Marrying the Mafia

Trust

Aria's POV:

        The sun beats on my window as light floods my room. My head pounds from the killer hangover pulsating in my skull. It's been two weeks since I shattered a glass and lashed out on Ryder. He wants me back, simply because Derek is in my life. He wants what he can't have. He wants someone to punch and manipulate any time he wants.

Then it hit me mid-argument which is why I shattered the glass.

What if Derek grows to be the same?

I am tethered to him via marriage and paperwork. News of my marriage and divorce would make breaking headlines. I made an announcement that I was going off the grid on my social medias so that people wouldn't ask questions. Little to they know I'm busy being married and hunted like a fucking banshee just for some stupid business deal between the Montgomery and Torres family. What a shit show this is.

"Aria, are you decent?" Derek gently knocks at my door. We've barely spoken since the night in the kitchen.

"Yeah, come in," I call out tiredly. Derek steps into my room, stopping at the foot of my bed. He's dressed in a white button-down, also known as his fancy attire with his expensive cologne.

"How are you feeling?" Derek asks, his voice calm and quiet.

"Fine? Why do you ask?" I ask, rubbing my eye with my bandaged hand.

"You got extremely drunk and passed out in the bathtub, so I carried you up here," Derek explains, gesturing to my room.

"Oh..."

So that's why my back hurts. I thought I fell asleep in my bed, but I guess not.

"Aria, this has to stop," Derek's tone is stern as he locks eyes with me as he walks towards my side of the bed. "You've been getting drunk almost every night since your fight with Ryder in the kitchen. I've let you have your bender, but from now on, you're cut off."

"I'm a grown fucking woman, Derek, I'll do what I want!" I snap, grabbing the beer off of my dresser and chugging it in spite.

Derek launches his arm out and knocks the beer out of my mouth and onto the floor. "Enough, Aria."

"Bastard," I scoff, slamming my head back down on my bed. I turn and face away from Derek. Everything about him is pissing me off, I'm fucking done. First he controls were I go, then he controls who I can and can't talk to, and now he's trying to take my booze away. Fuck him.

"You're pushing it, Aria," Derek says in a frustrated tone.

"Oh yeah? What are you gonna do, hit me?" I taunt angrily. Derek sighs behind me as I keep the covers to my chin.

"Aria, please," Derek runs his fingers through my hair. "Stop drinking because of something so stupid. What reason have I given you to think that I would want to hurt you?"

Nothing. That's the truth, he hasn't done anything, but I can't take my chances. I can't let another man destroy me like Ryder did.

"I'm done with this conversation."

        Later in the evening, I finally come out of my room and head for the kitchen. I haven't eaten all day and my stomach is angry.

"Derek, you know you can't change the locks."

I stop in my tracks just behind the wall of the kitchen. Derek's father is here? He never stops by unless it's business related.

"He terrorizes my wife. He went too far. He made her so uncomfortable and angry that she now fears me simply because he's my brother," Derek retorts.