THEIR DOLL 🔞

FEELINGS

“Princess?!” Marco knocked on the door worriedly when he didn’t hear Odette responding.

“Since when has she been in?” he growled at the maid, who was already shivering in fear.

“It’s been more than an hour,” the maid answered, stuttering badly.

This made Marco's blood boil in anger. How could they not do their damn job properly?

“Next time she locks herself up, inform me right away!” he growled at the maid angrily as he stepped close to the door to break it.

After smacking his upper arm against the wooden plank of the door a few times, it flung open with a thud, making Marco sigh. But the sight in front of him wasn’t a good one, as he had hoped.

There Odette lay near her desk, where her pink blanket was placed on the chair and she held it in her right hand tightly while lying unconscious there, half-naked in her black lingerie.

“Odette!” he gasped, his eyes widening as he hurried towards her and lifted her unconscious petite body in his arms, laying her carefully on the bed and covering her with a duvet. Though the maid was a woman, he didn’t want anyone to see what was his.

Her body was burning with fever, which made his stomach churn. Marco had never cared for a woman, especially one as young as Odette. He had never felt this possessiveness and urge to protect someone before. It was an overwhelming feeling for his cold heart, one he knew he could get used to.

“Call the doctor!” he yelled at the maid, who stood dumbfounded at the door.

“Y-yes,” she mumbled before running off to the main hall and picking up the landline phone to call the family doctor.

Marco kept rubbing Odette’s legs and hands occasionally, jerking her a few times to wake her up, but she didn’t stir. Her heartbeat was normal, but her body temperature wasn’t, indicating that she was unconscious and had a high fever.

“Hang on there, baby, you will be fine,” Marco said against her forehead, pecking her head lovingly.

“Sir, the doctor is here,” the maid informed, standing at the door with a female doctor behind her.

“Hurry, check her up. She has been passed out since God knows when,” he snapped at the doctor, who stepped into Odette’s room.

“It’s okay, she has a fever. She will be fine by tomorrow morning. I will give her an injection and medicines she has to take tonight and in the morning,” the doctor said after checking Odette.

“Won’t it hurt?” Marco asked, making the doctor’s eyes widen.

"Hurt what?!" She asked in a squeaky, shocked voice.

"The injection," Marco replied.

The doctor, being the family doctor of the Francois mafia, had been working for them and Odette’s parents for a long time. In all these years, she had never heard a mafia boss ask if an injection would hurt.

“No, no, it will, but just a little,” she said, unable to process the amusement in her eyes.

She took the syringe out from her suitcase, filled it with medicine, and rubbed the damp cotton on Odette’s arm, which was held by Marco protectively.

“Please make it less hurtful,” he said, making the doctor's hand shake in fear. She understood that if Odette hissed even a little, he wouldn’t think twice before emptying his gun into her head. The sight was shocking but amusing to the maid, who had gathered with a few other head maids outside Odette’s room to peek at the worried mafia boss and his fiancée. They were all in awe when Marco hissed as if he felt the pain when the needle pierced Odette’s skin and closed his eyes, unable to watch.

If this word got out from the Francois mansion, people would start laughing at the cruel, ruthless mafia boss who chopped people into multiple pieces to keep his sanity, yet was hissing with his eyes closed in fear of seeing a syringe pierce his fiancée’s delicate arm.

Thankfully, Odette didn’t move or show any discomfort, which made the doctor more than happy.

“Done,” she sighed in relief and packed her things, after writing a few prescriptions on a paper and handing it to the maid who stood with five other maids at the door with smiles on their faces.

“Buy these medicines. She will be fine,” the doctor said, running out from the mansion for dear life.

Marco kept caressing Odette’s hair with his tattooed fingers, making the sight look ethereal, as if a big monster was playing with a delicate doll gently, fearing that he might break it.

The maids didn’t make a move, which made Marco frown as he lifted his eyes from Odette to the maids, giving them a deadly glare. They all stumbled back and ran from there, panicked, as if he might kill them for seeing him admire their princess.

“Si-sir, these are the medicines, and I brought soup as you asked,” the maid who had called Marco here in the first place stuttered as she completed the work he gave her.

He took the tray from her and put it on the bedside table beside Odette, gently lifting her up and cooing sweet nothings in her ear.

“Wake up, baby, let’s feed you something,” Marco said as he gently held Odette up, as she was half-asleep.

“I don’t want to,” she whined sleepily, but Marco wasn’t one to let her defy him.

“I know you don’t want to, but you need to eat something,” he said in his raspy voice, gently bringing a spoonful of soup to her lips and pressing it so that she opened her mouth, allowing her stomach to fill with the warm soup.

He gently blew air on the spoonful of soup before feeding Odette, making sure it didn’t burn her tongue.

“Enough… I'm full,” Odette whined sleepily, which made Marco sigh and drop the spoon in the bowl, taking tablets from the tray and making her swallow them with a glass of water. Odette did everything he asked for in her sleepy state, unaware of whose arms she was in and who was feeding her.

“Good girl,” Marco cooed, patting Odette’s forehead and tucking her back into bed.

When he called the maid back to take the empty tray, she was waiting at the door, seeing him do everything so carefully and lovingly. She couldn’t help but comment something, which Marco wasn’t ready to hear – yet.

“You love her so much… Thank you for taking care of her,” she blurted out, making Marco clench his jaw.

His hands fisted as he glanced at the maid, who silently took the tray away. His eyes raked over Odette’s innocent face, which was flushed and looking beyond cute, enough to destroy him and his existence in a blink, which made a new fear arise in his heart, one he thought didn’t exist until today.

The fear of falling in love with her was more terrifying to him than the cruel intentions he had to carry out to make Andre suffer.

He knew he couldn’t let his feelings ruin the only thing that kept him alive for these eleven years after losing everything – his mother.

He turned his back on Odette, letting her sleep peacefully, tearing his not-so-peaceful heart away from her, and walked out of the mansion with a thunderstorm of his newly erupting feelings in his chest.

The maid's comment had struck a chord within him, awakening emotions he had long buried beneath his icy exterior. As he walked away from Odette's room, Marco grappled with the realization that he might be falling in love with her. It was a terrifying prospect, threatening to unravel the carefully constructed walls around his heart. He couldn't afford to let himself love her, not when his life was built on vengeance and darkness.

With each step he took, Marco vowed to push aside these burgeoning feelings, to focus solely on his mission and his role as the ruthless leader of the Francois mafia. Love was a weakness he couldn't afford, especially when it came to someone as vulnerable as Odette. And so, with a heavy heart and a troubled mind, Marco retreated into the shadows, determined to bury his emotions deep within himself once more.