- The End -
LILLIANAI tried to take a deep breath and stare into the mirror.It wasn’t the dress that made it a little hard to breathe—it was the fantasy of this day. Just forty-eight hours ago, I had asked Dominic if he would marry me here. And like the spectacular man I had fallen in love with, he had said yes, wanting to marry me right then and there.But surely, I couldn’t marry him without our families. In fact, they were the only people I truly wanted around when I vowed to be his wife. For me, the rest of the world could have vanished, and I wouldn’t have cared.“Where’s the crown braid?” Mia hollered from behind me, equally exasperated and nervous.Ever since I announced the wedding, Mia had taken it upon herself to ensure that no shadow fell on our day. She arranged everything in record time.She barely caught a few hours of sleep last night, waking up before everyone else, and I could only imagine how pissed Viktor must’ve been.“Oh god! I don’t think this veil is working with the dres
LILLIANAOne month later I leaned back my head and watched the stretch of primrose sand, the hue as gentle and nostalgic as a vintage photograph. Every fiber of my being hummed with satisfaction. A month has passed by since the dark storm we had endured. A month to break barriers and rebuild life as we wanted as our own. After the accident, it took almost three weeks for Marco to find the strength of move on his own, albeit with the help of a cane, which he detested to the core. Viktor and Dominic busied himself in cleaning up the mess, while I spent most of my time with Anna and Noah. Sometimes, Mia would insist I join her for the charity events and dinners too. And then, one day, Ralph came up with an impromptu vacation plan for Sicily—the native hometown of my father and mother. Mia and I leaped on the idea and sketched out the plan within an hour before anyone had a chance to refute. The next thin
DOMINICThe place where we drove next couldn’t exactly be termed as a church even though the rusty board read, ‘Christ Lutheran Church’. The place was draped in thick cobwebs on every surface with heavily cracked and stained glass windows. It was more of a safe haven for homeless junkies. A few of them were scampering around, snorting or injecting the substance and paid no heed as Aurora and I dragged a woman, cuffed and gagged, towards the attic. As expected, the two men I had assigned earlier were already there and waiting. Taking the gagging out, I yanked her closer. “Sophia, meet your husband, Frank.” I pointed at the man donned in a leather jacket and faded jeans. Like every player with an ace card, Frank has been mine. The man hated crowds or people in general, and coincidentally, I found him in a homeless shelter I had once volunteered for the charity. Why, don’t ask. Anyway, a fight broke out, and the unenthusiastic way he dismantled the three row
DOMINIC Taking my eyes off the road, I glanced at her a few times and then focused ahead. Beside me, Aurora was sitting calm, collected, and awfully quiet. A stark contradiction of her regular personality. Absently and quite often, she would reach out and touch the rose gold band around her throat: a benevolent, but sexiest nonetheless, collar, gifted by none other than Marco. It was so evident that she was missing him, and so annoying that she stubbornly disagreed. On top of that, some poor man’s Linkin Park rock music was blasting from my speakers. When did my choice in music get so terrible? On the next red light, I turned it off and tried to be conversational. “So, are we going to pretend that you are not being weird again?” I asked. “Shut up, look ahead and drive, Dominic,” she deadpanned, pointing at the green signal. “Your lack of emotions is fascinating, Aurora,” I said, flooring the gas pedal. “Some days, I even
DOMINIC “So, do we have a plan?” Mia asked as she poured the orange juice into her glass. “Or are we going to kidnap every potential enemy walking on this earth and stuff them in our basement?” It was a late breakfast session for the entire family, but as long as we sat together, it didn’t matter. Aurora returned shortly after Lilliana and I came down. Given how silent she was and judging by the bruises on her exposed skin, it was pretty clear that Carlos didn’t go down without a fight. But it wasn’t her first fight with the cartel brutes, and possibly not the last either. “That wouldn’t be a bad id—” Viktor kicked my legs from under the table and took over. “Everything is in place. We just have to make Sophia spit out the name of who leaked the video to the press.” “We have less than two hours before they realize that Sophia is taken,” Lilliana added. “Less than two hours to get the name out of her and put her in front of the media
LILLIANAA hand kept tugging at my elbow until I finally let go and jerked myself away. I might actually thank Viktor later for keeping me from murdering her, but right now, I wanted to punch him instead. “Never did I think in my life that I would have to say this, but let’s not get carried away.” He sighed and turned to her. “Sophia, give us the name of the idiot who spilled the news to the media, and you can go back to your one million followers.” The pain must have subsided, given the way she bared her teeth like an ugly hyena. “I know what you both are trying to do,” she sneered. “Good cop-bad cop? Like that’s going to make me talk.” “This is hilarious,” I muttered dryly and looked at Viktor, who was evidently offended for being tagged as a ‘good cop.’ Sophia practically crapped on his reputation of being the bad guy in a room. And right now, he was standing in a room with two girls. “Is that what you think? We are playing a fucking script here? Ta