Chapter 6

Aaliyah’s POV

Iris' words cut right through my heart. I fear for how naive she is that she refuses to see that she's the one who will surely get hurt by Max if this marriage continues. 

I'm not going to sit around and allow what I witnessed happen again with her. 

I know she's going to be one hard nut to deal with now that I'm just going to learn how to blend into this mafia world, but I'm willing to relive its horrors if that's what is going to keep her from getting married to him.

“You should get your things if you know you really want to come along with me.” The excitement in Iris' voice hides behind her straight face and firm words. 

I know she wouldn't mind me coming along with her. 

I saunter out of her room, heading towards my old room just to check it out and get any other things that might be of relevance to me since I already have my things packed together. 

I hear murmurs as I walk down the hallway. It immediately catches my attention as the voices echo in rumblings that I couldn't piece together. 

There is no way I will let something like this pass me by. I walk closer to my dad's room, leaning on the wall as I hope to hear clearly whatever is being discussed. 

“Boy, you should know your place, and Iris is given to you on a platter of Gold because I want this to settle without any more spills of blood. Don't dare me! You know I will never give you my daughter in the first place.” I hear my dad scowling as he manages to lower his voice so well. 

I huff.  It wouldn't be anyone other than Max who is daring my dad. I wonder what they must be up to this time around. 

“If you know you don't want more bloodshed, then you must do your part!” Max scowls back, unfretted. 

It's clear something is going on between them as Max takes my dad's challenge head-on. I hate every form of audacity that he has. I have no understanding of why Iris finds so much interest in him.

“You dare try anything funny, and you'd hear from me. I know what you all are about. You…” I can feel my dad struggling as he holds back the words he wishes to say. He huffs out a scoff. “Don't dare me, Bianchi. You and your people shouldn't!”

The back and forth between my dad and Max flashes back pictures of my mum, lying in her blood and how I stood in the corner, watching without the ability to cry out loud or drop a tear for her. 

I notice their conversation is coming to an end, so I saunter out of the hallway and enter my room.

It looks just exactly the way it used to be. Nothing has changed about it. The pictures, the bed. It's as though no one else was allowed to use my room at all, but it remains clean. Obviously, because the maids will not go around cleaning everywhere and leaving it unkempt. 

The mirrors that hung on the wall brought flashbacks of how happy I was when Mum was alive. 

We all were.

The unity of the family broke the moment she was taken from us. 

The memories begin to play so roughly with my mind again. I can't help but feel the pain that I have used so many years trying to bury open up again.

I walk out of the room without taking anything, like I initially wanted to, and I walk down the stairs to get my things.

Iris is already seated in the Limo that's to take her and her things to Max's house. 

I didn't see Max anywhere when I get down the stairs, and Iris' vehicle is about to leave.

“Aren’t you supposed to give me a ride too?” I yell at her, just before the vehicle swivels totally from my view.

“I don't know what the hell you were packing up that made you make me wait so long. Lucky for you, Max said he will be coming back tomorrow. They have a business to settle.” Iris' face is hidden behind the dark shades she has on, but I can see her brows arched as she speaks to me. 

I watch how the other cars filled with things that call themselves guards, line up in front and behind the car as security. 

Some of them have their hands out of the car, and their body is covered with tattoos that I don't find attractive. 

Nonetheless, I don't see it as totally bad because I don't expect much from them anyway. 

“Hey! What are you still waiting for?” Iris snaps me back into reality.

I hop into the car faster than my mind can think.

While in the car, Iris keeps adjusting my lipstick and checking her face. 

She keeps requesting that the light be turned on so she can check her face and correct something on her appearance over and over. 

I wonder if she has become so insecure that she doesn't realize how weird it is that she can't stay without checking if something isn't wrong with her makeup.

“Ahem…” I clear my throat to get her attention, mainly because I want to take her mind away from doing that too.

“Sorry, I know… but I don't think it's weird that Max isn't staying at home with you, at least for this first night that you'd be living with him.”

Iris pulls down her shades, and her disgusted look, with a piercing glare, meets me first before her words. 

“You've been given just one rule as the reason why you're allowed to come along with me. We haven't gotten to his house, and you're trying to prove what point? Did I ask you to analyse his movements for me?” Iris speaks in a low tone but seems really pissed with me.