~ISABELLA~
A FEW HOURS AGO... "What happened to that boyfriend of yours? I never see him come around anymore." Sarah asked during our shift at the club. Sarah had been working at the club for over a year while my father found the job for me 5 months ago so that I'd be able to help around in the house, and because of that, Tom Creed, my boyfriend, had been distant. "He's a douchebag that got cold balls when he saw me cleaning the floors the other night when he came with his friends," I rolled my eyes. "So, he stopped coming because you weren't working behind the counter anymore?" She exclaimed. "Can you believe it? I’m still surprised." "His father owns a bakery downtown. He could have at least got you a job there if he thought you were embarrassing him by working at a club.” “He’d rather watch me stay at home with nothing to do than help,” I huffed. “So selfish of him to turn around and be a control freak, yuck.” “I know…” My heart broke a little because I was in love with him. Everything was great between us until I got a job at the club. He started distancing himself from me as if I were a disease. When I tried to text or call him, he ignored me and never bothered to get back to me. So much for someone who said he was going to stick around through anything. While I was cleaning the floors, Sarah wiped the tables, and soon, we were done. It was already 8 PM, and people were starting to pour inside the club. The club only operated from 7 PM to 5 AM. So, when we were done cleaning for the opening, our manager would get us to serve people drinks or clean the boss' office until our shift was done. "Hey Isa, can you take care of the VIP tonight?" Bruise, the club manager queried. "Of course," I nodded and went to change my clothes in the changing room. When Sarah and I were given shifts to serve drinks, we had to dress up as the other waitresses and blend in. As much as I hated my job when it came to dressing up to encourage perverts of their perverted behavior, I had bills to pay, and my father didn't care what I had to do to make sure that I brought something to the table. So, I untied my hair and put on my tight and short jeans with a see-through crop top. I then looked at myself in the mirror and patted myself on the back to suck it up and get through this night like a big girl. When I was done, I put all my things in my locker, got my heels on, and then returned to the club. I went to the bar, got the most expensive bottle with four glasses, and went up to the VIP area. I already knew what they were going to order, and when I got there, I found the four friends in their usual seats with girls on their sides, except for one guy. "What do you have for us today, Bubbles?" "Romanèe Conti 1945," I put the bottle down with the glasses and avoided eye contact with him. "Do you mind pouring for us?" I lifted my head and looked at him, and when our eyes met, he smirked. There were a lot of rumors about Antonio Rodriguez, and the one that always sent shivers down my spine was that he once killed a man and held his beating heart in his hand until it stopped. "Of course." I smiled at him and took the bottle and opened it gently with the corkscrew. As I was busy opening the bottle, Antonio's eyes burned on my skin, but I didn't dare show that I was flushed. "Yay!" The girls who were there squealed when the bottle made a popping sound. I gently poured the wine into their glasses and laid the bottle down when I was done. "Thank you, Bubbles." He looked at me as he picked up his glass from the table and sipped. I took the tray and left. "That must have been nerve-wracking," Sarah whispered when we met downstairs. "What are you talking about?" "Antonio is the boss, remember?" "So?" We finally got to the counter and laid down our trays on the countertop. "Everyone working here tries to avoid him as much as possible. I can't imagine being near that man with a reputation such as his." "He likes staring at people's asses. There's nothing harmful in that." I rolled my eyes and spotted a table in the VIP that was starting to flood in with customers. "I have to go." "I'll be waiting for more scoop!" Sarah whispered behind me. To my lovely surprise, Tom was among the crew that just arrived in the VIP. He had a smirk on his face when he saw me approaching their table. And when I got to them, a girl got up from her chair and sat on his lap. I swallowed. "Welcome to Club Nightingale. What can I get you?" My throat was itching, and I felt a lump in my chest as I tried to keep the tears that were swelling up at the corners of my eyes when I realized that Tom had the guts to bring a girl with him after ghosting me for months. "Are you a stripper now?" He looked at my clothes, and his friends giggled. "Are you going to order anything?" I rolled my eyes. "You were a cleaner a while