "Maybe I will."

This time, I covered the distance. My arms wrapped around his neck, my lips meeting his like a woman starved and deprived finally allowed to take in fresh air.

I hated myself for it. So much. But I can't stop. I can't escape him.

He pulled me impossibly close till my body was crushed between the wall and the hard lines of his body.

He broke the kiss to trail his lips down my neck, sucking in one hickey right under my jaw, before he leaned back up, his lips parted against mine.

He gave a small sigh, his hand wrapped around my thigh, my body draped on the wall like a sacrifice.

"Don't try to stop the wedding," he whispered. "Just don't."

His eyes met mine for a brief second, and I saw a flash of something. Regret? Longing?

He kissed my forehead, then turned and walked away, leaving me standing there, realizing that the zipper of my dress was open, and that my heart was still controlled by the same man who lied to me for a whole year.

The minutes ticked by like they wanted to make fun of me and the hickey I now hid under a shawl. I stood with the rest of the bridesmaids, my chest heaving hard.

Hades was at the altar, and I could hear the other bridesmaids murmuring about him.

He had an obvious lipstick stain on his thoroughly kissed lips, and he hadn't even bothered to smoothen his hair where I had run my fingers through it.

Fucking bastard.

I turned away, taking in a deep breath, my chest tight.

I had no choice. If Lorelai saw no issue with the circumstances around him, then I couldn't help it.

Maybe she didn't want to lose the chance to marry the only heir of the Bianchi family. Maybe she was doing it for the baby so it wouldn't have a life like her own.

But if she was willing to hurt me for it, then I will support her and then leave to protect myself.

The chords of the song, here comes the bride struck up, and my back straightened as I turned to the large cathedral doors.

It continued to play, but the doors didn't open. My foolish heart soared with hope. Was she going to leave him? Was she...

It suddenly opened, but instead of the bride, one of the beidesmaids that was going to escort Lorelai, ran in, her eyes wide with horror.

Her dress was torn, her shoes discarded, and she looked like she had seen a ghost.

"Lorelai..." she said, falling to the carpet in front of Hades, pointing to the door.

I immediately moved forward, as the guests stood, including Hades's father, the Bianchi godfather. My father was absent, as expected. He barely even looked at Lorelai.

"What happened to my sister?" I asked, my voice shaky.

The bridesmaid started to cry. "She is... she is.."

I turned without waiting and ran down the same aisle that Lorelai was supposed to walk down. I pushed the doors open, and the sight before me made me turn away, a gasp leaving my lips.

I hit a broad chest, and Hades's hand wrapped around me, pushing me into his chest to shield me from the sight.

For a long minute, I stood there, gathering myself. Slowly, I turned, and my knees gave out under me.

Lorelai was outside the church, still in her wedding gown, the dress soaked with her own blood, and a gun resting next to her hand.

She still looked very beautiful, her eyes wide open as if surprised, and very dead.