The Curse of the Mafia's Bride

5- "It's a small world!"

(Brandon’s POV)

The waves of memories suddenly appeared before me as if they were happening again, and I could never forget the first encounter that brought Emma to me…

“Stop right there! Hey, you snatcher! Give me back my wallet! Hey!!! Please, somebody help me!!!”

It was an ordinary day, and I was strolling down the sidewalk when suddenly I heard someone crying and screaming for help.

I checked what was happening, and there I witnessed how a woman, almost my age, but I guessed just a few years younger than me, was chasing a teenage boy because he snatched her wallet.

I waited for the right moment before I attacked the boy. If I would not help her, she would be having a hard time catching the snatcher, or worse, she would no longer be able to get her wallet back, especially since this boy seemed to be already an expert one at doing street crimes such as stealing other people’s things.

The people around were just watching. Yes, they sympathized with her and wanted to help her, but they were too afraid to take any action and get involved, so if no one would, I would.

I ran after the target, and when I was close to him, I kicked his back through the crowd with surprising agility, making him fall to his knees on the ground!

“Ahh! Awww!” he cried in both shock and frustration with his frantic breathing.

Everybody seemed shocked, and at the same time, impressed with what I did. I didn’t do it to impress anyone, though. It was my instinct that was telling me to help people who needed my help, especially if I knew there was something I could do.

I pulled the young snatcher’s arm from behind, and then he winched and screamed in pain.

I already caught him, and there was no way in hell I would free him without making him regret the trouble he caused in the street!

As expected, he tried to fight, get freed, and run, but his strength was vulnerable compared to mine, given the fact that I had been trained to do these for years—to fight the law breakers and maintain peace and order among people.

Taking back the woman’s wallet from his hand, he tried to fight, not to give it, but I warned without a word to break his bones if he wouldn’t let go, and he finally understood my nonverbal warning, leaving him with no choice but to give it back.

Glancing at the woman, I saw that she was still staring at me in complete awe, and she seemed so impressed with what I had done to help her.

I returned her wallet, which she immediately accepted.

She said to me, “Thank you so much, Sir!”

I simply nodded, and once again, glared at the young snatcher.

“What do you want to do with this young boy? Shall we surrender him to the authorities—”

I wasn’t able to finish my words when suddenly the boy shrieked in pain because the angry lady shoved his head harder on the floor, and not only that, she also kicked him on his stomach.

“Still so young and yet you’re already becoming a street criminal, you shameless boy!” she scolded him.

I even had to interfere and stop her from continuously slapping the boy’s back because I was afraid she might hurt him badly, and the repercussions would do a boomerang on her, even though I understood she got mad and just wanted to get back at him for causing her stress and inconvenience.

“Please stop it, Miss. I know you’re mad, but you need to control your emotions. If you’re going to hit him continuously, it might get you into bigger trouble, and you don’t want that to happen, do you?” I seriously advised her.

This made her stop, and thank goodness, she seemed to listen so well to me.

I brought the boy to stand up by carelessly pulling his hair, which made him cry out in pain, so he couldn’t do anything aside from submitting right away and obeying me.

“Consider this a warning, don’t do it again, or else, I’m gonna completely break your bones the next time I catch you stealing away other people’s things! Do you understand?”

It was all a warning, a threat, and, of course, a lecture so he wouldn’t dare repeat the same mistake and cause other people trouble!

If I had only been in my uniform today, worse could’ve happened to him. But since I wasn’t in authority while roaming around this street in a local civilian get-up, I would not use my authority against him. I would take it as if I were a big bro giving advice to his younger brother, and I was even still kind and considerate in this state!

When he did not respond and there was no remorse, I grabbed his collar violently, which effectively scared the heck out of him!

“Answer me when I’m asking you! Do you get what I’m saying?!”

He was so afraid that I could punch him, leading him to close his eyes and forcing himself to nod his head as he answered, “Yes! Yes, I get it, boss! I’m not going to do it again! Just please don’t hit me, and let me go already!”

“It’s great that you seem to listen to me, young boy.” I made him face the lady who almost fell victim to his snatching. “Now, look at the person you almost robbed of her wallet. What do you want to say to her?”

“I have nothing to say to her—”

“Wrong!” I cut him and tightened my grip on his arm, which pained him once more. “You have a word to her, boy.”

