NOVALIE
Yes, I fucking ran. Cowardly? Maybe but don't judge me cause my life the past few years has been like walking on a thin pole with a 16 inch heel over lava.
Huh?
Hyperbole chill.
At the moment, I was overwhelmed with emotions and didn't want to be around Adriano anymore.
Now where am I? At the reception of my fucking wedding sending fake smiles to ton of people I don't even know who just saw me cry hours ago. Some even bluntly laughed at my face.
Bitches
I hate that I gave everyone the perception that I was weak.
You say everyone like it wasn't over two hundred mafia members
Shutup.
No you embarrassed us -Strike one
How are we going to show our face at events -Strike two.
Get to strike three and I'm cutting you off.
Sigh at least we got a moment with hottie Addie cause of your 'little' stunt.
Call him hottie Addie again and I'll cut you off permanently.
Sigh
After I ran away, my family, Mia and Arianna chased after me. They were all there for me and helped calm me down.
Dad and Miguel spoke to me, assuring me that nothing bad will happen and dad unceasingly apologized.
Mom hugged me and Mia's presence comforted me while Arianna promised to be my shield while in Italy. She promised her son won't hurt me and that even if he thinks about it she'll make sure to give him a smacking and personally protect me from him.
Everyone's attempt put smiles on my face and soon after they left me alone to breath and process on my own.
After some time doing that, I heard a light knock on my door and ignored it expecting whoever it is to just come in for whatever they wanted but they didn't.
After about a minute of waiting, I heard the knock again and yelled back for them to come in, me backing the door and looking out the window.
"Hey amore" I hear a familiar voice say as they walk towards me.
I didn't bother answering the person.
"I'm about to touch you now, please don't be scared" the voice says as he wraps his arms around my waist from behind. I take in the scent I've grown accustomed to over the past two weeks. The fresh scent of Adriano filling my nostrils, doing it's part to calm me down.
"I'm so sorry to hurt you, baby. Seeing you cry hurt me too. I was about start crying too but then we'll be the laughter of the mafia, the crying don and his sobbing wife" he says and I smile at the last part.
"Can I see your face, Novalie?" he asks with a calm voice that compels me as I turn around to face him.
I know I probably look like shit right now, ruined make up and teary red eyes but I really don't care.
"How do you manage to look beautiful still with makeup smeared over your face, Bambi? He says going up to the makeup station to pick up the facial wipes set and then throwing it on the couch.
He leads me to the couch and sits down pulling me into his laps. I don't object, I don't even have the strength in me to argue.
He takes out a piece of wipe, bringing it to my face, damping and cleaning up the makeup on my face.
"I don't like the reminder I hurt you " he says softly in explanation as he takes his time cleaning me up with precision, delicateness and softness like he's afraid to hurt me again.
When he's done, he pulls me into his chest, rubbing my back with one hand, my head with the other.
In his embrace, he gives me little kisses from time to time. He doesn't pressure me to talk or expect anything from me, he just gives me time to be in my head and I appreciate that.
After a while, he speaks again, "I honestly didn't expect the wedding to go like this and I actually planned something for you. I thought you might like it." he starts and I look up questioning.
"I planned you a reception just so we can greet the guests and after they leave we get to have a dinner with our families. I thought you'll like to spend time with your family more now" he murmurs as if thinking about it now it sounds stupid to him.
"That's okay, when do we live" I speak for the first time since he's been here.
"Whenever you're ready" he says kissing my cheek.
"Okay" it say getting up, "let's go".
"Also, Mia asked me to get you guys matching dresses for the reception. She must have changed now but here's yours he says going into the rooms closet and bringing out a pretty white sleeveless dress that would stop a little below my knee;
"Do you like?" he asks and I nod.
He leaves the room and I change quickly, not bothering to do any makeup anymore before I go meet him outside the room.
The church is completely empty and Adriano explains to me that everyone is already at the reception as he slides his hands over my waist.
"You look really pretty in that dress by the way" he says and we enter his white Rolls Royce and his chauffeur starts driving us to the venue.
I was happy at the reception until Adriano left my side and the quests started smart talking me about my crying and that's leads us to where we started from.
Adriano walks back to me with a smile of admiration on his face like he's proud to have me as his wife. I'm not proud to be his wife.
A man who I recognize as the heir to the Columbian mafia approaches us with his hot date. "Adriano man, you gonna introduce me to the cry baby over here" he says with a smirk on his face.
He probably thinks he's so funny
Adriano just cheered me up and the pussies at our reception are already pissing me off.
Let's try to breath
God help me that I don't whack someone with my little purse today.
"Excuse me?" Adriano says to the man obviously not expecting an answer. His eyes are now cold as every glint of his former admiration disappears.
This bitch stole my husband's happy eyes.
Your husband hmm
Shutup.
"Calm down, I didn't really mean-" the coward starts.
"Baby please tell me I can kill him now" Adriano cuts him off dryly as he looks down at me, seriously wanting me to decide.
"It's okay you don't have to" I say simply.
"Sure?" Adriano asks back and I nod.
