~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 was I to compare with them when I was short, with little thick hips and stomach rolls when sitting down? “Melo will be outside the door in case you need anything, love.” “I will get myself out of here before you even get a chance to touch a strand of hair on my head,” I hissed. He looked amused as he walked towards me. He towered over my 5 foot 2 inches frame with his 6 foot 3 inches height and I swallowed. “Your hair is very lovely, angel.” He pulled a few strands behind my ear and caressed them. I couldn’t believe his gut. He just did that to prove a point. Gosh, I hated him. I hated him so much that I felt like punching him in the face. “Get your dirty hand off me,” I yanked his hand off me and leaned backward. Whatever plan that I was going to come up with to get away from him, had to work fast. It was impossible that he and I were going to tolerate each other for more than a week. “We both had a long night, love, get yourself cleaned up. The house chef will come and bring you your dinner if you haven’t had any.” “I don’t want your food, and I don’t want to be here.” “You are mine, Bella. This is where you now belong.” “I will never be yours. Over my dead body.” I snarled. “Suit yourself, love. I will be in my bedroom if you need me. It’s opposite yours, by the way,” he winked at me before he walked out of my room and closed the door behind him. And then it started to sink in that my father, the one who was supposed to love and protect me as his daughter, sold me off to a monster. I stumbled on the bed and cried as I sat down. My father was many things, but I never thought that one day he’d sell me for money. It would have been better if he was a man enough and killed me the day my mother gave birth to me. But hell no, I was not going to stay in this room and feel sorry for myself. I quickly straightened up and wiped the tears off my face because I am a bad bitch. And bad bitches don’t whine like little girls. Instead, I was going to grab the elephant by its horns and show it what I was made of. I was going to make sure that Antonio regrets ever thinking that he could get me on his bed by paying millions of dollars to my father. I was far worth more than that. So, I got my ass off the bed and went to take a shower in the bathroom. When I was done, I went to the closet and found a towel, I took it and wrapped it around me. And the next thing I did was to head out to Antonio’s room. When I got outside his door, I knocked on the door once and waited for him to open the door. “That was fast,” he smirked when he saw me. He had no shirt on, and for a millisecond, I thought he looked hot with those tattoos on his chest and scars… One of the scars that caught my attention was the one that was under his left nipple. I wondered if he once came near a death point but survived miraculously. I cleared my throat and looked up at him. “I don’t have clothes.” “Oh yes. Don’t worry, my PA will take you shopping tomorrow,” he answered with an unreadable expression on his face. “I mean, if I were home, there wouldn’t be any need for a new wardrobe, would there?” “Bella -” He frowned, but I quickly cut him off. “Oh, don’t worry. I will stop by at home tomorrow to get myself some clothes before you spend more money on my head,” I gave him my most famous fake smile and dropped my towel on the floor. “Oops, my bad. Anyway, good night.” I picked it up, wrapped it, and headed back to my room. “You better not tell me that you saw her butt cheeks, Melo.” He threatened him as I closed the door behind me. “No, Sir. I didn’t see a thing.” “That’s better be right, and make sure that she never leaves her room until morning, do you understand?” “Yes, Sir.” Antonio slammed his door shut and I released a happy squeal. Perhaps he was not as scary and untouchable as people told me he was. I was going to be his nightmare. I would be damned if I was going to stay here with him for another week as his auctioned wife. If he wanted me on his bed, he was going to get me on his bed when I was dead. In the morning, I woke up, yawned, got off my bed, and went to the bathroom. I brushed my teeth, took a shower, and then wrapped the towel around me, and headed out to get something to eat. When I got downstairs, I found Antonio talking with someone. They were muttering to each other. I figured out it was one of the guys he went out murdering people and holding their hearts in his hand with. “Good morning, gentlemen.” I greeted them as I made my way to the kitchen. I was not going to starve myself and wait for the ‘house chef’ to serve me. I had no idea where his kitchen was, but I had all the time in the world to find it. If I was going to keep myself locked up in that room, he was going to think that I feared him, and I didn’t want him to think that. He had to think that I didn’t shake in my boots in his presence like everybody else. That way, I was going to make sure that I got out of there sooner because it was clear that the pervert wanted someone to control and do whatever he wanted. Antonio simply lost it when he saw me. “What the fuck are you doing down here with no clothes on, Bella?” He fumed with rage as he rushed towards me and grabbed my arm. His grip was so tight I gasped. “Let me go, you pervert!” I snatched his hand off my arm, and when my towel fell, Antonio shielded me as if I was under attack. “Get out, Paul, before I shoot you dead right now!” He yelled at the man he was talking with. “Yes, Sir. My apologies…” The poor guy stumbled as he tried to get his things on the couch. I stood there and rolled my eyes. “Out!” Paul was out of the door before Antonio could blink again. He quickly picked up my towel on the floor and covered me with it. “I will take you shopping.”~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
~ISABELLA~ When we arrived outside the alley behind the club, I got out of Sarah's car and got dressed in the short, black dress that I bought when Antonio took me shopping. I also put on the stilettos that I brought with me, loosened my hair, and allowed it to flow over my shoulders. I took the little make-up mirror that I brought with me and applied lipstick on my lips. I was so proud of myself as I took the face mask that Sarah and I got from a bouncer in the club. He was close to her. "Are you sure that he won't see you, Bella? This is very risky," Sarah raised her concerns as she got dressed into her club clothes. I turned to her after I was done fixing my face mask, "Relax, he won't even smell me anywhere," I smiled at her. "If he sees you, I wasn't involved, okay?" "Sarah!" I placed my hand on my waist and chuckled. "I still need this job, and I don't want to die yet," she locked the car doors, and we headed toward the back door. "He won't do anything to you a
~ANTONIO~ "Giovanni, how did it go?" I finally checked up on him after he revealed to me that Dante was after me. If he had no idea that I knew what he was up to and had hired someone to mess up around my territory, he was going to let his guard down and give me enough time to formulate a plan to strike. One thing about my line of business was that you always had to look after your back. Anyone could be your enemy with their own agendas or just be people working for your enemy who want to take you down. You always had to know the game and the rules. "He did not suspect anything. He gave me another task to be a spy around your area and find any weaknesses that he can use against you." "Oh, I see. It is very brave of him to think that he can take me down. Very well then, I want you to tell him about a fake delivery that I will be doing tomorrow at 2 PM in Columbus." "Cocaine delivery?" Giovanni asked. "Yes, Gio. A cocaine delivery. Call me if you think that he is enthusi
~ISABELLA~ I felt so sick when I realized that Antonio was the same guy that I was happily dancing and chatting with earlier, and the same guy that I had a very steamy encounter with in the restroom. I couldn't believe it. "Antonio... How?" Was all that I could utter. I was so shocked and thought that maybe I was going to wake up from a dream. It couldn't be that I had just had sex with my mortal enemy. The same man that I could never stand and promised that he would never get me. I was shocked. "I'm surprised that you still don't know the sound of my voice. Come on, angel, let's go home," he held out his hand for me to take. I looked at him and knew that I wouldn’t be able to go home with him, let alone sleep under the same roof as him. I wondered why it was so easy for me to like him when I couldn't see his face. For a moment, I missed the guy I bumped into and thought that he could be my escape for the night. I missed something that was never there. "I'm not