Marriage Of Convenience

Chapter 6

Clara Diaz

"Why do I always miss this interesting shit?" Ella groans and dramatically falls onto the bed beside me.

"Because you were on this trip with your husband that you never mentioned and you now come back after two weeks with that on your waist?" I ask her pointing to a now fading bruise which was peeking out from her top that has ridden up.

"I tripped." Her response brings a wave or anger and a sense of helplessness rise inside me.

"Ella." I try again and scoot closer to her and slowly peel the top upwards. She tries to stop me but I send a glare in her direction and she shuts up at once as few tears drip down her face. Once the full extent of her bruise is visible I gasp and tears spring in my eyes.

Different shades of bruises were splattered wide across her stomach till her rib cage. "Oh baby." I whisper and immediately hug her. I was careful enough not to touch any of the bruised area but it was so difficult because none of her skin is completely healed. "I am so sorry." I whisper as I place a small kiss to the top of her head.

We stay like that for a long time as Ella finally breaks and sobs into me. "I don't know what to do Clara." she whispers and my heart breaks at her voice. My Ella has always been strong, sarcastic and so full of life. She never took anyone's shit. My Ella was a badass bombshell wrapped in a 5'2 body.

She was just a year older than me and she protected me like an older sister I never had. And seeing her like this breaks my heart because I have no say in anything regarding her martial life.

But two years ago her father -our consigliere- was shot dead in a attack by the bratva and the only way Ella could protect her little brother and her mother, who was fighting cancer, was to marry someone in the high ranks of our mafia.

I told her that I would support her with my money but since she was of the age and one of the most beautiful girls in our mafia she was married to the underboss of my father who was almost more than twice of her age.

Tomás Pérez, Ella's husband was a vile man who gave my father a run for his money. Even before their marriage I knew he was a pedophile and a rapist who had a girl or two who were less than fifteen in his bed. According to the maids, the sheets were bloodied as if someone was butchered there and those innocent girls would be passed out.

I threw up instantly when I heard those details. But apparently that wasn't it. Sarah, the maid who was one of the spies told me that there was a room in the basement of his house that no maid was allowed to go in and according to her she once heard the cries of children but she wasn't so sure.

When their marriage was announced I begged Ella to run away with her brother and that I would take care of her mother. But she refused saying that they would find her and everyone in her family would pay the price. She was right but it still broke my heart that I couldn't-can't- protect her from that monster.

"You have to stop him Ella." I whisper but not knowing how. She can't kill him because her mother's treatment is very expensive and it's her husband who takes care of that and her brothers educational expenses.

If she did kill him and they trace it back to her my father will end her and her family because Tomás Pérez was not only my father's underboss but also his partner in crime.

"I can't." her breathing hitches. "You know why. I can not be selfish now."

"I'll take care of her, Ella. Of both of them." I pause. "And remember you're not being selfish. You're the most selfless person I know. You looking after yourself is not selfish babe. It's what she would have wanted -wants- for you."

"There's no out of this world Clara. Once you're in, you're in till your last breath. Even you know that. Please don't give me or yourself false hope." she narrows her eyes on me. "Hope is worse than death. Hope is just a trick our mind is playing to keep us from the reality. It's a defensive mechanism. It's a façade, a fairy tale and our life is far from a fairytale you realise that right?"

Her words are meant for a distraction from the current topic which would leave to nowhere but still I can't seem to shake of her words.

She was always wary of my infatuation towards Sebastian.

But she doesn't realise that the hope is my only light in the darkness that torments me, haunts me. It's not just my blind optimism. It's my will.

My will to make a future different from my mothers present or past. My courage to work and fight for something until I reach it despite ever evidence says the contrary.

I don't really expect love from Sebastian.

I'm hopeful but not foolish.

But I want him to respect me. To look at me like his equal, because that I am.

His equal.

I'm going to be a Capo's wife.

I'm trained to be a Capo's wife.

I specialise at shooting. I can be a qualified snipper. I also learnt different kinds of self defence techniques. Martial arts, Taekwondo, Kickboxing, even Karate though I'm still in the process now.

I want Sebastian to not look at me like some damsel in distress. I can hold my own.

All though I do hope that he remains the way he is now before marriage. I hope that he would buy me gifts. I hope that he would want to talk to me like he wanted to today. I hope that he never stops caring.

I'm not really asking much. I hope that he stays the way he is now. Because whoever he is. He is what I would have never expected in the best way.

I don't explain all this to Ella. She wouldn't understand. So I just smile at her and nod.

She doesn't look satisfied but she doesn't also have the energy to argue so she falls into my lap and falls asleep.