EIGHT YEARS AGO...
Nonna was in a hurry to church. A friend's husband had died, and nonna was needed there to console her. Whoever this 'friend' was, seemed very close to nonna, although she never mentioned this 'friend' before.
As she followed nonna to a small hill leading to the church, Lily's eyes wandered around, not really caring. That's when she spotted a tall young and magnetically handsome man leaning against a black SUV parked in the steep driveway, with a lit cigarette between his fingers. He was looking up at the church as if he was waiting for someone.
Lily had not intended to stare, but her eyes kept glued upon the man as she walked, and she tripped over a rock.
"Lily!" Nonna turned around. "Careful, it's slippery up here"
"I'm fine," Lily murmured. When she looked back at the man, her heart almost leaped. His gaze was now on her. She looked away immediately, flushed for no reason.
"Bella!" She heard a plump old woman around nonna's age practically running down from the church.
"Elena..." Both of the old ladies pulled each other into a brief embrace before releasing each other. They looked as if they were two long-lost sisters who finally reunited after decades of separation.
"I'm sorry about your husband..." Nonna said in a sad voice.
Elena shook her head. "Don't blame yourself for the stupidity of our men!'
Nonna looked at her guiltily, and Elena shared the same expression. They looked so sorry for each other. "Did Matteo know you were coming?"
"I told him Lily had practice for the church choir as an excuse. He would never let me see you so I had to lie." Nonna answered in dismay. Lily didn't know what to say about that. Nonna must have felt awful about lying to her husband, whom he trusted the most in this world for this supposed friend.
Elena then regarded Lily with a wide smile. "This must be Lilliana. What a lovely girl you are. I feel like I'm seeing my young Bella again!"
Lily blushed at the compliment.
"Why don't you talk to my grandson over there while your nonna and I have a little chat?"
"Grandson?" Lily followed Elena's eyes, which landed directly on the young, handsome man that had caught her attention. He had been looking—no, glaring at her the whole time. Lily gulped.
"Enzo! Keep Lily company while I and Bella have a private chat, alright?"
He simply nodded.
"Come on Bella," Elena seized nonna's hand and walked toward a small private area. They looked lively together, as if they had gone back in time to their youthful years.
While Lily stood there in an awkward position, left alone with this stranger who couldn't keep his eyes off her. She felt like a lost puppy right now.
He dropped the cigarette and crushed it under his boots. "Come here," He ordered.
"M-Me?" Did she just stutter?
He let out an impatient sigh.
Of course, there was nobody else.
"Yes, YOU." He answered.
She slowly came up to him and stood beside him. While his body was relaxed, lazily leaning against the car, she stood still in her position.
He regarded her once again, his gaze less leering and more observant. "Lily." The way he drawled her name, like some spell, led to a rush of goosebumps up her skin.
"Yes?" she asked in a breathy voice.
Again, he kept looking at her as if she was a puzzle he was trying to figure out. Was it because of the makeup? Did she overdo it? She touched her face and wiped it with her shaky fingers. "Is there something on my face?" She asked.
"No."
"Then why do you keep looking at me like that?" She questioned him.
His hooded gaze was calm. "Because you have a beautiful face." He said that with the most stoic expression. "I couldn't take my eyes off you, Lily."
Did he have to add her name when he said that? And why did she feel so hot in the monsoon?
Maybe he just wanted to compliment her. Is he flirting with her? What is going on? "You're quite um... h-handsome yourself." She said. "Enzo." Followed up with his name, as he did. And she meant what she said.
For the first time, he smiled.
In her life, Lily had made many people smile, but this one took her breath away. Enzo had the most calming smile, the kind that puts your mind at ease. The way his mouth slowly lifts, and the light in his eyes. It felt so... rare.
He didn't seem like a man who smiled often.
Did he enjoy being complimented? Who knew?
"Let me marry you."
Did she hear it right? Did he just say he wanted to marry her?
"What?" she asked, blinking with utter confusion on her face.
He inched closer and she, on instinct, stepped back. As she stepped away, she lost her balance, but Enzo caught her waist before she could fall. His face was too close and smelled like cigars and the Cosa Nostra.
