Four weeks went by naturally, and it was finally Rome and Catherine's wedding day.
As Rome stood before the mirror, staring at his reflection, he felt like the past weeks had been the worst days of his life.
The Barlow family had turned him into their personal slave and had belittled him so much that even the servant had control over him. As Rome stared at his reflection, thinking about the hard labor he had done for them, he balled his hand into a fist and swung it at the mirror, stopping his punch only an inch away from the glass. “I can't break my promise to my father,” Rome mumbled, staring at his veins bulging on his neck. Suddenly his room door opened, and Charles walked inside. When his gaze met with Rome's angry eyes, he smirked and shut the door behind him before walking towards Rome. “This old thing suits you,” Charles said, pulling the tail of Rome’s coat. “What do you want?” Rome mumbled with anger burning deep within his eyes. “Is that how you talk to the one who gives you what you are wearing? If it wasn't for me, you would be walking down the aisle in a boxer.” “I worked for what I am wearing.” “Do you know how much I spent when I bought this suit? You being my driver for a few weeks isn't equivalent to the price of this suit!” The room fell silent as Rome tightened his fist and held in his breath. Then he slowly exhaled to relieve the tension building up in him. “Why are you here?” Rome calmly asked. “The wedding is about to start,” Charles replied. Without saying a word, Rome walked out and slammed the door. “Putting up an attitude? I will let you be for now since grandfather told us not to do anything to cause shame to the family name. But once we get home, you will feel my wrath.” Charles mumbled. The moment Rome walked into the wedding venue, the mumbling started. “Isn't he the scoundrel whose father tricked Mr.Barlow into marrying his granddaughter to him?” “Yeah, he and his father are both thieves and shameless.” “Such a gold digger. Doesn't he feel disgusted in himself?” These words echoed into Rome's ears as he walked down the aisle. But he kept walking, squeezing his fists every step he took. A few minutes after Rome had arrived at the wedding arch, the door opened, and Catherine walked in, and as she marched down the aisle, he could feel his anger slowly melting. ‘She is beautiful.’ Rome thought with a half-smile. Once Catherine had joined him at the aisle, the ceremony began. Everything went on peacefully for a moment, but when Rome and Catherine said, “I do,” the door suddenly flew open, and Orlando and his gang marched into the hall. A loud noise roused among the guests, and everyone was in total shock except Rome. “Mr. Ford needs a word with the groom,” Orlando shouted with his hands resting on his waist. Madam Rosey turned to her husband, squeezed his hand, and cried, “Honey, what have we done. It seems like Mr. Ford has a problem with Rome. We can not afford to offend Mr. Ford.” “What do you expect from me, woman? They are already a married couple.” Mr. Barlow mumbled, feeling sweat dripping down his forehead. Fear ceased everyone in their seats as they stared at Rome. But he was not bothered a bit about Orlando and his men. “What have you done?” Catherine asked, sounding annoyed. “I'll be back,” Rome said. Then he gazed away from her and walked to Orlando and his men. “You have guts using the Barlow family as a shield. Why did you belittle my boss with such a nonsense act? Now he is mad, and he wants a word with you.” Orlando said, smirking with a murderous gaze. “Stop chirping like some dumb bird and lead the way.” Rome casually said. “You brat! Are you counting death!” “You can either stop talking and take me to see your boss, or you can leave here and allow me to get married in peace.” The rage in Orlando's eyes burned, yet he didn't act on it. Instead, he forcefully locked Rome's hands behind his back and carried him out with his men following closely behind the both of them. When they got to a parking lot, Orlando shoved Rome into the backseat of a black car. Then he got in and shut the door. As the driver pulled off with the car and a bunch of black cars followed closely behind their vehicle, the feeling of worry was far from Rome’s heart, but what he felt was pure rage and excitement. A few minutes later, the cars came to a stop, and Orlando got out. Then Rome willingly stepped out of the vehicle. When Orlando and his men led him into a warehouse, Rome's sight rested on a man as he stood in the dark, a faraway distance from them. “The boss is watching. Make him suffer.” Orlando abruptly said. Within a split second, Rome saw a punch heading in his direction, but he used his palm to block the hit.Then his fingers clutched onto the guy's fist, and he popped the wrist bones from their joints.
Then he balled his fingers into a fist and drove them towards the guy's cheek, slamming it against his jaw and breaking three teeth. Suddenly every one of Orlando's men came rushing towards Rome, and in less than ten minutes, the warehouse was noisy with the echoes of grown men's cries. “Thank you for helping me let out the rage that I have been holding in for four weeks. Ah, this is nice.” Rome said, taking in a deep breath with a smirk on his lips. “Rome?” He heard a voice call out of the dark, and immediately an agonizing pain ripped through his head while he screamed out the pain. “Run, Rome! Run, and don’t look back!”Those words became to echo loud in his ears as the pain grew intense.
