One

~Ariana

Bright rays of sunlight hit me the moment I opened my eyes, forcing me to squeeze them shut. My head felt heavy and it throbbed so much, I took a minute to recover.

The room I was in looked unfamiliar. It was nothing like the room I was supposed to share with my husband, Salvatore. I struggled to remember what happened and how I ended up here but it just made my head hurt more.

I tried to get on my feet and it was only then I noticed that I wasn’t wearing anything. Dried blood left a streak down the corner of my laps and l felt sore between my legs.

Panic hit me as I took in the disoriented state of the room. I staggered towards the large mirror seating on top of the dresser in the middle of the room and took in my appearance. There were small bruises around my neck but apart from that and the blood on the inside of my thighs, I looked normal.

I racked my brain for possible explanations but I could only pull up vague images of a man. Had I been drugged and worst of all—raped?

I shook my head even though all the signs were there. I had to go and find Salvatore. I started staggering out before I realized I had nothing on so I returned to find something to cover myself with.

The room had no bathroom so there was nowhere for me to wash. The only clothing I found was the lingerie I had bought a week before my wedding.

My wedding!

The thought made me pause. Flashes of the ceremony came to my mind and I realized it happened a day before yesterday. Everything about it happened so quickly and even though I was the bride, I could barely remember anything about the event the media had described as the most glamorous event of the decade.

The reception came and passed the same way the wedding did and before I knew it, it was my wedding night. As a virgin who had heard a lot about how painful the first time was, I lowkey dreaded the wedding night.

But because I loved Salvatore so much, I didn’t want to ruin his night for him. So I arranged everything, prepared the room, read as much as I could so I wouldn’t be too inexperienced for him. And then I waited.

He never came.

The next day, I woke up and he was still nowhere to be found. I spent most of the day sulking and confused. Every time I asked one of the million servants around the house, they assured me he was fine even though none of them agreed to provide any information about his whereabouts.

The last thing I remembered was drinking a cocktail mix Salvatore had sent a servant to give me and then I was blank.

The headache returned when I tried to remember beyond that. I stopped and ended up wrapping my body with a blanket, since my lingerie was ripped to shreds, before leaving the room.

Once I left the room, I realized this was Salvatore’s house and the room I was in was in the servant’s corner of the house. The realization only confused me more.

I felt too conscious of myself as I made my way to Salvatore’s room. I could swear all the servants were staring at me even though whenever I turned to check, they were busy with their work.

I found Salvatore in the downstairs living room.

“Sal!” I called out before I became aware of the fact that he had company.

Silence fell on the room and all eyes were on me. I immediately remembered that I was still wrapped in only a blanket.

From the people in the room, I could recognize a few of his men, his best friend and some family members including his mother and brother. They all had different expressions as they stared at me but for some reason, Sal’s stare was the harshest.

“Ariana.” He sounded like my name alone tasted bitter.

“Sal, I-I . . .” I found myself stuttering for no reason. With the way he was staring at me, I was reminded that he was the underboss of the Sicilian mafia. “I w-woke u-up—“

“Speak properly!” Sal snapped at me.

I closed my eyes, flinching at his tone. I calmed myself down and took a deep breath before speaking again. “I woke up in the servant’s quarters and I have no idea how I got there. All I remember was waiting for you on our wedding day then falling asleep and the next day no one could tell me where you were. A servant brought a drink to me and said it was from you and . . . I don’t remember anything else.”

He remained quiet for sometime.

“I took you to the servant’s room,” he finally said.

“Why?”

He ignored my question and called for a servant to get something for him. The servant returned with a tape and he ordered her to play it on the large TV in the middle of the living room.

I wanted to ask him what all this was about but the TV came on and the image of him carrying me into the servants’ room left the words stuck in my throat. I watched as he handcuffed me to the bed and placed a mask over my face.

Then he leaned back and stared at the ugly mask he had placed over my face.

“Better,” he said and started ripping off my lingerie, the only thing I was wearing when he had carried me into the room.

From the way I was acting, if I wasn’t sure that there was something in that drink the servant had served me earlier, I was sure now. I was literally begging him to take my virginity.

I stared on in disbelief as he went ahead to do so. He hadn’t bothered to lock the door and a servant had accidentally walked in before hurrying out when she realized what was going on.

By the end of the video, he left me while I was whining about how much pain I was in and walked out of the room. My eyes were brimming with tears by the time the TV screen went black.

There was a pit in my stomach which only grew worse when I realized that everyone else in the room had watched the video too.