FATAL DESIRES

My wedding was far cry from the vision I held in my mind since I was a little girl. I had always envisioned myself getting married to the love of my life at the beach, surrounded by our family and friends in beautiful floral dresses and floral shirts. But there I was, engulfed in a sea of unfamiliar faces, marrying a man I despised more than anyone in the world, in a vineyard on his estate. I had no doubt that our wedding guest list consisted of members of The Bandoni Crime Family, or La Famiglia Bandoni as they fancied to call it, corrupt government officials and their business associates. None of these people cared about the couple getting married; they were there for business.Different people approached us, congratulating us. All these congratulations messages should have been directed solely at Salvatore. He was the one who had finally gotten what he wanted. And as for me, they should have been offering me their condolences since I might as well have just signed my own death noti

I found myself lounging on the couch, scrolling aimlessly through the channels on the TV, trying to find something that could distract me until Salvatore arrives. Never had I imagined that I would wait for the husband I hated to come home, but there I was, hoping he walks through the door. Hours later, I heard Alessandro calling out my name, and I looked up, seeing him walking into the room. Why was he looking for me now? He had made it clear that he was not interested in having a conversation with me whatsoever.“Yes?” I replied.“Time to leave,” he answered and I frowned.“Where are we going? Is my family okay?” I asked instead,“I am taking you where your husband wants you and as for your precious family, you can ask him when you meet him.”“You didn't…,” I started, but he cut me off.“Get up. I don't have time to answer your questions and neither do have the answers,” he snapped.He might not look like his father, and he might not emanate his father's energy, but he surely was n

Amelia's POV3 Months LaterBeing Salvatore’s wife had come with a rigid and outrageous set of rules. But I had tried my best to follow through with the precision of a well-trained solider. I was the obedient wife, following his every command like his soldiers did. I did not put up any fight, and neither did I complain about anything. He wanted s*x; I opened my legs and gave it to him however he wanted it. He wanted an arm candy, I called the stylist and adored myself in designer clothes, plastered my face with make-up, and smiled at everyone until my jaws ached. He wanted to lure a partner during dinner, I sat next to him, acting pretty. I did everything that was expected of me.But somehow, somewhere, I ended up being on the wrong side, and he never failed to show his disapproval. A slap across my face or a punch was his preferred way to communicate his disapproval. I had lost count of the times Calliope had to treat bruises and the times she had to cover black eyes with tonnes of

Alessandro's POVI got to my penthouse and went straight into my bathroom to wash off my father's wife's blood from my body. I discarded my clothes in the trash can and took a bath, making a mental note that I needed to take my Mesarati to the car wash. It was my favorite.After I was done, I went into my study. I was working on the security system for a research company in the UK, and I thought I could work on that since I was not feeling sleepy even though it was already 2am. I tried to concentrate on my computer, but my mind kept drifting back to Amelia. The haunting images of her frail body on the floor, in the back seat of my car and her on the stretcher bed were etched in my head. The sound of her whimpers echoed in my mind, refusing to fade away.Amelia had made her choices, and now she was suffering the consequences of her involvement with my father. I was not supposed to be feeling any empathy for her; she was a willing victimI sighed, trying to push my thoughts aside and f

Alessandro' POVIn a day’s time, I sat on a hired private jet going to Costa Rica for my first assignment for the famiglia. I sat opposite my father, starring at him while he was taking a nap. I looked at him, a fresh wave of hate brewing inside me, and I wished I could pull out the knife in my pocket and stab him. I had spent my hours before the flight looking into Amelia.My guess had been right. He had blackmailed Amelia into marrying him. Finding Amelia’s father was easy, and looking into his life was not hard. He was a regular at The Rush, blowing off money on the gambling tables. That had given me a hint of what might have happened. Accessing my father’s books was easy. I would not have trusted his accountant if I were him. He knew nothing about protecting data. I did not break any sweat to hack into his GammaStack and access the bank accounts. Sure enough, Amelia’s father had borrowed money from my father and failed to pay it back. The debt was all of a sudden written off a few