Twisted fate
1007 Words
¶LUCIANO SIN RUSSO¶
I had never thought I would stand in front of a church congregation, occasionally glancing at the Patek on my wrist, waiting for my bride to step into the aisle and leave the rest of congregation on their feet.
It was already ten minutes past eleven a.m. She was supposed to be standing by my side ten minutes ago.
My father had mentioned the bride would be beautiful – of course, she was his choice – perhaps he had forgotten to add a quality I was now only getting to know; fashionably late.
I tilted my neck to glance at my best man, Gonzalez. He held both his hands in front of him, his right thumb continually tapped the screen of his wristwatch. Just like me, he was also very impatient.
“All arise!” The priest finally called out.
I heaved a sigh of relief as I turned my gaze towards the twin entrance doors of the church. The instrumentalists began their wedding song.
I swallowed hard and watched the drama unfold in front of me.
Three bridesmaids dressed in peach dresses that flowed down to their knees stepped in first, a large bouquet of flowers in their hands.
Behind them, my eyes caught the lady of the hour.
Her white dress started off her shoulders. The sleeves dropped to her wrists and flowed into a small flappy ball around her fingers. Her fingers were hidden in white gloves that clutched the stem of her white lilies.
Her face was hidden underneath the thick white veil, but her silk dress clawed her curves. She was full in all the right places – breasts and hips, just the way my father loved them.
He must have searched the ends of Earth for this one.
Her father, Silvero Romano, smiled at the crowd and waved, like a proud father about to give his daughter to the love of her life, a groom he had rightly approved of.
But I knew better.
Scarlett Romano was nothing but a payment for the debt he had incurred from being careless with my father’s goods.
However, he seemed too happy to be getting rid of the girl.
Half the population of the world knew that getting married to my father meant ruining your life forever. He never loved, never cared about anyone.
I knew this because Alvaro Russo trusted me with his life. The man had never been able to get a son, so I was picked up from my orphanage when I was thirteen.
It was the only reason I was standing in front of his bride, about to swear my life to her in his name, while he was off in Dubai attending some congress with Arabian drug Lords – six of whom he planned to kill before he flew out of their country.
Once the wedding vows were read, I was asked to take off the veil from her face.
I fought hard to steal my eyes away from the swan shaped diamond encrusted pendant on her neck, just at the top of her right breast, before I reached for her silky veil.
I pulled the veil up to reveal thick lashes. When her golden brown eyes rose to stare at me, my breath hitched.
I tried to stop myself from staggering backwards while I kept my gaze on her.
She was awfully familiar. I had seen her before, I knew her, but how?
As I continued to stare at her, she glared back at me. With every second she stared at me, the anger in her eyes seemed to dissolve slowly.
Once she had stopped frowning, her doe eyes jogged my memory immediately.
I knew where I had seen her!
The realization hit me like a slap across my face.
Saint John and the Grenadines Orphanage, seventeen years ago.
She was only a little girl. I had not even turned twelve yet.
Her name was Violet. She had brown eyes and really long and dark hair. She used to sell cupcakes at the orphanage gate with her mother, and would always come to share some with the children, with me.
Everyday, until I was adopted by Alvaro Russo, I watched her from the gate. She was always filled with joy, bubbly with happiness. She loved her mother more than anything else in the world, even though the lady was always frail and sick.
Then she stopped coming to the gate, and I never saw her again.
Fate had brought her back to me as Scarlett Romano! My father’s new wife?!
This had to be some form of cruel joke.
“I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride.” The priest’s voice jerked my subconscious back to the present.
The shock in my eyes made way for a frown.
Something wasn’t right.
Silvero Romano had dared to play a fast one on my father, and she was in on it.
I turned away from her immediately and the crowd murmured behind us.
From the corner of my right eye, I could see her cheeks flush with embarrassment. She blinked, as if fighting her tears back, and turned away from me. She feigned a smile at the priest, whose eyes were laced with confusion as they danced between us.
“Shall we carry on?” I growled, glaring at the confused priest in front of us. He nodded eagerly, frightened by my current countenance, and looked down into his holy book.
“Of course. Of course. All arise!”
The sound of feet shuffling against the floor filled the room.
I tilted my neck to take one last look at my father’s bride.
She had no idea what she had just gotten herself into. Whatever amount of money Silvero Romano had paid her to pose as his daughter was not going to make up for the hell she was going to face, or the hell I was going to put her through for daring to lie to my entire family.
- Writer