"I said, I want to make you my wife, Lilliana." He said, slowly, drawing out every single word so she could grasp what he said. His face was dangerously close, and his gaze was on her parted pink lips as if he intended to kiss her any moment now.
She pulled away from him, her heart beating hard and fast against her chest. The skin on her waist burned because his palm had touched her. She wasn't naked, but he felt his touch deep on her skin.
"I-I just met you!" She said.
"So did I." He answered impassively.
This must be a joke. Was she supposed to laugh?
She laughed. "Good one."
His face turned serious. As she guessed, he wasn't the sort of man to joke around.
"I'm sorry, but I cannot marry you." She said, keeping a distance from him.
His face hardened. "Reason?"
"Because I just turned eighteen. I want to study and have a job before I settle down." She said, although she really didn't have plans to do a job. She wanted to marry and be a stay-at-home wife and live a happy life with the man she loved. With her one and only Ethan.
Enzo nodded understandingly, and she heaved a sigh of relief when—
"I can wait for a few years until marriage. Let's get engaged first."
Is this man being serious right now?
"I don't want to marry you!" Lily retorted. He was now testing her patience. What sane man would ask a stranger he just met to marry him?!
"Why?"
"Because... because I'm already in love with someone!" She confessed, incredibly embarrassed. She had told no one about her secret love life, not even to her closest cousin Rosalina, whom she shared everything with.
This was the first time she had openly confessed like this. That too with a man who wouldn't take no for an answer!
Something dark possessed his gaze. "Forget him and choose me. I promise to make a better spouse."
That was it. Her patience snapped. "You're being ridiculous!" She heaved, her chest rising and falling furiously.
"I will marry you Lily. One day, you will finally be mine. I promise you that." His promise shook her to the core. He said it as if he meant every word he said, and he would take whatever measures to do it.
They simply glared at each in silence, before they heard their grandmothers coming back with joyful expressions and Elena's loud voice.
Nonna looked at her with genuine concern. "Why is your face so red?" She pressed the back of her hand against Lily's forehead, who wasn't done glaring at Enzo. "I-I think I'm having a fever. Let's go home, nonna. I don't feel so well..."
"We will leave now, Elena. Lily is having a fever." Lily held onto nonna as if she would pass out any moment. When she glanced up, she saw Enzo smirking at her act.
"Until next time, Lily." He said, obviously amused.
She turned her gaze, and they immediately walked down toward their car, where Sebastian was waiting for them.
***
PRESENT...
The antiseptic ate off her wound, leaving a burning sensation she passionately hated from a young age. Lily peeled off the band-aid strips Sasha gave her and neatly pasted on the cut on her knee.
She saw Vincenzo seated on the armchair, his ankle on his knee, his arms spread to each side on the armrest, his kingly aura on full display.
"I should head out now." Feeling awkward, cold, and wet on the skin, she skidded towards the front door, to run for her life once she was out of the threshold.
"Wait."
She jumped, halted, and turned around.
Just then, someone else walked in through the humongous front door. It was Leonardo Salvadori, or Leo, as everyone called him.
When he saw her, a charming, boyish smile played on his lips. "You must be Dr. Russo. Nonna talked a lot about how sweet you are." He flirted. One of his cousins had tried to get too friendly with her, and he was the one who told them to bugger off and leave her alone.
It turns out this man also had a generously sweet mouth.
"Leonardo." Came a warning from Enzo that made them shudder.
Leo played it cool, turning that charming smile into a cheeky smirk. "What? Jealous already?" He teased.
"I would like to have a word with Dr. Russo." Enzo's glare hardened at the foolish little brat. "In private."
Leo snickered. "Alright then. See you around, Dr. Russo." He winked at her and disappeared upstairs, to his room, she presumed.
"Have a seat." He gestured at the armchair opposite him. Obediently, she pushed her ass down into the chair, her mouth zipped shut.
"How are you feeling?" He asked. Sounding the least bit concerned, he asked anyway.
"Much better." Sasha had given her Camomile tea to ease the cramps, and it worked wonderfully.
He gave a curt nod. "Good to hear."
"So... what did you want to talk about?" She asked, coming back to the topic.
"About our marriage. I'm sure my grandmother had pestered you a lot about it."
A dark, chilling wave erupted in her spine. He looked at her as if she was a menace under his skin. Something that gave him a certain sort of frustration.
