The Alliance

Chapter 8

Ariah Rmah

I fidgeted with my dress as I waited behind large oak doors that hid me from the rest of the room.

I was nowhere ready to meet the rest of the Gani family. They were notorious for being hard to crack, merciless and brutal. They'd proven it that day. All those rumors I'd heard about them before didn't seem like rumors anymore. No, they were leaning more towards the truth.

I told myself that the entire family seemed to have ice running through their veins. They didn't care about anyone- sometimes I doubted they even gave two fucks about their own.

I was so close to the villains of the stories I'd heard growing up. Those same villains would judge and scrutinize me relentlessly to see if I was worthy of the Scorpion title and most importantly the Gani name.

I was nothing like them. But I could pretend.

"Red is definitely your color." I turned at the sound of her voice. My eyes did a once over of her all-black outfit. Short hair slicked to the length of her nape, moderately wavy strands left to frame her sharp face. A thin chain adorned her neck resting on her black dress shirt with slacks and a matching blazer completing the look.

"I can't help but think you'd look just as good in black, though." She made her way towards me, eyes not leaving the spaghetti strapped, cherry red fabric I was currently dressed in.

"You're staring Imaan." I warned. She was close enough for the scent of her cologne- sweet yet spicy- to engulf me.

"Am I not allowed to admire what's mine?" Her hands on my waist sent shivers down my spine. I cursed myself.

She turned me around until my back was facing her front. And I meekly let her. "We can't have you going out with your bow undone, can we now?" I ignored the entirety of her previous statement looking down at the- sure enough- undone fabric wrapped around my waist, before looking back up at her over my bare shoulder. Dark eyes focused on tying the ribbon before they looked up.

"I don't appreciate being objectified." I spoke, the words not having the impact I intended them to as her lips turned upwards.

"Give me your hand." I raised a brow at the words that broke me out of my trance-like state and I took as big of a step away from her as possible.

"Why?" I cleared my throat as the words came out rasped.

"I'm trying to ask you to marry me, Ariah." She rolled her hazel eyes, "Just give me your hand damn it." A chuckle left her lips, and I bit my own cheek.

I put my hand into hers, not missing the way her jaw clenched at the small contact.

She reached into her pocket, retrieving a black velvet box from her pocket. "Do you propose to every girl you manage to get alone?" Imaan laughed at my question.

"Only the ones that seem to want to kill me." I can't help smiling at that but my smile immediately falls as the ring in the box glistens in the dim light of the room. The gem once hidden by the sheer fabric of its small box now revealed and held bare for all to see the beauty of it.

"It was my mother's." My eyebrows furrow as my mind flew to Ayzal.

"What is she-" Imaan cuts me off with a short, amused huff.

"I don't think she'll haunt her beloved daughter for giving her ring to her future daughter-in-law." She speaks in a light tone even though the topic is now anything but.

Imaan's mother is...

"I didn't know." I spoke softly, taking in her demeanor. Her hand now tense beneath mine.

"I didn't expect you to." She shrugged it off. Her hand leaving mine to hold the jewel between her fingers. "I know that we're doing this all wrong," She exhaled a short laugh. "But Ariah Rmah will you marry me?" Her eyes twinkle with that humor she never fails to bring into situations.

"Only if you get down on your knees." The words seemed to catch Imaan as off-guard as they did me. 

"I don't get down on my knees for anyone, Ariah." My stomach tightened at the words and her close proximity as she whispered them.

"Well," I sighed, "seeing as I don't have any other suitors knocking down my door." I nod once in encouragement.

"I'm sure Weston would disagree." She says as she slips the ring onto my finger.

"Wes-" I cut myself short, "How do you know about Weston?"

She wore a sheepish look on her face before she looked at her bare wrist. "Well, would you look at the time. We should probably get going or we're going to miss the party."

I tutted, "It's our party. It can't start without us." I narrowed my eyes at her, "Once again how do you know about Weston?"

"I met him a while ago. Good man." I raised a brow at her retreating figure. Walking to catch up to her before she's able to even reach for the door handles.

"Last I checked, dead men can't have conversations." Her eyes widened at my statement.

"You killed your boyfriend?" She asked incredulously making me freeze and turn to face her.

"That's a story for another time, I wouldn't want to scare off my fiancée already, now would I?" I ignore her baffled state and drag her by her hand as I open the doors.

She immediately pastes a smile on her face as all of the heads in the room turn in our direction. "You killed your boyfriend?" She repeats her question through her gritted teeth.

"Ex. And right now is really not the time to be having this conversation." I nudged her as I insisted. My elbow meeting her ribs.

My eyes scanned the faces in the room. Familiar and unfamiliar. Young and old. Both mine and Imaan's extended families were gathered in the hall. The only tell of which house they were from were their outfits. There was a divide between red and black. A divide so vast that it seemed like nothing could bridge the distance.

Yet, here were Imaan and I. The sow and thread with the sole purpose of stitching two empires together. Our marriage would be objected but they'd soon learn to accept it. Learn to accept one another. Because it was about time that we put an end to the fighting.

Ending a nearly two century long war between the Scorpion House of the Lebanese mafia and the Phoenix House of the Vietnamese. Two houses that first went to war over the murder of the first son of Phoenix. A debt that has yet to be repaid, even though hundreds of thousands of Scorpions have died at the hands of Phoenixes and vice versa.

It was never enough. It would never be enough.

This wasn't about our separate empires. It was ultimately about creating one empire- one that I wanted to rule.