Falling [ 𝓚.𝓥 ]

"𝐃𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐞"

"Yes, father?" I quietly responded. I finally made eye contact with him, and eventually made eye contact with the rest of the people in the room. Cassius immediately broke the contact after a few seconds, but I saw it coming. Silas and Finn on the other hand, they made me want to jump and give them a meaningful hug, it had been too long since we saw each other. I was ready to approach my brothers, until I caught my father giving me a glare, and so I stood where I was.
"Don't be rude, greet your guests", my father ordered.
I swallowed a lump in my throat, and did as instructed. I turned to each of my brothers and sisters in law, giving them each a nod as I greeted them.
"Silas", a nod, and I moved on.
"Gloria, Finn, Valeria, Cassius, Celia, Dominik, Camilla, Victor and of course, Maria".
I stopped as soon as I reached the Spanish, I didn't know who was who. My father gestured for me to take a seat in between Alexander, and a man from the Spanish mafia. My father stood up, and my mother just awkwardly looked away.
"My daughter, Marina Leonora Astor, is to give her hand to Fransisco Romero, in one week from now. Shall we drink on that?" My father smiled.
Opposite my father sat another man, presumably my fiancé's father, and he raised his glass as did the rest of us.
It was then when my father nodded to one Spanish man, who ended up motioning for a butler to come to the table. I watched carefully, observing the little box given to who I had now discovered, was Fransisco. What made me especially nervous, was the fact that he appeared much more older than me. I whispered to Alexander,
"Father said he'd be around my age".
I began to bite my lip.
"He's 26, I'm 28. Remember, if anything goes wrong, tell me", Alexander whispered sternly.
I was so lost in my thoughts, I didn't notice Fransisco approaching me with the box in his hand. Mother was looking at me, with a look of sympathy. Father was the opposite. Only 3 of us in the room knew why this marriage was really being taken place, my father, Alexander, and myself. Fransisco got on one knee, and opened the ring box to reveal a diamond ring, beautiful, was an understatement. The ring screamed wealth, from the large stone and the "halo" beneath the stone made from a real diamond found in Austria. The band was a rose gold colour, covered in diamonds used from the halo. Each stone was a real diamond, and clearly, someone had told this man I was more of a gold than a silver.

𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓻𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓲𝓷 𝓺𝓾𝓮𝓼𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷, 𝓓𝓸𝓷'𝓽 𝓼𝓮𝓽𝓽𝓵𝓮 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓵𝓮𝓼𝓼, 𝓵𝓪𝓭𝓲𝓮𝓼.

"I hope, this suits your standards, miss Astor, or yet, Mrs Romero" Fransisco smirked, and I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry, so I smiled. He began to put the ring on my ring finger, and I only just noticed his features. He had a tattooed hand, it was the equivalent of looking at an xray, he had the bones of his hand tattooed. He wasn't completely different from Alexander, emerald eyes and black hair slicked back, but he had only let a few strands fall infront of his eyes. His sharp cheekbones and ear piercing was hard to miss. Fransisco had a sharp jawline, he was clean shaven and was considerably clean and well put together, despite the amount of blood this man possibly had on his hands.
At the end of the day, we were both forced into a marriage neither of us wanted, and yet, only one of us would be left standing while the other falls.
"So it's settled, you are to marry next week" Mr Romero announced.
Soon later, everyone began eating, talking and discussing business while I sat awkwardly in between Fransisco and Alexander.
"You're not very talkative, are you?"
At first, the voice seemed unfamiliar to me, it was deep but quiet. I then came to realisation, Fransisco was speaking to me. I quickly responded while pinching my leg in nerves.
"I can be".
I noticed that Fransisco wasn't directly speaking to me, instead he paid is attention to the rolex on his wrist, not looking me in the eye.
"It's better you're not. I never wanted to marry you, and I'm sure it goes both ways. In the marriage, I'll do what I want and you can do certain things you want. Don't expect anything from me".
Fransisco reached for his glass of wine, and took a sip out of it, still not meeting my mind.
"Okay".
I agreed without putting up a fight, because I constantly convinced myself it wouldn't last long. I think, after Antonio, I would accept anyone and anything. We would leave each other alone, do our own things and keep it up until something was to happen.
Silas caught my eye, and discreetly motioned for me to leave the hall and to meet him there. Silas stood first, and I was to join him. I awkwardly stood up from my seat, and muttered a small
"excuse me", until a strong hand gripped my wrist, a hand with the unmistakable skeletal hand tattoo. I turned around and flinched as a reflex. It rushed me back to the memories of Antonio when he was drunk, when he'd grab my wrist to stop me from leaving the bed. I felt ashamed for having these reflexes, I always felt like it was my fault, I should have left but I couldn't. He made me feel weak, small and worthless, in a way, this marriage saved me from an eternal relationship with Antonio.
"Where are you going?" Fransisco asked, in his usual deep, and quiet voice.
I couldn't speak for a few milliseconds, but eventually choked up a few words.
"To the ladies room", I lied.
Fransisco merely raised his eyebrow, he clearly wasn't convinced.
"Don't lie to me" he stated in a way that seemed to have been more of an order than a request.
"I need to speak with my brother", I confessed.
Fransisco kept his grip on my wrist, but turned to scan the hall to find out which brother I meant.
"The tall one, with the Colombian woman?" Fransisco asked.
I nodded, not trying to fight for the release of my wrist.
Fransisco slowly began to grip my wrist less tighter, and let go. It didn't hurt, the way he held me, but it brought back unwanted memories.
"Go", he muttered.
I took one last glance at the grand Hall, and made a departure. I hastily walked in my high heels to the drawing room, where I was met with the familiar faces of my two favourite brothers, Silas and Finn.