Hateful obsession

Chapter 2

                                      Melissa
                                  "6 years ago..."

I feel anger, boiling in my veins. In my head. Even in my damn ass from how ready I am now to take off like a balloon. Red balloon. And this is the only shade that I saw as my mother just said 5 words that made me feel a knot in my stomach and vomit what I heard.

"I'm sorry, what did you just say?" Swallowing down my nausea, I asked, wishing that I had simply misheard.
"You should just marry him." Mom smiled nervously. "It's just a marriage of convenience."
"Just?" My not cheerful laughter filled the space. "I'm going to study at Cambridge, that's it."

"Do you want them to kill us?" Her voice became a whisper. "Your father cared so much about us, about your future and..."
"Don't continue that sentence!" I screamed, bending over the table towards my mother. "Mom, he took this fucking money from the Russian mafia and spent it all on booze and poker and just...died. And what? What does it have to do with me or you?"
"It's the mafia, honey. Everyone has to pay their bills."
"Wonderful. How much money do you need?"
"Just agree to the deal." She rolled her eyes. "You won't find $500,000 in two days."
"How much? Your husband had no brains at all, didn't he?" It took my breath away.

"That's why you need to agree."
My eyes dried looking at the calm expression on my mother's face.
"So you want your only daughter to marry some Russian asshole and save your ass right?" I grinned. "Why the hell did they even offer you this? Does he have problems with potency and he is 80 years old?"
"I don't know. But those who came to me yesterday made it clear that we only have two choices." She pointedly touched the bruise on her neck. "Honey, I want to live in peace."
"And I don't? Why me?" Misunderstanding seeped into my blood. "I don't know anything about him and he doesn't know anything about me."

"The mafia knows everything, but I don't think they know about your connection with Alex and don't talk about it, they will come for you tomorrow and I think everything will be fine." She got up from the table and headed into the living room, leaving me alone, but she managed to say. "Don't be selfish, girl.

I tiredly leaned back on my chair, feeling like she already knew that tomorrow I myself would go to my hell. Well done, Melissa, so you went to study. My eyelids closed and my thoughts began to tangle into a complex knot. This means that a stranger to me wants me to become his wife and so my family doesn't have this fucking debt. Could you die later, dad?

All my life I was the one who had to clean up all my father's crap. Even if I'm only 18, my mother is a spineless creature, I always picked up my drunk father from bars or worked double shifts in a store to pay off another debt. My father died due to a sudden heart attack and was considered one of the best lawyers in New York. This is not a joke.

More often than not, he paid for almost everything himself, but was too reckless. But it seemed to me that he at least had brains...I was wrong. Most likely he got into debt again saying that he needed money for a new project but to get involved in damn mafia affairs? Fuck my life.

I'm confused a lot right now. Like why the hell does the head of the mafia want to make me his wife? Without knowing me. Never having seen it. Actually fuck him and his plans.

I had my own. It's embarrassing to say this, but when my dad died a week ago, I felt relieved. It seemed to me that now I could live and breathe with full lungs. Study at Cambridge. Make friends. Fall in love. To be a normal girl and not her father's daughter.

But...apparently, I can't afford such luxury in this life. Now I can put aside my dreams and desires because a dangerous person wants to control me. The problem is that I love danger, but I don't even know his name, I can say that in this war he is not the only one who can play with fire.