He realized what I meant, so he apologized to her. “I’m sorry for what I did, Ma'am.”

There was no response from the lady at all. She just looked away as if she heard nothing, which I completely understood. She wasn’t ready to forgive the boy, and I couldn’t even blame her for it because he caused her a lot of stress and trouble. She was still upset.

Together, we agreed to call the authority line and report what happened. It was a good thing that they were quick to respond and immediately arrived. They took the young boy and arrested him, making him hop into the patrol car with them so they could take him to the right hands and make sure he wouldn’t cause another headache to people on the streets. This way, he would be taught a lesson and guided by the right and wrong while he was growing up.

“How are you? I hope you’re okay, Miss. Don’t worry; the right sector will handle this matter seriously and won’t let it happen again. There will be no more victims after you almost fell to be one today. They will surely bring him to the department where he could be guided right and supported on the right path.”

She nodded and positively smiled at me. “Thank you again for your help, Sir. I surely wouldn’t have gotten my wallet back if you hadn't come to my rescue. I owe this a big time to you.”

I nodded. “I only did what I had to do, Miss. And you’re welcome. By the way, I have to go now. Have a nice day ahead.”

“Wait, Sir!” She deliberately blocked my way, stopping me from walking.

I was genuinely surprised.

Her eyes smiled along with her perfect set of paper-white teeth. What a stunner! She was such a beauty right in front of me!

“I want to repay your kindness. Tell me anything you want, I’ll get it or buy it for you, Sir.”

I shook my head gently, not breaking my eyes from her face. She was so beautiful, mesmerizing… “No need to repay me, Miss. I’m not asking for anything in return. I just helped you because I saw that you needed help—that was it. Consider it an act of kindness; there’s no need to repay it.”

“I know, but please? I insist!”

I still declined. “No, Miss. Please don’t bother. Besides, I really have to go now. I hope you understand.”

She was sad, but she stepped aside to give way for me to go.

I walked, but I wasn’t yet far when she called me again…

“Wait, Sir! There’s one thing I want to ask you before you go…”

I snapped around to look at her. “What is it?”

“Can we be friends? What’s your name? I’m Emma Anderson, by the way,” she said, introducing herself to me.

I nodded, but still formally. “We can. I’m Brandon.”

“Brandon…” She smiled more, as if my name enchanted her. “What a nice name for such a helpful knight in shining armour. Anyway, nice to meet you, Brandon.”

Knight in shining armour? I smiled at what she said…

“Bye, Brandon. I hope to see you again! Thank you very much for helping me today. I’ll never forget your kindness!”

She waved her hand at me even before I continued to walk further away.

The day after that incident, I couldn’t stop thinking about her. It felt like her sweet smile and gentle eyes had been marked on my mind. Damn…

What I didn’t expect was that one day I would be more surprised, and my heart began to go crazily faster when I was about to sleep and lying on my bed, scrolling through my phone, and suddenly, I received a notification on my social media account. I saw Emma’s name, and she just sent me a friend request!

I accepted it, and the next thing I knew, curiosity led me to open and stalk her profile. I was no longer surprised when I saw her photos, and she looked amazing in each of them. However, in my opinion, she was even prettier in person.

Out of the blue, my chat box notified me that I received a new message. I opened it and saw that Emma had sent me a waving hand emoji.

As a response, I liked the emoji she sent.

She sent another message saying a hello greeting, “Hello, Sir! It’s me, Emma. Do you remember me? I was the lady you helped on the street a few days ago when somebody tried to snatch my wallet.”

Of course, how could I forget such a beauty…

But instead of expressing what was in my mind, I chose to keep it simple by typing, “Hi, Emma. Yes, I remember you.”

After that, she sent another response, but I did not open her message anymore, even though I heard the notification coming. Yes, she was a beauty, yet she would only be a distraction to me once I let myself be fancied by her. It was mind over heart for now, especially these days that I had been assigned a very serious task to accomplish. I couldn’t let anything distract me, even a pretty lady…

I tried not to entertain anything that had anything to do with her, but it felt as though she had been very persistent and determined to get near me. A series of unexpected events followed that brought us closer together, most likely when, a week later, at the sports center where I worked as a coach to kickboxers and airsoft trainees, Alfred went to me and tapped my shoulder to let me know that a pretty chic was looking for me…

“Ahem, bro! A beautiful sister is looking for you!” he said in a chilling dude vibe.

