Omertà

*****Nikita POV*****

The piano is still playing the beautiful tune, the beginning of my new life. I step out of my room with my father on my right and brother on my left. I can tell that they are in no hurry because I literally drag them down the corridor and down the modern victorian spiral stairs while the photographer snaps a multiple photographs of us. Reaching the hall, I can’t help but gasp at the exquisite setup and decorations. Tabitha has really outdone herself with planning my wedding.

Besides the breathtaking decorations and flowers, this is the first time our hall is opened like this with windows opened to let the sun and fresh air in. The dull impenetrable walls I designed for my university project are always down, but had to be lifted up today because Tabitha insisted that they were out of place. Looking at the place now, I have to agree that I was very wrong in insisting that they stay down.

I am also surprised by the number of guests in attendance. This is the first time in my life I have seen so many people in my home. We never host because of obvious reasons. I am scanning through the faces when my eyes land on the last person I want to see on my wedding day. Looking all handsome and arrogant with an expression I can’t quite figure out is my worst enemy, Leo Booi. Standing next to him is his loyal cousin, Owen. My heart starts pounding like it always does when I meet that despicable bastard, but I won’t let him ruin my day. I really don’t understand why the mafia rivals religiously attend each other’s events. Father and Jake are the same too. Maybe it’s because they don’t get invited to normal people’s events or maybe its a way of assessing the opponents strengths and weaknesses. Whatever the case is, it’s no longer my business.

I move my eyes away from Leo to look at my husband to be, who is standing tall at the front, smiling at me. Ethan is not the most handsome man I have ever met, but he is definitely in the top ten and most importantly not a mafia, making him as sexy as hell in my books. If it was not for these heels, I would increase my pace to reach him, say I do and get the hell out of here.

I am less than ten steps away when everything changes. From the north side of the hall, moving at an incredible speed, I see it. The bullet coming directly at us and there’s no time to act. In a split second, Jake is hit on the chest and falling down while Ethan’s family is screaming in horror. I grab my brother, easing his landing on the floor. I can instantly tell that he is gone. My only brother and friend. I want to scream my lungs out, but it is not the time. I am not the one to die screaming, you can blame that on my upbringing. Fight or get trampled on is another mafia code. I draw out my gun and scan the room for the shooter because I want blow up the evil bastard. The problem is that everyone is now on the floor. Besides Ethan and his family, everyone has their guns drawn out, ready to shoot. What the hell?

I’m still confused when Father lets down the impenetrable wall and I can see the bastard. All the guns are immediately lowed because we can all see the the threat is not inside but out there.

There is no satisfaction when the drones shoot and retain the sniper. He will not live long when Father is done with him but just like with Mother, nothing is ever going to fill this void. My brother, my only sibling, is gone.

I take a deep breath and command my tears not to dare disobey. The last thing to do is show weakness in a hall full of mafia. Then something else comes to my mind, replacing the shock and grief with fury. I welcome it with open hands. At least now I look like the rest of them, like I’m ready to tear someone apart. That’s because I am. You see, many have tried attacking us like this before but the bullets never came through because we always had the impenetrable wall down. A few months after installation of the wall, I use to find thousands of bullet shells outside. That was proof that someone had tried to ambush us at night but failed. I figured that whoever it was eventually realised how futile of a exercise that was and gave up because there has been nothing for years now. It can’t be a coincidence that it happens again today, that’s why I am fuming. Only one person besides us knew that the wall will be up today. Surprise, surprise, she is not in attendance. I am not walking out of this world until she pays for this betrayal. I know that I sound a lot like the mafia right now but I don’t care. I hate that the idea of revenge gets me so calm. It’s too typical of the world I am trying to leave behind. Thinking of this world and the plan to leave it, I know that I have to get everyone out of here before Father returns. Grief has a way of making him heartless. I would not be surprised if he returns and opens fire on everyone here guilty or innocent.

The mafia does not ask questions when I instruct them to leave. I guess they know what’s good for them, but they also know father too well. The hall is almost empty when Ethan comes near me to question my instructions. I notice that his family is also surprised, shaken and uncomfortable but they are law abiding citizens who would rather remain with a dead body in a mafia estate and wait for cops. How innocent!

