The handsome demon on the altar
1095 Words
¶VIOLET¶
"Look at you," He placed his both hands at the two sides of the chair as he peered at me from my reflection in the mirror.
I fought to hold back my tears. If he dared to catch one drop smearing my mascara, he would not hesitate to bang my head against the table with his fists.
"Let her be, father. She needs to get ready quickly." I heard Scarlett, my foster sister, say. As she spoke, she tiptoed and looked outside the door.
I swallowed hard, not daring to speak, and locked my fingers on my thighs, pursing my quivering lips. Scarlett walked away from the door, and came to stand behind me.
"She isn't half as pretty as I would have been, but she will do." She looked up at her father's tall and lean frame.
"Thanks for making Violet stand in this wedding, father. My life would have been over if I had to marry that old man, Alvaro Russo. I cannot imagine how horrible it must be for Violet."
I lowered my gaze to my manicured fingers. My nails had been properly done by the best nail technician in all of Venice. Alvaro Russo made sure of that.
These people, my foster father and sister, had sold me to him.
I sniffed in my tears, then let out a loud scream when a strong hand yanked a fistful of my hair and pulled my head backwards.
"What's that?! I hope you are not doing what I think you're doing?!" My father's eyes blazed with anger as he screamed at me.
Scarlett, dressed in her peach colored dress as my chief bridesmaid, widened her eyes when her father took out his pistol and forced my head to kiss the cold barrel of the gun.
I blinked twice, overcome with fear. Not for the gun, but for him, my father.
It was typical for mafia men to take guns around with them. Anything could happen at any time and they had to be prepared.
It was him I was afraid of. The loving man who had taken me as his own for seventeen years of my life was gone. I could not recognize the beast standing behind me.
"Alvaro Russo must not suspect a thing! You hear me. You would go out there, and you would answer my daughter's name on that altar, and for the rest of your life in the Russo house, however short that might be. Now, get up and smooth your dress, we have to go."
I did as he instructed, knowing that I had just little choice. The tears burned at the back of my eyelids. At that moment, I missed my mother. I wished she had never left me the way she did.
Silvero Romano, my father, locked his right arm around my left and wore his brightest smile.
"Chin up and smile, puta." He growled amidst bared teeth.
I quickly adjusted my posture and allowed the most painful smile I had ever done, spread across my face.
I was getting married to Alvaro Russo today. A woman's wedding day was supposed to be the best day of her life, but mine was only the beginning of a nightmare, and many more years of nightmares.
We stepped out of the room and headed towards the car waiting to drive us to the cathedral. I started to blink rapidly, hoping that I would somehow wake up from the dreadful sleep and find myself in my apartment in New York, dressed in sweats.
However, the more I opened my eyes and felt my father's fingers claw into my skin, the more I was forced to accept the reality of my fate.
It was over for me.
My father owed Alvaro Russo a debt, and when he asked for his child, Silvero Romano chose me. I was sold to be bought by a man almost ten years older than my father, and it was all because I was not his biological daughter, Scarlett was.
Once we got to the cathedral, my father and I stood in front of the door, while Scarlett rushed inside to take her place at the bridesmaid stand. I knew she was happy to be saved from her cruel fate. I was the sacrificial lamb for her happiness and freedom.
"When we are in there, make sure you smile and meet as many eyes as you can. Do not forget that this is the happiest day of your life." Silvero Romano whispered into my ears, and I turned to look at him.
Where was the man who had loved me so much?
Once the instruments in the hall started to play the wedding song, the doors parted open to reveal my father and I.
All heads turned to look at me, but I bowed mine. I could hear the sound of whispers, amazed ones. I could not blame them, the dress was absolutely exquisite and looked so beautiful, but it was suffocating me with every second I stood in it.
"Raise your f*****g head, Vi." I heard his harsh whisper, but I did not listen. He could not shoot me there, and the worst had already happened.
I refused to look up because I did not want to see the old man with a bulging belly and a crooked smile staring at me like I was a delicious snack which he could not wait to get home and tear open.
Once we stopped in front of the altar, I found myself wishing my heart would stop as well.
I could not avoid him anymore. Whether I liked it or not, I was bound to him in every way possible, my father had made sure of it.
With tears in my eyes, and my orbs hidden beneath the silk veil, I slowly raised my head to look at the old man in front of me, my groom.
From his neatly tailored tuxedo, to the Patek Phillipe on his left wrist. I noticed young fingers. Rough, yes. But they lacked the wrinkles of that of a seventy year old man.
…because it belonged to a young man!
I staggered backwards. My heart skipped a million beats at once as I stared into the piercing blue eyes that leered at me.
With a corked right brow. He did not seem half as scared as me, but bored instead.
I could swear that I had never seen a more handsome being in my entire life. A handsome being with an aura of a demon, a cruel demon.
- Writer
