It’s 8:00 and dinner’s ready. My mother calls me down and me and my two older brothers get downstairs, my brothers play fighting as they go downstairs. “Watch out for Dionne, Patrick!” Anthony says. I walk downstairs, a plain expression on my face.
“Boys!” my father yells suddenly. I jump at how loud he gets. “Stop with the playing!” he yells again.
“Yes sir.” They both say, sitting at the table.
“Benjamin, calm down, they’re boys.” Says my mother.
“Watch your tongue.” Father spat back.
I sit at the table, not saying anything. My father, sitting at the head of the table, looks at me with his eyebrow up. “Dionne, where are your manners?” he says.
“Sorry father. Good evening. Good evening, mother.” I say, bowing my head to both of them.
“Why don’t you get up and get me a beer?” he says to me with an evil smirk on his face.
“Yes, father.” I say, respectfully.
I’m always used to this treatment. Sit back, be respectful, don’t put up a fuss, do what I’m told, and I’ll be fine. I recall the one time I talked back to my father and denied him. I still have bruises to this day. My mother’s a flower. She’s sweet and she’s nothing like my father. She’s what an ideal mother is and looks like. She’s beautiful and keeps up her image, that’s where I get it from. I don’t know how she got mixed up with my father and his anger, but through it all she manages to keep a smile on her face.
I go to the refrigerator and I open one of its large doors and I grab my father a beer. I return it to him with a bow and he scoffs and grabs my wrist as I walk off.
“You stupid girl! You didn’t bother to open it?” he screams at me.
“I apologize, father.” I say, fear starting to consume me.
“Benjamin let her go.” My mother says calmly.
‘Stay out of it, Amelia.” He retorts.
“I’ll open it for you, darling.” My mother offers.
He looks from me to my mother, and with a huff, Father lets me go and I hurriedly walk back to my seat at the table. I sit with my head down and I can feel my brothers’ sympathetic eyes on me, but I’m too embarrassed to look back.
When mother serves the food, Father picks up his knife and fork and cuts savagely into his steak, taking a huge bite out of it. I pick with my food as everyone else eats and my dad’s voice booms as he starts to speak to me.
“It’d be wise you eat. You’re already a thin, fragile looking thing.” He says, bursting into laughter.
Nobody else bothers to laugh.
“Speaking of you, I have an announcement.” He says.
I raise my head getting excited.
Usually when there’s an announcement, it’s usually about dad and something he accomplished but now, it’s for me. I wonder what it could be.
“Yes Father?” I say, trying to hide my excitement.
“I’ve spoken to another very powerful family in this mafia world and we’ve agreed on an arranged marriage.” He says, a maniacal smile on his face.
My face turns pale as I process his words.
Anthony stands up and slams his hands on the table.
“What?!” he yells. “You’re giving her away?” he screams again.
“Lower your voice when you speak to me, boy!” Father yells, causing Anthony to scoff and aggressively sit back in his seat.
Patrick stares over at me, sadness and anger written all over his face.
“I don’t get a say in this?” I ask, tears filling my eyes.
“No. You don’t. I’m glad to see you go anyway. It’s one less mouth to feed and one less face to see.” He says sipping his beer.
“Why didn’t I ever hear of this, Benjamin?” my mom asks.
“Because you’d try to stop it. I’ve no time to deal with Xavier and his family.”
I freeze, the hairs on my neck standing up.
The Xavier Foster?
The ruthless, merciless, most notorious and feared mafia king out there?
No … No there’s no way.
“M-May I be excused?” I ask my father, as I tremble, tears starting to fall down my face.
“Go on.” He says, shooing me away.
I quickly walk upstairs to my room and I close my door, then the tears start to flow.
My dad’s giving me away to the coldest person in the world and he doesn’t even care. I can’t say I expected different of him. I always knew this day would come, but I never imagined marrying a ruthless, vile person such as Xavier Foster. My door opens and my brother, Patrick, walks in and sits on my bed, where I am.
“Dionne, I’m so sorry.” He says, hugging me.
“I wish things could be different.”
“Me too. I don’t want to leave.” I say, sobbing on his shoulder.
The door bursts open and there stands my father.
“Dionne.” He says.
“Father.” I say, quickly wiping my eyes.
“The meeting of your new husband will be on tomorrow. Be ready. We mustn’t be late.” He says, then he slams my door, making me jump.
After Patrick leaves, and dinner is done, my father demands that I do the dishes, so I walk downstairs and I meet my mother at the sink.
“You didn’t have to come down, sweetheart.” Says mother, sweetly.
