Unholy Matrimony (Unedited)

25

N

"Nalani, what are you doing here?" I'm momentarily stunned to silence by the sudden coldness I'm receiving from the same man who shed tears when I brought home my first Cello award.

Clearing my throat, I attempt to straighten my spine, fighting against the weight of my troubles. "I'm here to see my brother, José" I pride myself on the clarity in my tone despite the shakiness in my hands. I clutch my bag tighter, the Spider-Man action figure inside poking into the side of my hip.

"I'm afraid master Isaac is at lessons. Your father is in his office if you'd like to speak with him." He clips and I find my chest tightening. José and his wife oversaw the help in my fathers house and he took care of me ever since I was a little girl, used to tell me stories about my mother pregnant with me. On days missing her got too much and my father and his wicked step wife became unbearable, he'd sneak chocolates into my room.

Now his gaze was cold, words clipped and I was regarded as a stranger.

The realization washing over me like a ton of clattering bricks. I blink past the stinging in my eyes, "Right. I-I." The words die on my tongue, Angelo was gone before I woke up and my father hadn't answered my call this morning. The last thing I would expect was to be suddenly unwelcomed in the home I grew up in.

"Nalani, this is quite the surprise." My father's expensive Italian leather click against the marble floors Angelo mimicked and had put into every square inch of his tacky house. Despite my fathers words his tone is flat and he looks utterly disinterested with my presence in his house, "What is it that you want?" With a flick of his wrist, José leaves with his head bowed. Angelo's father lingers in the shadows, always a step behind my father.

"Too see Isaac." My words don't come out as nearly as strong this time, the shaking has gone from my hands and into a tingling that's shooting up my arms. Behind my father Angelo's father shoots me a look I dont have time to calculate as he turns and shuffles back the way they came.

"No." I blink, registering the clipped word a second later. I open my mouth to reply but my teeth clatter as I click it back shut, my eyes sting and burn until im forced to bite down on my tongue, tipping my head back just the slightest to keep the traitorous tears at bay. "You are married now, your focus should be on your husband." I physically flinch at his words.

"Papa, please i-i've done everything you've asked of me. I just want to see my brother." My voice cracks, nails digging into my palm as I try to ground myself, not to sway and get swept up in my emotions. My fathers always played the sickest games, manipulated the world around him to bend to his will. I had did my best to maintain under his radar, remain strong in his games but I was crumbling now, he was winning and the shine in his eyes let me know he knew he was winning too.

"Tsk, tsk. Not everything Nalani, not always. Isaac is busy learning the family business. The same business you wanted no part of and now here you are standing, begging, in the same house you used to conspire to run away from." The smirk my father gathers on his face makes me physically sick to my stomach. "Now you're out, go be the pretty little trophy wife, live with your head in the clouds or your nose in a book. Maybe you will be more use for Angelo than me, who knows? Maybe by the time he's ready to step into his temporary role as head of my cartel, maybe by then you will have finally pulled your head out of the clouds." His laughter is cruel as he stalks away, flickering another silent motion to the men lurking in the shadows.

The tears fall rapidly, quietly as they move in. Corralling me back towards the door, one of them shoot me a sympathetic look as he opens the door, using his shoulders to essentially block me out. "Im sorry, Mrs-" Waving my hand roughly swiping at the tears streaking down my face, I fumble for the action figure in my purse shoving it into the massive palm of the guard. "Give this to my brother, tell him I love him." The reluctance on his face makes me think he wont do it but the tightness in my chest as it aches for me to sob doesnt let me dwell as I head back to the car. My driver waiting with a seldom look on his face as he opens my door.

I sob, my chest racks and shakes as I allow myself the car ride back to Angelo's house, behind the protection of the partition to have a moment of weakness. To wallow in my self pity for just a moment. Using the reflection in the tint of the car I use the tissues in the side compartment to wipe at the wetness on my face, its blotchy and my lips are swelled from the force of rolling them together to keep my sobs in.

I felt as drained as I look as when I enter the house the last thing I'm prepared for is Angelo and his flared temper.
"Where have you been?" He snaps as I set my purse on the side table by the door, tossing my house keys into the tacky leaf shaped bowl placed there as well. I hated the decorations of the house just as much as I hated the house itself.

"At my fathers house." I mutter, emotionally drained and no where near prepared for the flash of fury in his eyes as he stomps up to me until I'm forced to step back into the door, the handle digging into my back.

"Why? For what?" He narrows his eyes, glaring at me.

Shoving at his chest, frowning when he doesnt move at first, shoving at him again I slide in the gap, creating space from him hovering over me. "To see my brother." My hands shake as I watch his body language, his shoulder swelling as he breathes deeply, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Fuck. I'm sorry Lani." He grunts, shaking his head, "Bianchi keeps sending me on these runs but wont give me any time to speak to him about my title." He murmurs more to himself, "I've held up my end of the deal, you've got a ring on your finger. If your father is playing me, its going to be hell." I swallow thickly, the anger in his eyes is scary, unsettling and directed at me. The emphasis in my fathers tone in the word temporary was enough to let me know what exactly he had in store for Angelo and if he was smart he wouldn't be in such a rush to become head of the cartel.

A part of me wants to warn the boy I grew up with, that I had love for that this was a potential set up but the part of me currently quaking in fear and standing on egg shells had my mouth sealed shut.