“Who are you!” Rome screamed, falling to his knees. Everything slowly became blurry in his eyes as flashes of images crossed his mind. “Show yourself!” Rome mumbled. But in a matter of seconds, he dropped to the floor and lost consciousness.When Rome regained consciousness, he kept his eyes closed for a minute and waited for the headache to subside before raising his eyelids. “Where am I?” Rome mumbled, staring around the room, then his sight rested on an elderly-looking man with smoky-grey hair and a whitegoatee. With calmness in his eyes, he smiled at Rome and said, “You are at myhouse.I'm Mr.Ford by theway.” “Mr… Fo-rd. I…” “It's okay, kid. You don't have to fearme.” Doubt clouded Rome’s f
The car was silent as Orlando drove Rome back to the Barlow mansion.A few distances away from the fence, Rome tapped Orlando on his shoulder, and he jumped in fear.“How can I help you, young master?” Orlando shouted, hunching his shoulders.“Stop me here,” Rome mumbled, leaning back on his seat.Without any hesitation, Orlando stepped on the brake and turned the car off.When Rome got down, Orlando pushed the car door open and rushed out. Then he got down on both knees and rested his forehead against the ground.“Young master, forgive me. I was stupid for attacking you in the past. This humble servant needs to be punished!” Orlando cried out loud.“Punch me and we can call it even,” Rome said, staring down at him.When Orlando lifted his head and saw in Rome's expression that he wasn't kidding, he felt even more afraid.“Young master, I can never lay a hand on you.
Early that morning as the Barlow family sat at the dining table, having breakfast, Roland remained standing likealways.He wasn't allowed to eat with them since Madame Rosey considered him to be a worthless son-in-law that didn't deserve to eat expensive meals that he had not workfor.“Catherine,” Mr. Barlow said, gently laying his fork down on the plate.“Yes, grandfather,” Catherine mumbled, looking away from her food and focusing on hiseyes.“Take your husband to the company and find something useful for him todo.It will diminish the Barlow family reputation if people find out that your husband is nothing but a househelp.”“Yes,g
Although Rome wanted to walk over to Catherine, he remained in his seat and patiently waited without taking his sight off her.After crying in silence for a while, she wiped her face, grabbed her purse, and approached Rome.“Let's go,” Catherine said, softly sniffing."Are we not waiting for Mr. Jeffrey?" Rome asked, staring into her watery eyes.“No,”“What about the contract?”“I didn't get it, okay! Can we just go home?”Inside, Rome felt annoyed that Catherine was hurting, but he kept a calm expression and slightly nodded his head.Then he left his seat and both of them walked out of the hotel.When they got to the car, Rome offered to drive, and even though Catherine felt skeptical, she allowed him to.They drove in silence the entire ride, and when they finally reached the Barlow mansion and the car came to a stopped, Catherine suddenly covered her face w
The morning breeze blew the leaves of the sidewalk as Blake walked to the bus stop. The moment he sat down on the bench, three black Limousines drove towards the bus stop and stopped in front of him. Then Mr. Orlando got out of one of the first cars and approached him. “You are Blake, right?” He asked, sitting down on the bench. “Yes, is there a problem? Did I offend Mr. Ford?” Blake mumbled, hugging his bag tightly. “Why would you think that?” “Because there are rumors that say, ‘if Mr. Orlando visits you then you are in trouble with Mr. Ford.” “Well, that's true. But I am not here because of my master.” “Huh?” The color drained from his face as he stared wide-eyed at Mr. Orlando and saw that he had a smirk on his lips. “My young master wants a word with you.” Mr. Orlando said, with a straight face. “Who? Mr. Ford has a son?” Blake asked, sounding more afraid than shocked. “Y
When Mr. Orlando, Blake, and Rome arrived at Mr. Jeffrey's office, his secretary gazed away from the computer and stared at them with an unbothered expression.“Mr. Jeffrey is busy. So expect you have an appointment, you guys should come another time.” He said, placing his focus back on the keyboard.Anger settled on Mr. Orlando's face, but when he gazed at Rome calm expression, he knew not to act without an order for his young master, so he kept silent.“Hi, I know we don't have an appointment with Mr. Jeffrey, but I have something urgent to tell him. So can you inform him that Lady Catherine's husband is here to see him?” Rome said with a half-smile.“Seriously, I'm not going to repeat myself. So you guys should leave.” The secretary said, typing aggressively on the keyboard without staring at Rome.A soft sigh escaped Rome's lips as he gazed at Mr. Orlando and slightly nodded his head.“Excuse me,
The evening at the Barlow mansion was calm, but there was so much tension around the table as the family sat down for dinner.“Grandpa,” Catherine said, barely able to contain her excitement.“What is so important that you can't wait for dinner to be over? Can't you see that father is eating?” Dana, Chloe's mother said, glaring at Catherine.Gazing at Dana and her daughter, Rome faintly smiled when he saw the rage in their expression.It was clear to him that Mr. Jeffrey had turned Chloe down and given the contract back to his wife.“I just wanted to tell grandfather that Mr. Jeffrey came to my office today, and we signed the contract for the five million dollars projects,” Catherine mumbled, sighing softly.The fork fell from Mr. Barlow's hand and he gazed at his granddaughter, smiling with his eyes.“But how? He sounded so mad yesterday when he called me.” Mr. Barlow mumbled.&l
Two months went by naturally and during that time, Rome had watched Catherine's cousins avoid her, treating her like an outsider just as their parents did to her.But she found a new friendship with him, and both of them became a bit closer than before.Although they were far from acting like a married couple, she felt a bit at ease around him and that was more than he could ask for.That morning when Rome rolled over in bed, his hand touched Catherine's arm, and he slowly raised his eyelids and stared at her.‘I can't believe we've been sleeping in the same bed for a week now. All thanks to that cold I caught last week.’ Rome thought, staring at her long lashes.Suddenly, Catherine's eyes opened, and they stared at each other for a while. Then she got out of bed without saying a word to him.“Good morning, wife,” Rome shouted, staring at her back.Without replying, Catherine rushed into the bathroom and