“You know what Father would’ve done if I hadn’t.” I say, joking it off.
“If I had known, I wouldn’t have gone for it, Dionne. But I don’t have a choice. The meeting is only tomorrow.” She says.
“I can’t really back out either, can I?” I ask.
“I’m sorry, but you can’t honey.” She says, washing a plate.
“I knew your brothers would be upset if they’d found out you were leaving them. That’s why I never wanted to break an arranged marriage to them that way.” She says softly.
“I get it. I’ll talk to Anthony.” I say.
“Go on. I’ll tell your father you finished your chores.”
“Thanks, Mother.” I say, leaving a kiss on her cheek.
I leave to go upstairs to Anthony’s room, and he’s throwing things, yelling.
“Anthony?” I say, quietly.
He looks back at me, breathing heavily with anger in his eyes.
“Come in.” he says, coming to close the door behind me.
I walk in and he walks behind me, pacing.
“He can’t do this to you. You’re still a baby. You’ve got your whole life ahead of you, Dionne.” He says, careful not to let Father hear him.
“I know, Anthony, but I’m 19. It was going to happen anyway.”
“So you’re okay with this?”
“I have to be. The meeting’s tomorrow, there’s nothing I can do.”
“Only tomorrow? He’s fucking sick.” Anthony says.
There’s a soft knock on the door and Mother opens the door.
“It’s time for your beauty rest darling. Do your skincare routine before you go to bed.” She says, a smile on her face.
“Yes mother.” I say, bowing.
“Oh stop it. You only need do it when your father’s around.” She says quietly, careful not to let him hear.
“Goodnight Anthony.” I say.
“Yeah. Goodnight.” He says, still fuming.
I’m meeting my new husband tomorrow.
Tomorrow, the day I’m dreading.
It won’t be the first time I’ve dreaded tomorrow, and granted what’s happening right now, I doubt it’ll be the last.
Well, here goes. The day I was dreading. And it only took 24 hours. I’ve got my dress on and we’re standing at the door, waiting for Mother and Father. “You look beautiful, Dionne.” Patrick whispers. “Thank you. You look nice.” I say. My father comes downstairs and all three of us stand up straight, acknowledging his presence. Stand up straight when I enter the room. It’s called respect. Is what he’d say. When he stands in front of me, he scoffs. “At least he’ll think you’re attractive. Maybe.” “You look wonderful, honey.” My mom comments. “Thanks Mother.” I say, bowing my head. “Let’s go. Hurry on, we don’t have all night.” Father rushes us. A car and a limousine pulls up and I stand, confused. “What’s that for?” I ask, gesturing to the car. “You’ll get a car. Me, your mother, and your brothers will have the limousine.” My father says, maliciously. “Darling, she’s supposed to have a-“ “I know Amelia. Problem is, she doesn’t deserve a limousine. Get in I don’t have time
After dinner, I go to my bedroom and I lie down. I can hear Xavier yelling from upstairs. He’s yelling so loud, I can make out every word he’s saying. “You’re the one who wanted this, not me!” “Yeah? Well she’s MY fiancé. I don’t give a shit!” “Fuck off!” “She’s not yours, she’s not yours, and she’s not anyone else’s, MINE, and I can do whatever the hell I please!” And it keeps going from there. I cover my ears with a pillow to lessen the sound of his constant screaming and it worked like a charm. The next morning, I wake up to the sound of someone calling my name. I know that voice all too well. “Dionne, wake up.” Xavier says, sounding pissed. I sit up and I rub my eyes softly. “What’s going on? What time is it?” I ask “Get up and get dressed. I’m taking you to school.” He says. My eyes widen in surprise. Last year, I finished high school, I got accepted into a university, but I couldn’t go because my father wouldn’t allow it. He said college was for girls who had brains a
The first couple of minutes is Xavier cursing and mumbling under his breath. He sighs and looks over to me. “What happened?” he asks, still pissed. “I don’t know,” I reply. “I was waiting for you outside and then that guy bumped into me and started touching me everywhere.” I say reluctantly. He doesn’t say anything, he just keeps his eyes on the road, but I can see the anger building up inside him. He raises his fist and I could swear I made a whimpering sound. I turn away and I look at the window as Xavier gets quiet. “Dionne.” He says, his cold, hard mask still intact. I look at him, not saying anything, and he shifts in his seat, well aware of why I reacted that way. “Who did it?” he asks. I look down at my hands and I don’t reply. “Was it those assholes at the university?” he asks, genuinely concerned. “Dionne?” he says, his fingers brushing against my arm. I jump at his contact and suddenly a tear falls from my eyes. “God.” He says as I begin to cry. I can tell he’s not used
The next morning, I wake up to Xavier shaking me awake. "Dionne, wake up. You need to get ready." he says, sounding slightly annoyed. Not angry, like he used to be. I guess that's something good. "Okay, okay, I'm getting up." I say, stretching. "I'll be at your school earlier today. School ends at, what, 4:15?" he asks, looking down at his ring-filled hands. "Yeah." I say. "I'll be there by then. Now get up, unless you don't want breakfast before you leave." he says, sliding out of my room. "Thank you." I yell after him, getting up to go get in the shower. When I get out of the shower, I smell the beautiful aroma of bacon and sausage cooking. I get dressed and I put some perfume on, then I get downstairs while putting on my shoe. I must've stepped wrong because when I put my foot down, I slipped and twisted my ankle. I would've hit the ground, but someone was holding me up. I look up and I see Xavier with concern in his eyes. It quickly fades into seriousness as he picks me up.