We were in the open field, and I was busy watching the match of the first pair to fight in kickboxing. I was supposed to be focused because I wanted my students to be trained greatly, and as their coach, I wanted to be worth the money they enrolled in my classes. I wanted to give it all when I was working.

I seriously looked at my assistant and friend, Alfred, while my forehead was a bit frowning. This wasn’t a time for playtime, especially since we were in the middle of our work, and he knew that very well. However, it was too late to scold him because he was already pointing to the girl who was smilingly approaching to where we were standing…

There, I saw Emma smiling and waving at me.

Damn! What was she doing here?

“You better go and entertain your visitor, coach. Remember the gentleman’s rule? It’s never to keep a lady waiting…” Alfred was teasing me.

I glared at him before we saw that Emma was already standing right in front of us.

“Hi, Sir…” She cooly greeted me. “Am I disturbing your work?” she asked politely.

I let out a soft sigh. I wanted to confirm to her that, yes, indeed, she was honestly distracting me, but the gentleman’s rule was never to make a lady feel bad… “It’s fine. I’m giving them an assignment and still observing how they’re learning the things I taught them.”

She nodded and smiled more. My heart was melting with the way she smiled and the innocence in her twinkling, soft eyes…

“Anyway, how do you know I work here?” I asked.

“I saw it in your profile. I’m sorry if I stalked you,” she chuckled, which made her cuter. “I hope you don’t mind…”

I shook my head gently. “It’s okay. I don’t mind.”

“Thanks. By the way, I sent you a message, letting you know I’m coming for you today. I just want to visit you at your workplace, but I haven’t received any response from you. You didn’t even open my messages, so I thought you were very busy. Honestly, I hesitated whether I should push this visit or not, but in the end, I realized, there’s nothing wrong with trying, right?”

I was honestly amused deep inside. I liked her courage…

I wanted to grin, but I forced my lips not to. Instead, I raised my brow and kept a serious, reactionless face…

What stunned me more was when she handed me the lunchbox she was holding. “I came here to give this to you. I hope you’ll like it, Sir.”

Although I was hesitating, I still accepted it. Gentleman’s code again—never turn down a lady’s effort. “Thanks, but what’s this for?”

“It’s a simple dish I personally cooked for you. Since you refused anything I offered to repay your kindness, I instead thought of cooking for you. This way, I could express my sincerest gratitude towards your heroism—”

“You don’t have to do anything to repay. Besides, it’s not heroism. It’s a call of duty—”

“Can you just give it a try and taste it?” She cut me off by quickly changing the topic. “I want to know if I can be a good cook, and if you’ll like it.”

I sighed, finally giving up. “Alright then. Thank you, Emma. I appreciate it a lot that you prepared something for me even though you didn’t even have to.”

I meant it. I saw her effort and appreciated it, but I simply wouldn’t want to feed her with assumptions she might possibly jump into. As I already said, I didn’t want any distraction at the moment, not even such a soft, conventional beauty like her…

But no matter how I wanted to avoid her, fate seemed to bring us together. A friendship between us began to bloom beautifully that even I, myself, didn’t expect it…

I never forgot how Emma had been so kind to me after the day I helped her.

She was so different from this lady I helped, in the present day, who became angry with me instead of thanking me for helping her. The worst part was putting the blame on my shoulders as to why I helped her when, in the first place, she didn’t even ask for my help. She was making it seem like she preferred me not interrupting at all than helping her and scolding her at last for being too softhearted, which made the young boy run away instead of getting taught a lesson for the wrongdoing he committed. But I doubted that if I didn’t interfere, she would be able to retrieve her bag from being snatched. She couldn’t possibly catch that young boy on her own.

The world was indeed very small and full of surprises when, later on, that woman and I met again, but this time it was no longer at the convenience store. It was in a place where we least expected to see each other—the workplace. I found out that her name was Lucy, and she was working as one of my editorial staff, specifically tasked as a graphic designer for our company’s media center. I happened to become one of her big bosses!

After discovering this amazing turn of events, I found myself getting invested in it. I wanted to know more about this woman…