Submitting To The Devil - The Devil's Snare - Book 2

Chapter Sixteen

Bianca

Niko holds onto me for dear life as we wander along the dimly lit hall and through the doors that lead us into a multitude of people gathered within the large hall, ready to greet us. I had presumed that this little ceremony would have been over as soon as I said I do, but I'm being treated more than the second daughter married off just because I can be.

Faces blend into faces as he guides me to talk to the first set of people to our right. I note Dimitri upset in the corner, obviously disliking that we escaped almost as soon as his priest said we finished the ceremony. Yet the funny thing is we signed off on the dotted line last night, and I have no doubt those papers were fast-tracked to ensure our matrimony was official.

Don Hendrix congratulates us with a warm smile, and his wife tells me how beautiful I am in this dress, which itches every part of my skin it is touching. Nothing really sinks in besides the blood swooshing in my ears because of my racing heart at the number of people waiting on tenterhooks to greet me as if Itrulywere the Rossi heir.

Which I am, but these lots should be kept from knowing that.

I guess you could say I wished for something I didn't want, a subject that was a sore point of conversation at home before my father went batshit crazy with the intent of ending the threat that 'was' my sister.

She wasn't a threat, and honestly, in hindsight, I realise that she might've stepped aside just as she had expected by marrying Luca.

My father had it wrong, and he poisoned me thoroughly, that's for sure.

Next, we greet an old Russian family. I don't know their name, or at least right now, I can't recall it. But the man reaches for my hand, nodding with a smirk before he claps Niko on the back with a sure grin.

"Beautiful, beautiful. Now I see why you needed something as beautiful as a rare red diamond," he grins.

They whisper amongst themselves as I regard the girl next to the man before me. She looks shit-faced, probably high on Christ knows what. And yet, a smile plays on her lips as if she's pleased to be here.

Niko excuses us a few minutes later to walk along only a few steps behind the Russians. This man I know is one of the three men destined to stand beside Luca, one-third of whom will one day lead the Italian mafia for my generation.

Drake Pelion stands before us, hands clasped together, and grins widely as if we're very close friends. He's never been interested in me; I was only ever the spare that was seen and not heard, and yet, it seemed he was at least pleased for me to be here, happy, even if unbeknownst to him, I was very much forced into this arrangement.

"Niko," he greets him with a brotherly hug, but Niko does not let go of me as I had expected. "Bianca," Drake turns to me. He pinches my chin much as he used to when we were kids, something he hasn't done for a good five years now, but even so, his gaze barely reaches me. "Always a pleasure. You look magnificent," he tells me quietly.

"You truly do," his wife Nadine adds quickly. She reaches for me to give me a custom hug and kiss on my cheeks before stepping back. "Niko," she nods.

"What a beautiful ceremony it was," Don Dubois smirked as he led his son Mitchel, the other one-third of the powerhouse trio, towards us. They both look at me with hooded eyes before nodding behind me. "How your love affair came from a left field," he continues.

"Love finds you when you least expect it," I shrug, using my mother's words that she told Emma and me many times when smiling at my father.

"Love doesn't always save you," Mitchel frowns. This brings to my attention that his wife does not hang off his arm as she usually does.