Sold to Mr. Giordano

The absence of Antonio next to me was predictable as I wake up and stretch my cramped limbs. I frown at the empty space next to me and wish that I could see more of him. Just to talk and become acquaintances instead of the strangers I feel we are. I pull on my robe and descend the stairs leading into the living room.

I stop cold in my tracks when I see Luca sitting on the couch with a vindictive smile plastered on his face while talking to Rocco. Rocco is smiling too and his face somewhat flushed with red which tells me he may have been telling my brother a story that made both of them laugh.

Perhaps a story about torture?

Hopefully not one about me.

The Giordano ‘s and the Ricci’s have never liked each other. That is fact. So to have my brother and Rocco sitting on the couch talking and laughing like they’re best friends is… peculiar to say the least. I don’t have to ask what he’s doing her either—I already know the answer. Therefore Rocco, and probably Antonio as well, are just tolerating him being here and surely, they can’t afford a mishap with my brother or the New York Famiglia and more specifically my father will send an army to slaughter us here in the Outfit.

Luca turns his head on the couch to look at where I’m still in the middle of the staircase. I must’ve made a creaking noise with the wood floor that caught his attention. His half smile turns downward and disappointment fills his eyes.

“Oh, I thought you were my soon to be bride.”

“She must be upstairs sleeping still.”

“Why don’t you get her,” Rocco says with a commanding voice.

Reluctantly I head back upstairs and toward Arabella’s room. The last thing I want to do is wake her and tell her her worst nightmare is waiting to whisk her away downstairs. When I knock on the door she doesn’t answer but I hear noise coming from inside. I pray to God that she isn’t having sex with Carmelo again—especially not with my brother is such close proximity.

I enter without permission to see no one inside. “Arabella?” I call out to her.

I hear a sigh of relief and then her closet door open. “I thought you were him.”

 “You know he’s here?” I frown.

 “Antonio told me he was coming and not to mention I could hear him. I thought I had more time,” she slightly panics and begins to pace in her pajamas. “He’s going to take me to New York.”

“Antonio told you?” That only deepens my frown. “Why hadn’t he told me?”

“He’s come here to ask my hand in marriage—wait no, he’s come here to tell everyone we’re engaged. Make it official. Then he wants to marry me and it’ll be as soon as possible. Antonio told me he’s staying her until the wedding which means it has be soon! New York can’t go long without him… right?” The look in her eyes plead with me to say the opposite of what she knows is the truth.

“I’m sorry,” is all I can manage to say. Even though I have power as the Capo’s wife, I will never have power that the men do. What they say goes. No amount of begging will change anyone’s mind about the wedding. Even if I change Antonio or Rocco’s minds no one will convince Luca otherwise.

Ever since we were kids if Luca set his mind to something he was determined. You couldn’t distract him from the objective, he was relentless. My father loved that in him, he would constantly plant ideas in Luca’s head… vicious thoughts, and once Luca had them he would set out for them. That’s what would make him a good Capo one day. It’s what always made me a good Made Man, someone tells him to kill someone that’s all he would think about until the deed was done.

Along with relentless he has always held grudges, piss him off and he’ll be pissed off forever. Another reason why he always had so little friends. I would head many stories of him killing people in his classes at high school or even girlfriends who dared double crossed him or pissed him off.

I can’t let him marry her but telling him he can’t have her will only make him want her more. And like I said, he’s driven to have what he desires and what he wants, he always gets. My heart aches for Arabella who has tears building up in her eyes. Her breathing is still rapid and I know in her mind she is planning her escape.

Whether it’s an escape from the house or the mafia, I don’t know.

I must have taken too long in gathering Arabella because in the threshold Luca is leaning against the wood and Rocco is behind him with his arms crossed.

“Doesn’t my beloved want to see me?” Luca croons.

“Not particularly no,” Arabella stands her ground but I can tell her hands are shaking with fear.

Luca’s face goes red with anger and he clenches his fist. He storms in and for a moment I think he is going to hit her but he swiftly turns and enters her closet. I hear hangers clacking against each other and then, a lilac colored dress flies from the closet and into the bed.

“You will wear that. We are going to announce our engagement to the families of the Outfit at your mother’s house where you should be.”

“Where I should be?” Her eyebrows raise.

“I do not want you staying with your cousin. You should be staying with your parents.”

“Why?” She scoffs.

“Antonio is Capo and can very well bring home his business. I guess you could say I don’t trust him with your wife and nor do I trust you sleeping in a penthouse where in one of these rooms a male bodyguard sleeps.”

“You can’t be—”

Antonio throws a black box on the bed on top of her dress. “It is your engagement ring. Wear it.” There’s not an ounce of emotion in his voice. Nothing that would ever make this moment special. “We will head to your mothers at five. You better be ready.”

Luca and Rocco leave and Arabella flings herself onto the bed smothering her face in the blanket of her comforter to let out a heart-wrenching sob.

I walk over and rub her back. “I wish there was something I could do,” I say quietly. Nothing in this moment could make her feel better. At least nothing I could say.

Heading back to my room to ready myself for the day I look in my closet to see what I could wear for the party. As Capo and cousin to Arabella, Antonio is obligated to go and me as his wife and sister to Luca, am obligated as well. I glance at one of my favorite dresses—the same dress that was too small for me when I attempted to put it on when Rocco was going to take us to the club.

What other dresses didn’t fit?

One by one I try on a black dress, then a red, emerald, light pink… nothing. All of them a tad too small. I mean I know I might’ve gained a pound or two but I never thought it would cause my dresses not to fit.

I even try on the dress I wore just a couple months ago for my own engagement party.

Too. Small.

I head into the bathroom to cry and let out all of my frustration. How did things come to this? My marriage to Antonio is in shambles and now Luca is taking my best and only friend away from me. I think back to Gia, my previous best friend who has seemed to forget all about me. She didn’t attend my wedding because my father told me she was married off to an underboss in Philadelphia. It breaks my heart that we aren’t in contact anymore. I don’t even have a phone number or address from her.

I take a nice long shower to calm my frayed nerves. The warm water covers me like a hug and comforts me like a friend. The shower seems to be a place of solace and peace and calms my overactive mind. I wish then that I could stay under the spray for hours, but my fingers start to prune and I know I’m on a time limit for getting ready.

When I exit the bathroom with nothing but a towel around me I’m startled to see Antonio in the middle of our room, staring down at the sea of dresses covering the floor.

“It’s Luca and Arabella’s engagement party this evening and I was looking for a dress.”

“And none of them please you?” He raises an eyebrow.

“None of them fit me,” I mutter quietly and look down at my feet as shame burns my cheeks.

“Do you think you could borrow a dress from Arabella’s closet?” He pinches the bridge of his nose.

“I don’t think her dresses with fit me,” I shake my head.

Luca picks up his phone and quickly dials a number. He excuses himself before I can listen in on his conversation. I tie my robe around my waist and head downstairs for some lunch. I’m starving and realization hit me that I missed breakfast too distracted by Luca and Arabella and my shower.Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.