Chapter Four

Emma

Now I have two days to get married. A day passed and with it all my mental health.

I'm currently trying on my wedding dress. It was the most beautiful thing, but I don't feel happy at all.

"You look so beautiful my love" my mother smiles at me "Your fiance will love it."

Then I remember our kiss again. It didn't leave my mind for a day.

In a way, it was a good first kiss. I had liked it, although it was a little difficult.

"What are you thinking?"

"I think I prefer the veil a little shorter" the seamstress agrees with what I say.

"Remove the dress so I can make some adjustments." she comes out of the dressing room to give me privacy.

Before I can take off my dress, the curtain I was standing on opens and a man appears.

It was my fiancé who was there. Boris looks at me for a while, seeming to size up what I'm wearing.

"You can't see the bride before the wedding, it's bad luck," my mother warns.

"Do you really think I'm going to allow anyone to stop this? If anyone tries, I'll kill you with my own hands."

I feel something strange listening to the way you speak. I don't know if it was a good feeling. It was a mixed feeling, I would say.

"What do you want here?"

"Is that any way to talk to your fiance?" I refrain from answering it.

Does he want me to treat him like a king? Then wait and sit down.

"I'll wait outside, daughter," advises my mother.

Even on the platform I was standing on, Boris was still taller than me.

"What do you wish my beloved fiance? Are you better?" came out in a mocking way.

The mobster grabs my arm, startling me.

"Do you think you're kidding a kid? I don't like jokes."

"Sorry!"

The look in his eyes scared me. God… I don't want to marry that man.

"I'll leave a bodyguard to watch over you. I want to make sure you show up for the wedding."

"I already said I will."

Even if I didn't want to do it, I'm very afraid that I won't make it to the altar and that Boris's reaction will be the worst possible.

But where would I go too? I lived with my parents all my life.

"As if I took your word for it."

"Is this all you wanted? I have to take off my dress so I don't get it dirty."

The mobster looks me up and down, as if he's going to eat me with just his eyes.

I grab the hem of my wedding dress and step off the platform I was on.

"One more thing. Don't even think about getting too close to the security guard, understand? He's there to take care of you and that's it."

"Now you're insulting me!" I scream in absolute horror at what he's implied "I don't know what kind of women you're used to, but I'm not like that!"

If there is one thing that makes me totally angry, it is betrayal. Even more when it comes from the person you are supposed to trust.

"I don't trust anyone."

"And that's the only reason you think you have the morality to insinuate anything? You made it up about security."

"Why did this insinuation affect you so much?"

That makes me even angrier. I hold myself together so as not to do anything crazy.

"You know what? This marriage hasn't even started and it's already become my nightmare. I hate you, Boris Mikhailovich. You're a monster!"

I yell loud enough for everyone to hear. But that didn't seem like a good option, because he looks at me angrily.

The mobster holds my face applying a certain degree of force and looks at me in an intense way. He seemed to be watching my soul.

"You know what they usually call me? The Beast. Like many people's nightmare. I don't usually have patience or mercy, so don't test me."

"What are you going to do now. Hit me?" I feel my heart racing.

"I wouldn't get my hands dirty with so little stuff" he walks out of the fitting room and leaves me alone.

In a moment of outburst, I do everything without thinking. Then I rip the whole dress off. I pull the cloths, the straps, the veil. I tear it with rage, hatred burning in my veins.

"What are you doing, Emma?"

"I don't want to marry him. That man is a monster. I hate him!"

I throw myself on the floor and breathe a relieved breath that I have put the anger out.

"I thought you were going to try, my child."

"No way, I can't. He is the worst human being I have ever had the displeasure of meeting" I stand up.

My mother picks up the torn cloths that were lying on the floor.

"I'm sorry if that's not what you want to do, Emma. As a mother, I wish I could take away your pain. But unfortunately I can't." she wipes the tear that runs down her cheek.

"I can't, Mom. He's too mean to me."

"If he is being mean, ignore him until the anger passes."

I don't say anything else, I just lower my head and stay silent.

***

In the end, nothing I did was any good. Liana would get another dress for me. She always does.

The security guard that Boris said he would put to watch me, was indeed there.

He was a strange man, whom I preferred to keep at a distance so as not to cause any more trouble.

I finish combing my hair and get ready for bed.

I open my eyes when I hear a noise in the bedroom. Had someone broken into the house?

I try to scream, but a hand covers my mouth.

"Don't scream, little sister, it's me" my brother pushes the hand away from my mouth.

"Luigi, you are here" I hug him "Thank you for coming."

"I didn't come to see the wedding, I came to get you out of this situation."

"What?"

"I know exactly what to do, Emma. We won't need much to escape. I can help you."

"Unfortunately you can't, but thank you for your intention."

"I have a plan, a house for you to stay in, everything planned. You don't have to go through this if you don't want to. You just need to say yes."

I stand in silence reasoning what he had just said.

Then I remember the dinner, the fitting room, and the bad words that man had spoken. I cannot marry him.

In the end Boris was right.

"I agree to run away. I don't want to marry that man" Luigi smiles at me and runs his hand across my face in a caress.