"Run. Before I change my mind" he says to the man infront of us and the man quickly walks away almost leaving his date behind.
"Don't worry Bambi, they'll all be gone soon" he says to me.
While we were greeting the guests, the table was being set up.
We greet a few more people and finally they're all gone as we make our way to the dinner table. It was very pretty with flowers and lights surrounding it, I appreciated it.

The whole family gathers round the table. Adriano seats beside me with Miguel and his date opposite us -another girl ofcourse- the waiters start to bring in the food and we select what we want to eat.
We have a lot of friendly conversations and we all contribute evenly.
We start laughing about the wedding, I guess it's better we do that than be sad.
"You know Nova, when you kissed Adriano today, even though you did so harshly, it almost seemed natural, like it wasn't the first time. Am I wrong" Miguel says with a smirk on his face and everyone seems interested in hearing the answer now.
"No. It wasn't the first time" Adriano plainly answered for me and I mentally cuss as I give him a pissed look that says 'we could've totally lied'.
We talk some more and now we're done with our dinner.
"Do I go home with you?" I ask Adriano not sure how this works.
"Yes" he says and I sigh. I was kinda hoping I wouldn't have to and I'd get to go home and sleep in my own bed but I guess not.
I go to hug my family goodbye. I know I'd be seeing them again tomorrow morning before we leave for Paris but I have to enjoy every moment I can with them. I give them all hugs. I kiss mum good night, Miguel and Pa both kiss me on my forehead and they make me promise them I'll be strong.
Adriano's family goes with their car which is now driven by the chauffeur who brought us her and Adriano is to drive us to their house.
He opens my door for me and closes it behind me as I get in. He goes over to his side, starts the car, reverses out of his parked position and hits the road. He places his hand on my thighs lightly as if he's scared I'll turn to sand if he holds me too hard. He really does see me as a fragile girl and I don't really like that but I guess I've given him enough reason too.
He keeps his hands there the entire ride and I hold my breath. Not cause I didn't like it but because I was scared if I let loose, my body language will scream to him 'I fucking love it when you touch me, keep doing it!!'. I can't let him be happy about that.
Once we get to his house he parks and before he removes his hands from my thighs, he faces me and says "breath sweetheart".
How did he fucking know?
I have no idea I thought I was doing a great job.
He turns off the engine, gets out and I open my door before he gets the chance to turn around and do it.
"That's not fair" he says like a cheated child as I walk towards him.
He places his hand on my lower back as he leads me into their house.
The interior is beautiful. The house screams modern minimalism and it smells great. Mia is on the couch watching TV with mum while their dad seems to be in the kitchen getting them drinks.
"Ohh the newly weds are here" Adriano's dad, Enzo says with a bright smile which I try my best to recreate and return.
"Welcome!" Mia yells from where she is and Arianna smiles at us.
I look at Adriano asking what we should do now and he holds my hand leading me to what I presume is his room.
ADRIANO
I lead Novalie into my room and I watch her eyes widen once she sees what I planned for her.
When she ran away from me at the altar, I took in account what she said during her vows and before I went to see her I made a call.
"I'm really sorry I made you sad today and I felt it's only fair I atleast let you do something you do want to do today. You can watch whatever it is you want to till whenever you want to and I got you some pajamas too" I hand her a cute white pajama set which had drawn, little flowers littered over it.
"And as you've seen, there's more than enough snacks to eat. I wasn't sure what you liked so I told them to just get a bunch" I said again, gesturing to my bed which is now scattered with tons of chips, chocolates, candy etc.
I walk over to the side of my bed and show her what she hasn't noticed yet, "and ofcourse there's ice cream" I say and her eyes sparkle with excitement.
"So what series did you want to watch?" I ask finally finishing my little presentation.
It took me by surprise when Novalie walked up to me and wrapped her arms around my neck pulling me down a bit as I snaked my arms around her waist.
"Thank you so much" she mutters before pulling away and going into my restroom to change into the pajamas I got her.
All these didn't make me feel good about myself though. I felt so bad and I've been drowning in guilt since she ran away from me at the altar. I forced this woman to marry me and that was wrong
What's worse is how I did it. It was completely unorthodox and disrespectful, kidnapping her father, atleast that's what she thinks I did.
She probably sees me as a monster and I guess I am. I had no right at all hurting this woman but I did anyway.
I wiped away the little happiness in her beautiful face and I know she thinks I don't notice but I could see the stoicism in her eyes. I killed her spirit and I don't think I'll ever be able to forgive myself for that.
I'm going to try to make her happy in every way I can. No matter the cost.
Just then she walks in, causing me to cease my thoughts there.
"What do you think" she asks in reverence to the pajamas on her.
"You look perfect, Tesoro" I replied honestly.
Novalie has been binge-watching something I don't understand since and although I'm fucking tired, I'm resisting sleep. I feel it might be wrong to fall asleep on her.
Just when I was about to give up and sleep off on the bed, she taps me yawning, signalling to the furniture in my room.
"you're sleeping on the couch"