THEIR DOLL 🔞

WHO

Odette stretched, yawning, as she opened her tired eyes, the sunlight peeking into her room as she realized she had forgotten to draw the blinds down last night.

“Last night?” she mumbled, rubbing her eyes cutely and sighed.

“Oh, Aurora and the two little monkeys left me alone,” she said, sighing and getting up from the bed.

Her bones felt sore, and she felt tired as she walked towards the washroom. Looking at herself, she sighed. There were dark circles under her eyes, her lips were chapped, and she could smell fever in her mouth.

Disgusted, she picked up her toothbrush, brushed her teeth, used mouthwash, and then cleaned herself up by washing her face with cold water.

Jumping into the warm shower after taking off her undergarments, she placed her hands on the glass wall of the shower area and sighed in content.

“A long shower when you don’t feel good does feel really good,” she told herself, scrubbing off foam on her body, then rinsed it, humming to some classic music as she wrapped herself in a towel and stepped out of her washroom.

A maid stood at her bedroom door with a tray in her hand and smiled widely at Odette.

Odette gave her a confused half-smile, as she didn’t know the reason behind the maid's wide smile standing in front of her door.

“Good morning, Princess. Sir said you should take your breakfast now with the medicines and asked you to rest today. Your exams got postponed to next week, so you could write them when you are healthy,” the maid said in her joyful voice, making Odette frown.

“How many times do I have to tell Dad that he doesn’t need to interfere in my studies? I want to study like normal students. I was homeschooled my whole life, and now he is bribing my lecturers to postpone the exams!?” Odette groaned in disbelief, shaking her head tiredly, and dashed out of her room to her father’s office, knowing well that he would be there at this early hour as always.

“Dad!” Odette yelled, pushing the door open, making it flinch against the wall with a loud thud, causing Andre to sigh.

“Here we go,” Andre mumbled as he lifted his eyes from his laptop to Odette. But he wasn’t looking at her in anger or annoyance; he was looking at her with worried eyes.

“You just got better and started trashing my office already?” Andre scolded, coming close to Odette, placing his hand on her forehead to check her temperature, which was normal, but she still had to take medicines as prescribed because if she didn’t, her fever would return.

“Why did you postpone my exams?” Odette glared at her father, slapping his hand away, making him frown.

“What!? Who said I did?” he asked her dumbfounded.

“Don’t act now, then who did?” Odette exclaimed angrily, throwing her hands in the air.

“I swear to God, Dad, I just started college. I wanted everything to be like every normal student's life, so why have you…” Odette was cut off by the maid who brought her breakfast that morning.

“Sorry to interrupt, Princess, but Master wasn’t the one who postponed your exams; it was Marco De Luca, sir,” the maid said with a beam of happiness on her face.

“What?!” both Andre and Odette were in shock, looking at each other, then back at the maid.

“I wanted to tell you everything, but Marco sir warned me not to tell. But since I am loyal to you, Princess Odette, as I pledged my loyalty, I will speak only the truth to you,” the maid said with a mix of fear and happiness.

“Last evening, when Princess Aurora left as usual without saying goodbye…” the maid said, gulping thickly.

“Princess Odette locked herself in her room, and she was not opening the door. As you were busy, Marco sir asked me to contact him if it came to Princess Odette’s safety, and… and I called him. When… he came, he had to break the door to get into Princess’s room. She passed out near her desk. He took care of her, called the doctor, and even fed her soup and medicines. Do you know, he was so worried when the doctor said she had to give you an injection because he thought it would hurt her? He was about to kill the doctor if she did hurt, but thankfully, she ran away. All good,” the maid said everything in a single breath, making both Andre and Odette look at each other with wide eyes and totally dumbfounded.

Andre had no words to speak. At first, he was a little afraid of how Marco would treat his daughter, but now he could rest in peace as he heard what Marco had done for her. Which, being a mafia man, showing weakness was a big deal. It wouldn’t be, at least for the act, as no mafia boss would like to be addressed as weak, but he—Marco—went vulnerable for Odette. A smile formed on Andre's lips as he shook his head, not letting tears of happiness fall. But Odette was so confused, and slowly, after thinking a lot, she remembered what had happened last night.

She remembered how she went to take her pink blanket and went blank. She also remembered how sweetly Marco spoke to her and took care of her, fed her; she remembered everything.

A tear escaped her eyes because, after all the good things he had done, she woke up alone in her room. She was alone, and this time, the feelings she felt overpowered her sanity. She couldn’t believe that someone who took such care of her could leave her alone.

Angrily, she went out of her room to her bedroom and put on appropriate clothes to wear outside.

Taking blue jeans and a white shirt, she didn’t think to layer it up with any jacket and rushed out of her home with just her phone in her hand.

Dialing Marco’s number, she got into the car, which was ready with a driver for her.

“Hello?” Marco’s raspy voice echoed on the other line as he lifted the call.

“Where the hell are you?” Odette rasped angrily, clutching the phone tightly in her hand.

Marco frowned, not understanding why she was all angry at him. What was his fault? Oh! Because he decided for her! He thought, as she doesn’t like men to decide her life, so what her feminism classes taught her.

“I am busy, I am in a meeting,” Marco said in his bored tone. No matter how happy he was hearing her sweet voice and her unleashing her anger on him as if she owned him, it was making her damn cute for his own good.

“Tell me where the fuck you are?!” she rasped again, rolling her eyes.

“You can’t come here; I am busy. I will talk to you later,” he said, hanging up the call because he was in an important meeting with Chinese dealers who wanted to import drugs from him.

Too stubborn to listen to him, Odette did what a sane person who was raised in a mafia would do.

She called a worker in her mafia and ordered him to do something for her, which she didn’t know how much trouble it would lead her into.

“Suivre ce numéro," she said to the person on the other line.

"Bien sûr, Princess," he answered her and sent the address of Marco’s location to her phone.

A smirk played on Odette’s lips as she asked the driver to take her to that address too, oblivious to the impending danger.

A/N: editing this book is not that bad of an idea. I'm enjoying it so far.
How about you?