The Unspoken Vow

Chapter Two

Ivan

The invitation felt heavy in my hand even though it was just a piece of paper.

"So he finally claimed it," Kaian said, leaning against the file cabinets against the wall, sipping on his choice of alcohol early in the day.

"Yeah," I replied, re-reading the words engraved into the thick paper.

"About time, don't you think?" Malachi asked, eating the olives from the tray that were supposed to be for martinis.

"What do you mean about time?" Eliana argued, brows furrowed, realization dawned on her slowly. "Wait... you knew?" she looked from Malachi to me then to Kaian then back to me. "I was the only one out of the loop? What the fuck?"

"It's nothing serious, dad just didn't want you to tell Nyah. Might've scared her off," Malachi told her.

Eliana slumped back in her chair. "Wow," she whispered in bewilderment. There was nothing my father told us that he didn't tell her, it was understandable she wouldn't take it well.

"The dinner," I began. "I want all of you in attendance."

"Why?" Kaian scowled.

"Because Mr. Frey invited all of us. It's a show of respect. We haven't gone to any formal gathering ever since," I had to clear my throat to get rid of the lump there, talking about this always took its toll on me, on all of us. "Ever since father passed away." I explained. "I want to uphold his reputation and all of you should too."

"Well, whether or not you wanted me there, I would have gone. At least for Nyah, her life changes after this too," Eliana said standing up. "I'm sure you're aware Nyah is my best friend. What applies to other men regarding marriage, applies to you,"

She walked out the room and Malachi shook his head bemused. "Gotta be careful, Ivan, little miss bossy just threatened you." He turned to me, standing up too. "I'll be there,"

Kaian was the last to agree, getting up and muttering. "Not like I have a fucking choice,"

After they left the room, I can't help but remember the last time I'd seen Nyah. It was after my father's funeral, she had just helped Eliana, who could barely walk from the pain and sorrow of losing our father, into the car and she stood in front of me, beautiful even in her plain black dress, her face and hair wet from the rain.

"I'm sorry for your loss, Ivan," she mumbled, squeezing my arm, her large brown eyes looking up at me. She was so damn beautiful it was hard not to look at her. No, beautiful was not a good enough word to describe her. Ethereal, with her long brown hair, styled in a neat bun for the occasion, her rich brown skin glowed, even in the rain, as if it absorbed the sun's light and illuminated it. And her eyes, fucking hell, her eyes calmed me, looking into them was a reverie, an indulgence I couldn't give myself. She was everything, everything a man could ever beg for.

I regret how I responded every single time I think about it because I didn't respond. The bastard that I was, I pushed past her, opened the door to my car and slammed it without a single thank you. My father's death was no excuse for me to be a fucking asshole to the one woman who wasn't family that I genuinely cared about.

Her life changes after this too.

I don't know why my father chose me to be her husband, Malachi would have been the better choice. The three of them, Eliana, Malachi and Nyah grew up together, he knew her more than I did and she enjoyed his company. They were friends. He would have been the more sensible choice to be her husband.

I didn't deserve her, this woman, who was selfless and caring. She didn't deserve the man I've become. But right now, there was nothing I could do about it except make sure that our marriage won't be something she'd regret.

~~~

Eliana drove by herself to the Frey residence because she wanted to 'bring Nyah with her'. I've been uneasy the past week thinking of this damn dinner. I couldn't stop thinking about how unprepared I was for marriage. I had barely recovered from my father's death and that was three fucking years ago. There was no doubt trouble would come my way if I decided to break the deal but fuck, how I wished to.

As worried as I was about the prospect of getting married, I think it had more to do with the fact that I was marrying her. I wanted to marry Nyah when I was ready, when I could take care of her properly, the way she deserves to be taken care of. I wanted all of my attention to be hers. Had it been any other woman, my heart wouldn't be beating as fast as this.

As we drove into the iron gates of the Frey Mansion, I couldn't help but feel disdain towards this house. I hated Donovan Frey with everything that I was; he wasn't loyal to his woman, he wasn't the man people looked up to. He was feared because of the allies he had, if didn't have that, he would be nothing.

Their house couldn't be described as anything else but depressing. It was large in an awkward, showing off type of way, but then again, most houses that belonged to the mafia were.

Our father was different, he wanted our homes to be comfortable and practical, nothing that excessive. My grandfather taught us that if we couldn't clean the house by ourselves, then it was too big for us alone.

Before my mother complained about everything she hated about her life, we had lived in a humble, five bedroom home, one of the few luxuries in that house was that each bedroom had a bathroom. But since my father was madly in love with the devil of a woman my mother was, he caved when she said that our house had been too small, catering to her needs and bought her a mansion as ridiculously large as this.

Years after her death though, my father had built a villa for what was left of our family; him, Kaian, Malachi, Eliana and I. The villa had four houses in it, one for each of us siblings and since he frequented Russia, father didn't bother with a house of his own in the villa. It wasn't that we all lived in the separate houses ever since, but he wanted us to each have our own property, our own place.

Now looking at the house before us, I couldn't help but feel bad for Nyah. She had lived here her entire life, no wonder she came to our house all the time, well other than the fact that Eliana was her evil twin.

It was made of gray bricks, covered mostly by vines, all of its windows blocked out by blackout curtains, there were no flowers, just well trimmed grass and symmetrical trees, bordering the driveway and a single fountain in the center of the circular platform right in front of the steps to the entrance.

As I got out of the car, I relished in the idea that there would at least be one positive thing to get out of this marriage; Nyah would have a better home.