Unholy Matrimony (Unedited)

1

N.
There is very twisted misconception that the children of powerful men are treated as precious ruby's, priceless jewels held to the highest pedestals. But really we are just pawns in the twisted games we never asked to play. This was something I had come to terms with when I was very young.

My mother didn't meet my father in the whims of romance like in the books id spend hours indulging in. My mother was arranged to marry my father when she was twenty, my grandfather at the time had a lot of power, almost too much in the Dominican Republic and no heir to take it over.

Because my mother wasn't a man and had no brothers, she had to marry my father who was being groomed to take over his fathers business arrangements in New York which ultimately moved to the D.R with my father.

I always found it ironic my mother was not able to take over her families empire because she was born the 'wrong' gender, but my father's business in New York was small enough to be mostly moved states and the rest just dissolved.

I lost my mother when I was nine, then a year later my father remarried a woman from the states and she came with a daughter a year younger and then two years later she gave birth to my brother. Who is now nine himself and being groomed to take over an empire he may not even want by the time he's old enough to actually understand it.

"Nalani, when are you going to let me see what it is you spend your time writing in that little book?" I smiled softly to myself once I recognized the voice. The hallway patio was my favorite place to write and I'd often get to lost in thought. Making it very easy for Angelo to sneak up on me. One of his favorite past times.

"I told you, when you learn who Aida Portalarin is." Taking his out stretch hand, I tuck my note book in my hand towards my side while I brush the grass and debris off my dress. Choosing to ignore the softness in Angelo's smile as I do so.

Things have always been weird between him and I, he was the son of my father right hand man. He was about an inch taller than me and with hair just as curly, if not curlier since both his parents were Dominican with dark brown eyes.

We grew up mostly under the same roof, his father is always here but we didn't start interacting until I turned thirteen and was really feeling ostracized from my family. Angelo became the shoulder I leaned on, my companion and something dangerously close to what could be considered a lover. But I wasn't naïve, Angelo was another man involved in the business, and if I didn't have this empire tied to my name, my blood- I wouldn't be as attractive to him.

Men adored shiny things. So long as their shine didn't turn to rust.

" And I told you, I don't have the time. Too busy looking on patios for you, your fathers requesting you in his office." He smirked, sly and charming. Eyeing him, I glanced briefly at the gun tucked into the front of his waistband. Shuddering I pivot towards the door. "Shit- Lani, Im sorry I forgot." I could hear him frantically fumbling around.

Tossing a hand up but not turning, "Its fine." I say, but the goosebumps are covering my entire body and im suddenly very hot. But I choke it down, focusing on the shined hardwood floors under my feet instead as I walk to my fathers office on the first floor of our massive house.

Its not the one I grew up in but rather the one that satisfys my stepmothers ginormous ego and need for physically evidence of her status.

I knock on the large dark oak door three times before my father voice rumbles 'come in Nalani.' I step in with my gaze down and shut the door quickly behind me, barely taking two steps.

"You requested to see me?" I pull my hands behind my back trying to keep my notebook out of view.

"Sit, we need to discuss the guest we will be having in two weeks." I swallow, hard. My father never tells me anything about the business or people coming to stay. Usually when you are being made aware its because the next few weeks consist of plans of a wedding.

I sit but it feels like im on pins and needles.

My fathers eyes are sharp blue, cold and almost grey. My brother has the same cold gaze but Isaac smiles and still has a light of joy. My father, Brian, was a stone faced man who never even hugged me as a child even when my mother was alive. I wasn't afraid of him, but he could intimidate me enough and he knew that.

"In a little less then a decade your brother will be fit to take the empire." He starts rubbing at the stumble on his jaw.

"Heavy is the head that wears the crown." He nods at my words, sighing deeply as his gaze narrows slightly.

"If only you could be don, you'd be so powerful." My father shakes his head and scoffs to himself like he cant believe it before reaching for the glass on his desk and tossing back the contents.

Its best to remain silent when my father makes these types of remarks but my anxiety was eating at me, a slip of the tongue and I scoff, "The problem is not because I am a woman, the issue is, I don't want it-"

"Shut your mouth, Nalani." I startled at the growl in his tone, my words caught in my throat as my body jerks at the sound of my father smashing his glass on to the hardwood floors beside his chair as he rose. Pointing a fat finger in my face as he glared. "You're an ignorant brat, as my eldest I expect better from you." I gulp, uncurling my fingers from the arms of the chair.

"You prance around with Ricardo's son like a whore and you think I don't know? You are so smart, so fucking intelligent yet so fucking stupid." My eyes were burning, pulling my gaze away I look to the window behind him, fighting back tears. His words stung like black jacket hornets, burned and ached but my fathers cruelty wasn't something I wasn't accustomed to. But its the first I've been accused of being a whore, let alone sleeping with someone I had never even kissed before.

"Tomorrow night we will have a guest, Don Bianchi. He is coming to meet your sister Selene, they are arranged to be married in three months time." I felt like I could breath again, there was a marriage. It just wasn't mine. "You are only being informed because I dont need you hiding away or lost in your thoughts. We are a family and we will showcase that to the Bianchi's."