"This whole arranged marriage thing... it wasn't started by me. I was just here to treat your grandmother. I swear." She anxiously stated.
She could tell he was a man who had zero tolerance for any sort of annoyance. He trampled anything that gives him frustration over. Crushed beneath his authority and power. And she is just a Russo. One of his enemy's spawns.
"I want to marry you."
Disbelief took over her. Washing over like a wave of the tsunami, swallowing her. She blinked and blinked.
"What?!"
"Marry me, Lilliana."
"You are joking, right?" She laughed it off. "Like back then when we first met?"
He wasn't amused. Stupid. She was stupid.
"I promised my nonna I would make this alliance happen through our marriage and I'm a man of my word." He stroked his forefinger on the velvety armrest. Gave a pause for her to absorb what he said.
Her mouth was ajar, that look of utter disbelief still clear.
He still hadn't forgotten the outrageous promise he had made to her.
"I have fulfilled all of my promises and I will fulfill this one as well, so I want you to cooperate with me so we can have this the easy way."
"Are you threatening me?" Her voice cracked.
"If you heard a threat. Take it as a threat." He cooly said, lifting his chin, his overpowering arrogance grating her nerves.
She wanted to gnash out at how unreasonable he was, but then she realized where she sat. In the lion's den. She was just easy prey. "You can't force people to marry you." She reasoned.
"I haven't forced you." He answered. "Yet."
"I can't marry you."
"Reason?"
"I don't want to."
"What's your excuse this time?"
Anger bubbled inside her, like a boiling kettle about to steam out at its full velocity. "Because I don't want to marry you. That's why!" Her eyes had already glazed. He was scaring her. And he knew it too.
"Your reason isn't convincing. Give me a valid reason." He drawled, bringing his fingers to stroke his clean-shaven chin.
"We barely know each other."
"I know a lot about you, and I'll let you know about me as well."
Her eyes narrowed frightfully at him. "You pried into my personal life?"
"It just helped me get to know you a little better." He deadpanned, smirking, giving him the impression of a sly old silver fox for a second before he put back his impassive facade.
"What did you find out about me?" She swallowed, her fingers finding their way to the ring attached to the thin golden chain she wore at all times. Ethan had gifted her on her eighteenth birthday.
Whenever she felt the warm, smooth surface, she felt protected.
His dark, eerie stare glided down her face to her fingers fiddling with the ring. His eyes stayed there. "About your past lover. A dead man. Your grandfather killed him because you two ran away together when you were eighteen."
She bit her tongue from lashing out. To yell at his face that he will never take Ethan's place. This man can have the world, but not her and definitely not her heart that still yearned for a man who isn't Vincenzo Salvatore. "I still love him, even if he is no more. He has my heart and I won't let another man have it."
He let out a deep, blood-chilling laugh. "You're being absurd. There is no point in being loyal to a dead lover. Move on." His ridiculing advice was like a smack on the face. It stung, leaving an ugly mark somewhere deep within her.
She had heard those two words countless times that she grew sick of it.
Move on.
Move on.
Move on.
But they will never understand the guilt feasting on her for the past eight years. Leaching off of her like a parasite.
"Whether or not I want to move on, it's none of your business." She spat, a tear trickling down her doe-like eyes.
He didn't look the slightest bit sorry for making her cry, and she didn't expect him to. "It doesn't matter if you still love that man or not. We are getting married regardless."
"I don't even love you." She whispered.
"Me neither." He answered in a heartbeat. Like the cold heart truth, he is. "Not all people get married for love and romance. Some get married for political and financial gains too"
His callous words made her blood run cold, then it boiled enough to burn her alive. "I can't waste my time in a loveless marriage. Maybe you can, but not me."
She sprang to her feet, and with hate-filled eyes, she said. "I'm a Russo. My family had your family members killed. They will kill you too, so please drop this marriage nonsense."
He wasn't pleased by that. She just returned the favor by dragging in a taboo as he had dragged her's.
Rolling back his large, rounded shoulders, he walked up to her and this time she didn't step back. Instead, she stared right back at him, unyielding towards his brutal, cold dark eyes that had witnessed every ounce of torture he inflicted on his enemies and took pleasure in it.
"I'll see you off, Russo."