I give them a crash course to the mafia codes. Keep your mouth shut or you die and absolutely no cops is the gist of my message but in a light non scary tone. I see Ethan’s family exchange looks but they don’t look freaked out. Maybe I can make them understand that involving the cops would make them witnesses and witnesses in mafia cases never live to tell the tale.

“It’s called the Omertà…,” the evil bastard says and goes on to highlight my title as the mafia princess. I clearly saw him and his cousin head towards the door when I gave the instruction for everyone to leave, but he had to return and kick me when I am down. I am worried about his statement because I know that it took a lot for Ethan to get his family to accept me because of that very title. I also don’t need my future in-laws knowing too much about omertà, the ultimate code of silence that rules the mafia world. The less they know about this world, the better.

With my heart pounding and eyes blazing, I completely lose it and point my gun at Leo who just grins at me because I have just proved his point. I can see Ethan and his family backing off and I can tell that they are scared of me now, but I can’t help it. Leo has a way of igniting this uncontrollable fury inside me. I eventually calm down and lower my gun and hope that I can explain myself out of this one, but Leo’s next sentence collapses all chances of that.

I look at Ethan with a blank expression while Leo walks away with a huge grin. I have not thought about the implications of my brother’s death. With Jake gone, I am the only heir to the Davi bloody empire. I don’t know if it is possible to walk away from this now.

“I am sorry Niki, but I can’t do this,” Ethan says, crashing my future plans, but I can’t blame him. I would run too if the roles were reversed.

I nod my head and watch him and his family leave before walking to my brother’s cold copse and kneeling next to it. My shoulders shake as the gates to my grief open, letting out the flood of tears that I have been suppressing since his death.

I am going to kill her, I’m going to freakin kill her. I murmur to my dead brother as if he can hear me. Tabitha, Jake’s fiancé is the only other person who knew about our wall being up today. She is the wedding planner who planned my wedding. I shut her down when she first suggested that the wall be lifted because apparently it was messing up her deco. She had decided to go behind my back and convince Jake and father who overruled me on the issue.

Sneaky traitor! I’m going to kill her! I shout my lungs out with tears streaming down my cheeks. I have never killed anyone but I will make an exception with her.

“She’s already dead, Angel,” Father’s icy cold voice says.

I freeze, afraid to even look at him. His voice alone tells me the state he is in.

“Her father and all his gang are dead too,” he continues.

That’s when I realise that I have been kneeling and weeping next to Jake’s body for more than two hours. That was more than enough time for my father to avenge Jake.

“Did you….?” I ask, finally turning to face the grief that equates mine.

“No. They were all cold by the time we arrived,” Father says with a cold, disappointed voice. He never lies to me. That’s how I know about every life lost in this forsaken world.

I swallow my saliva. Cold also means someone is way ahead of us and that can’t be good.

“Someone got to her to get us to lift the wall,” I say, kicking myself for having the wedding in the first place. Ethan and I could have just gone to the magistrate and signed.

“Yes,” Father responds.

“Which one of them?” I want to know if it was the Booi’s or the Siko’s, in order for my anger and hatred to have a face. Both Leo and Daniel who are our biggest rivals were in the hall when Jake was shot. They both looked as shocked by the incident but they could have sent their man to do the job.

“I don’t know and I don’t care. They will all pay,” Father says, and I know that he means every word. Just like my mother, Jake will not be buried alone.

“What did the snipper say?” I ask, still hoping to isolate the culprit and maybe spare the innocent lives.

“He killed himself before we got to him,” Father says, and there goes my plan to isolate one individual or empire.

“So, we have nothing?” I ask in frustration.

“It does not matter, Angel. Blood for blood, my son will be avenged,” Father says his shuttered voice making me shiver.

I would rather Jake is avenged by the blood that took his life or gave the order but I don’t bother voicing this out to father because it won’t make any difference now. I leave him with Jake’s body in the hall and head to the study to make the funeral arrangements. The sooner we lay my brother to rest, the better. Besides avoiding too many questions, we also can’t take him to the morgue because the cops might get to him and find the bullet wound, opening up a homicide investigation we can’t afford to have.

I work non stop until midnight before going to my room where I finally take off my blood stained wedding dress, crawl to my bed and cry myself to sleep.

My brother is really gone. In just few hours everything had changed. Even if I could still walk away because father is still alive to rule this empire, I just can’t leave him so shuttered. Our staff are also going to need me to calm him down because life is about to be hell in the mafia world.