Unwanted Marriage with the Mafia Boss (Mob Boss’s Unexpected Twins Duet #1)

22. Chiara

CHAPTER 22

Chiara

“I need you to do something for me,” Adriano says with a smile on his face as soon as I take a seat at the table in the dining room.

There’s no food on the table this time, just an empty bucket next to my chair. What the hell is going on?

“Do what?” I ask.

“There’s an event where all important businessmen will be. I need you to come with me, as my wife.”

“What?” I gape at him.

Is he serious right now? I don’t even know how he can say we’re married because the papers I signed can’t be legal. And now he wants to parade me in public as his wife?

“No.” I cross my arms. “I’m not your wife, so I won’t do that.”

“You should be glad I’m offering you this chance. Take it as a sign of my goodwill. I’m going to let you go once I have what I want. My wife disappearing would cause me some complications. Of course, I’d deal with those if you decided not to do what I asked of you, but I’m sure you and your parents will be more reasonable in the future.”

I don’t trust him. If everyone really starts thinking I’m his wife, he’ll want to keep me with him.

“No,” I repeat.

He sighs. “I thought we could do this the nice way, but I guess not.”

I watch him carefully as he pulls his phone out. After tapping the screen, he turns it to me.

“I have your parents,” he says.

I gasp. My mom and dad are huddled on the floor and chained up. Before I can see anything else, he pulls his hand back and lowers his phone onto the table. A moment later, he places something wrapped in a handkerchief on the table.

“If you don’t come with me and do exactly as I say...” He opens the handkerchief.

I cry out, nausea rising at the back of my throat. It’s a severed, bloody finger with my dad’s ring on it.

“Your parents will lose more parts.” Adriano grins at me.

I grab the bucket as my stomach heaves. Adriano snatches the handkerchief with the finger as I spill all the contents of my stomach into the bucket.

He’s a monster. I should never forget that. He’ll get what he wants, no matter what we do.

“If you still decide to be useless to me or try anything, I’ll just find someone that looks like you. It would be a lot of trouble, but I’ll get what I want even if I have to kill all your relatives and all your friends and forge a billion documents,” he says.

I glare at him. He’s a psychopath. Crazy. Sick. Selfish. And there’s no way to win against him. He’s always going to come up with something to force our hand or he’s just going to kill us all.

“Okay,” I whisper.

I don’t have a choice. I’ll have to do as he asks and hope he’ll let my parents and me live. There’s a slim chance he’ll do that, but maybe he keeps his word. Maybe, and only if the alternative really inconveniences him.

“One wrong move at the party, and your mom dies. Got it?”

“Yes.” I glare at him.

It will be so strange to go out there in the public again. Be so close to freedom but not be able to do anything. And letting everyone see me as Adriano’s wife...

I don’t know how I’ll keep the disgust off my face. He’s probably just toying with us for his own amusement. Even if he lets us go, we’ll have nothing. My home will be gone. My neighborhood destroyed. And this asshole is going to look at it all and laugh.

I grit my teeth. I hate him so damn much. Another wave of nausea overcomes me, and I throw up some more bile.

“I’ll get you some tea to settle your stomach,” Adriano says, getting up to his feet as if nothing has just happened. “Don’t go anywhere.”

I stare at him. Is he now going to pretend he gives a damn about how I feel? After he just... The thought of it makes my stomach twist into a knot again.

I don’t know how I’ll get that image out of my mind. It’ll probably haunt me forever in my nightmares, provided that Adriano doesn’t simply kill me when this is over.

Where is he keeping my parents? Are they somewhere here? In the same building? Or somewhere else? I doubt he’s going to tell me. I wish I could be with them and hug them.

Everything about this is so unfair, but there’s no fairness in this world. People like Adriano profit from other people’s suffering and pain, and they don’t give a damn about anything or anyone else.

Resisting is useless because he’ll find another way, and it’ll be something we’ll like even less. If only we’d known. We would’ve had to give up our home, but at least we’d be together and safe.

Now I don’t know what will happen to us, and it’s driving me crazy. There’s nothing I can do, especially now. I’d never do anything to put my parents’ lives at risk. I’ll have to hope we’ll be lucky enough to be reunited and that we can survive what’s coming.

Adriano places a cup of tea in front of me, and I set the bucket back on the floor. Did he really just make me tea? I guess the business party he’s planning to take me to is very important to him because I can’t imagine him worrying about my well-being otherwise.

“You do realize everyone I know will be shocked I got married without telling them anything, right?” I say, just because I don’t want him to go after my friends and relatives if his plan fails.

“I have your phone.” The corners of his lips quirk up. “Everyone you know is already aware you met your soulmate, but because of everything that’s been going on, you and I wanted to have our own private ceremony. And you’re too busy right now and will tell them everything once you see them. You and I were dating for a while, but you couldn’t say a thing because... Well, you didn’t want our relationship all over the news.”

“My uncle will never believe it.” I need a confirmation that he’s alive.

Adriano got to my parents, but I don’t know any details.

“He already does, because your father told him himself. Your parents were at our wedding, of course.” Adriano grins. “That’s why they... disappeared.”

I grind my teeth together. Adriano will think of everything, won’t he?

“And your father and your brother?” I bite out. “Were they there too?”

His face turns serious. “They were unfortunately busy.”

“Right. And where was our wedding?” I take a sip of the tea.

“I’ll have Rocco print out all the details that you’ll have to learn if anyone asks.”

“Of course,” I mutter under my breath.

“He’ll also bring you twenty different dresses and you’ll have to pick one.”

My eyebrows shoot up. Twenty dresses?

“Why not just choose one for me? Let’s not pretend I have any choices here. You decide everything.”

“I thought it would keep your mind off things a little. And I need you to be comfortable. Can’t have you messing with your dress all evening. You’ll only know which one is the best fit once you try out the ones you like the most. I’ll make sure my tie matches the color of the dress you choose. But if you need suggestions, I can give you some.”

He’s impossibly frustrating. Going from total psycho to wannabe fashion designer husband in two seconds.

“Can you do your own makeup or should I call one of my makeup artists?” he asks.

“You have your own makeup artist?”

“She’s the wife of one of my men, and she does makeup for special missions. Sometimes you have to pretend to be someone else or look exceptionally good. She’s great at all that.”

“I’ll do it on my own.”

Adriano’s people won’t help me, and I don’t like heavy makeup anyway. But he really does have a huge network of people working for him, probably in all kinds of professions. Even if my family and I tried going to the cops, he’d have his guy there too. No wonder he’s so sure he can get whatever he wants.

“All right, but if you change your mind, she’s only a call away.” He flashes me a smile.

I wish I could tell him what I really think about this whole marriage charade, but I need to bite my tongue for my parents’ sake.

“You should get some rest,” Adriano says. “We all need to be ready for the big night.”