ago, and now this. Aren't you tired of embarrassing yourself, Isabella?" He pushed the girl off his lap, got up, and came towards me. "The name is Bubbles in here, asshole." I hissed. He scoffed. "Oh, so you’re a stripper now? I knew that you're nothing but a gold digger who seeks validation from men by dressing herself up like a hoe." He looked down at me. "I am working, Tom, so please, don't make my job difficult for me." "Did you look at yourself, Isabella? You're a hoe. A shameless fucking hoe. What do you think people think when they see you like this and remember that you're my girl?" I scoffed. "Your girl?" "Don't fucking patronize me, you and I are leaving this club this minute." He tried to grab my arm, but I yanked his hand off me. "Don't you dare touch me, Tom! You've been silent on me for months now and you think you can just say 'jump' and I'll ask how high? Leave me alone!” I snarled. "Don't try me, Isa -" "You heard the girl. Leave her alone." It seemed like time stood still when I heard that voice. "Or what are you going to do, huh, muscle man?" Tom approached him and pushed him. When Antonio's friends got to his side trying to defend him, he held up his hand and restrained them. "You think I'm scared of you? She is my girl, and I will talk with her however I want. Let's go, Bella." Tom tried to grab my arm again. But before he could take another step, Antonio punched him in the face, and he stumbled back and fell on top of the table. His friends got scared and ran away while the girl with him tried to help him up. "I'll take you home," Antonio took my hand. When we got inside his car outside the alley, I looked at him through the rear-view mirror as I sat in the back and couldn't believe what just happened. I didn't know if I had to be grateful that he rescued me or beg for the job that I clearly needed.~ANTONIO~ A FEW HOURS AGO... When I saw that lowlife humiliating my angel, I had to intervene. I couldn't stand there and watch as he talked down to her as if she was his object. I decided to take her home since I knew where she stayed. Her father and I were acquaintances. "Who is he to you?" "My ex-boyfriend." She answered. I looked at her through the rearview mirror and our eyes met. I felt a slight twitch and my dick threatened to erect. Her eyes were the most beautiful I had ever seen. She had blue eyes and black hair that made them stand out. "You will work in my office tomorrow." "Oh, doing what, Sir?" She asked, puzzled. "Tidying it up. I saw that it is a bit disorganized." I hoped that didn’t make it too obvious that I was trying to get her away from the crowd in case one of her ex-boyfriends showed up at the club again. "Alright, no problem." She responded. I looked at her one more time through the rearview mirror and thought of how much I wanted her.
~ANTONIO~ My mind was racing that night as I headed home. I could not believe that Isabella walked out on me and pretended as if she was the only girl who looked beautiful enough to get attention from me. She had the audacity to talk to me as if I had no power to pin her against the wall and make her beg for me. I wanted to teach her a lesson so that she would never think of herself as special enough to refuse when I decided to spare a minute of my life looking in her direction. My phone rang inside my pocket, and I quickly slipped it out and answered the call without looking at the caller ID. "Yes?" "Mr. Rodriguez, this is Andrea Albero. I don't know what my daughter did, but I'd like to apologize on her behalf, and I assure you that tomorrow she will be back at work." "Uh yes, Andrea Albero..." I pulled up on the side of the road with a mischievous grin. At that very moment, I knew just what to do and how to get Isabella to be mine. Oh, how I'd love to see the look
~ISABELLA~ I hated Antonio. His face repulsed me, and I wished to evaporate from the face of the earth so that I wouldn’t have to breathe the same air as him. He was a murderer, and I could never look at him differently. He always had an evil smirk on his face and looked like one of those guys who could strangle you in your sleep. There was no way that I was going to stay in the same house with him. I had to do something before I ended up as one of his many victims. When we got to his house, the pervert asshole led me inside and took me to a room that he said was mine until I got comfortable enough to share his bedroom with him, how dreamy of him. I just couldn’t help but wonder why he even wanted me. I was not even as hot as the girls that I saw him with at the club sometimes. He went out with model-sized women who wore nothing but tight skirts and dresses with 10-inch heels. They all looked like they were starving themselves with their snatched waists. So, who