Days later, my ankle's healed up pretty well. Me and Xavier have gotten closer, not too much, as he's not very open about his feelings, but it's progress. Walking through the university, me and Charlotte finally sit and eat lunch together. "So tell me, how's it going with Brady?" Charlotte asks. "God, nothing, Charlotte! We're just friends-" "Blah blah blah. Don't give me that shit, 'just friends' my ass." she says playfully. "It's not shit! I told you, I'm seeing someone." I say, eating the grapes I packed this morning. "Yeah? So where is this guy? Does he go here? Does he live around here, is he close?" she questions. "I'm not telling you anything Charlotte!" I say, nudging her arm. "I'm not gonna believe you until I see him for myself." "You're insistent." I say, palming my forehead. "You could've saw him the other day. He was here. He's the one who broke Josh's nose." I say. "He's the one who did that? Everyone said he knocked him out off one punch. If he can do that, imag
So this is it. I’m going on a date with Xavier. I can’t say I expected this, but I guess it was bound to happen. I’ve already picked out a dress and shoes to wear but I’m nervous about tonight, for what reason? … I don’t really know. I think I’m just overreacting. I shake the worry from my mind and I start to get dressed. I decide to put on a tight red dress and red heels with a ribbon that I have to tie at the back. When I’m ready, I fix my hair and I go downstairs where I find Xavier waiting by the door for me. “Look at you.” He says. “You don’t look too bad yourself.” I comment. He walks up to me and grabs my hands. His hands are big yet soft against mine. He rubs my hand with his thumb and then slips them from mine. “Could you tie these?” I ask, turning around, leaning on the wall for support. He gets down to tie the ribbons around my ankles. When he rises, he looks me up and down and turns toward the door to get on his phone. Minutes later, he guides me to the car and helps
Xavier’s POV: The next morning, I wake up and the first thing I do is put on my suit. I need to attend a few meetings today. Money’s on the line. I walk downstairs and my father stops me from going any further than the living room. “Father.” I say. “Xavier.” He responds. He’s never called me his son. Ever. I still try to respect him though. That’s how my mother raised me. ‘Where’s that girl?” “Are you serious?” I say, squinting in annoyed confusion. “I’ve done nothing wrong.” He says, looking confused. “You may be the type of man to disrespect women and do whatever it is that you do with them, but my wife won’t be one of them. As long as I’m with her, you’re gonna learn to respect her, or I’ll make you, and that’s a promise. I don’t care how I have to do it, and you know I don’t. I’ve never disrespected you a day in my life, but when you disrespect her, you disrespect me, which means I disrespect you, I just want to make that clear.” I say, finally walking off and walking out t
Dionne’s POV: I finish getting dressed and I step out of my room only to hear something in Xavier’s room. As I walk toward the staircase, he opens his door and walks out. He obviously doesn’t see me when he walks by, so I walk by his room door and I see one of the maids getting dressed and she can barely stay on her feet. I scoff and I go downstairs and meet him. “Let’s go.” He says as I walk by him. He shuts the door behind us and we walk to the car. When I get in the car, the guard holding the door open closes it. The other guard on Xavier’s side closes his door and the driver pulls off. I cross my arms and I start a conversation. “I thought you said you didn’t have a chauffeur.” I say, trying to hide my anger. “I do. I just don’t use him all the time.” He says, scrolling through his phone. I stay quiet but the constant anger picking at my brain gets the best of me. “Did you fuck her? You smell like cheap perfume and sex.” I say, already knowing the answer. He closes the slid