~ANTONIO~ Nothing could describe the rage I felt when I saw Bella walk past me and Paul with a towel around her. Paul was my colleague and had no right to see my woman in a towel. The thought that he could have possibly had filthy thoughts when he saw her made me feel like taking out my gun and bursting out his brain. And when her towel fell while we were talking, it felt like a bomb thrown on my face. I had to kick Paul out of the house even though we were not done talking. And when I saw Bella’s magnificent body, I folded. I melted again like I did last night when that damn towel fell. If I had no self-control, I would have buried my face on her breasts and sucked them. She made me think of the many ways I could satisfy her. I wondered how she even tastes and how she moans. I couldn’t stop thinking of her legs curling up around me while I thrust deeper and slower inside her. “Go get dressed, I am taking you shopping,” I slipped out my phone from my pocket and calle
~ISABELLA~ The next day, while Antonio was out to work, I sneaked out of my room and asked Melo to drive me to the mall for shopping. He hesitated and wanted to call ‘his boss’ to explain to him that I wanted to go out and if he was allowed to drive me. “I am his wife, Melo, and I want to go out.” “Yes, ma’am.” He swallowed as he slipped his phone into his pocket and led me to one of Antonio’s cars, and we got in. He looked at me sternly before starting the engine and driving off. The truth was, I wanted to go home and see my father. For two nights now, since I was sold to Antonio, I couldn’t sleep without having nightmares of that night. I had so many questions for the man who I thought loved me unconditionally. When we got to my home street before the road to the mall, I stopped Melo from driving. “I need to go and see someone before you take me to town.” “But ma’am, this is the street to your house,” he looked puzzled as if I was never allowed to see my father
~ANTONIO~ “I’m sorry, man, I didn’t know that it was your territory! I will never do it again!” Giovanni begged for his life as he was chained to a pole inside my warehouse outside town. This was where I handled all my businesses and brought anyone who disrespected me to teach them a lesson. I have killed people and buried them all around the yard after they thought that they could stab me in the back and get away with it. This was all also where I killed the people who took my parents from me when I was just a boy. “How dare you sell restricted drugs in my area? Do you want the police behind my back, huh, Gio?!” I punched him so hard in the face that he spat out blood. He tried to regain his strength before answering me. “Dante sent me!” I chuckled and leaned back from him. “Dante Conti?” He looked at me with fear in his eyes. “Y-yes. He said that if I didn’t do it, he was going to kill my family. You know Antonio, it is just me, Luca, and my nana. I can’t lose that old
~ISABELLA~ No one said a word in the car to his house. I looked out of the window, feeling sorry for myself and just wishing that I had run away from home before all this happened. It was one thing to be forcefully married to someone and to be auctioned off to a notorious mafia lord like Antonio. He was my nightmare. Though I did not dare to show it. There was a reason why people feared him and never wanted to be close to him. There was a reason why he treated his girls like trash but was still able to get anyone he wanted. I did not want to find out all those reasons myself. I wanted out before I found myself entangled with him. "You won't go anywhere without my saying so, angel. Do you understand?" He hissed as he pinned me against the door after we got inside the house. I wanted to spit on his face and see what he was going to do about it because he did not own me like he thought he did. But no, I decided not to. It was too early for me to dig my own grave when I
~ISABELLA~ After pacing up and down, trying to calm myself down after I just signed my life away to Antonio, I took out my cell phone to call Sarah. I needed to vent, and she was the only person that I could talk to. Antonio had already left for the club or wherever, so he was not going to be around to stop me from doing what I just thought of. Sarah picked up the phone after the fourth ring. “Isabella? Can you hear me?!” She screamed from the noise that was in her background. She was already at the club and it was 8 PM. “Can you go outside? Please, Sarah.” There was a long pause before she came back on the line, and she sounded to be far from the noise. “Hey, where are you?” I went to the door, opened it, and peeked around to see if Melo wasn’t outside my door and it was clear. “I’m at Antonio’s place. Long story, but I’ll explain when I get to you.” “Oh fuck, what’s going on?” I quickly went to my closet and changed into jeans, a sweater, and sneakers. I was not