We spent the morning going on a walk and then Ace taught me another card game. At lunchtime his family arrived.
"Where's my boy" his mother said as she came in and hugged him tight. "Happy Birthday my dear." "Thanks mom" he answered before Lucía hugged him as well. Then Mr. Rodrigues came in. "Come with me" he demanded and they left the room.
"Not even a Happy Birthday" I cursed under my breath. "He's always been this way with Ace" his mother muttered causing my heart to sink. My father hated me but at least he wished me a happy birthday.
"Wow who did all of this?" Mrs. Rodrigues pulled me out of my thoughts as she entered the living room. "I did" I said with a proud smile as Lucía and me followed her. "It's very beautiful" she replied.
"James bring the suitcases upstairs. I want to freshen up a little" the woman demanded as the butler came in with their suitcases.
After a while Ace and his father came back down. I approached him immediately and as he reached me he whispered something. "It's all mine now. I'm sole leader" he whispered proud as he crouched down to pick me up. I shrieked in happiness for him as he went in for a kiss.
Our moment got interrupted quickly by Mr. Rodrigues clearing his throat and Ace immediately let me down before his father left shaking his head.
"We can do whatever we want now" he stated relieved. "So how should I call you now? Master Rodrigues?" I joked as I wrapped my arms around his neck. "Daddy" he whispered with a smirk causing me to smack his stomach. "You Jerk" I said as I chuckled.
His grandparents arrived with multiple other family members. This was probably the biggest Birthday he would ever have.
As soon as everyone arrived we took our seats and started eating the cake while chatting. I was pretty much ignored until his aunt sitting next to me addressed me.
"How old are you if I'm allowed to ask?" "I'm 18" I answered with a smile on my face. "Oh close" she stated. "Do you mean because of the age gap and the fact that he's 21?" "Yes exactly. But to be honest" she stopped and leaned in "we're the Mafia so age laws don't really matter anyways, right?" she joked causing me to laugh along with her.
"When Ace was little he used to steal rubbers and pens from the local kiosk. We always told him 'don't do that or you will get caught one day'" she repeated the words with her index finger and eyebrows raised, creating a warning expression and I laughed.
"One day he got caught - as predicted - but his parents never got to know that because instead of calling them he called Marek. We pretended to be his parents and picked him up" she said with a laugh and shook her head causing me to laugh along with her.
"Did he steal again?" I asked. "Of course he did. When does Ace what he's told" she said amused and I nodded my head in agreement. Ace never did what he was told.
"He's a free soul. If you try to capture him, he will slip out of your grasp before you even count to 5" she said before taking a sip of her coffee and I asked myself what she meant by that.
"So how's it going between you? How did you meet?" she changed the topic. "Uhm it's going pretty good but what do you mean how did we meet?" I asked confused. Did she not know that we were arranged?
Her face suddenly dropped. "Don't tell me your parents arranged this." "Yes they did" I answered confused at why she didn't know that. She just scoffed in disbelief and shook her head. "I can't believe they put this upon you."
I looked away to my plate because I didn't know what to say. But then a question came to my mind. "Wait but wasn't it necessary? He wouldn't have been able to get the Mafia if he wasn't engaged" I asked and her face dropped even more.
"Do you really think that? This rule was abolished 3 years ago. But for some reason Dominic and Marek, Ace's uncle, still believed in this tradition. They wanted to keep it alive. It took me years to get this bullshit out of Marek's brain but Constanza however doesn't seem to have been as successful."
I was in shock. So this marriage wasn't even necessary? Why didn't Ace tell me this? And then the most painful thought came to my head. Was he just using me and after this day was over he would break up with me because he didn't need me anymore?
"I want to announce something" Ace suddenly cleared his throat before getting up. Everyone's attention was on him immediately. "I signed the papers earlier so the Rodrigues Mafia is now officially mine" he announced and everyone clapped and cheered before taking a sip of their Champagne.
"I guess you won't be needed anymore" Mr. Rodrigues whispered as he leaned over the desk to me with a evil smirk on his face.
"And so you won't neither" I answered as I took another sip of my Champagne and then leaned back and smiled at him bitchy. The way his smirk dropped when I said this was triumph enough for the day.
After his family left, his mother, father and sister went out as well. Constanza somehow managed to get them all out of the house when I told her his friends would come over.
"You've been very quiet today" he suddenly spoke up as we were sitting on the couch. "That's because I didn't want to steal the show from you" I winked at him playfully, trying to suppress my bad mood but it didn't really work.
"You? Steal my show? Oh please" he bragged in both disbelief and confidence but then got more serious. "I saw you talking to my aunt. What did she say?"
"It's nothing" I tried to shove it off but he was persistent. "I thought we wanted to talk about our problems" he said in a demanding tone. "It's not a nice topic. I don't want to ruin your birthday." "It won't be a nice birthday if you feel bad for some reason. Come on I can see there's something going on" he urged.
"Fine" I sighed annoyed. "Is it true that this marriage wasn't necessary?" I asked causing his face to suddenly dropped. He shifted in his seat and I could see his body tense.
"Who said that?" he asked. "Your aunt. She said this tradition was abolished 3 years ago but your father still wants it to go on."
He sighed, massaging his temples with one hand. "Ace if you plan on breaking up with me after this birthday is over please just tell me. I deserve to know" I said with my voice threatening to break.
To my surprise his gaze immediately snapped to me before he looked at me in shock. "Why do you think that?" he asked, his voice suddenly vulnerable.
"You said it yourself. You can easily send me back if you want to-" "That's not true. I said I can send you back if that's what you want" he corrected me. "But you never fell in love before did you? You're the complete workaholic. You don't even have the time for a relationship. And then we will live our own lives and grow apart before our first wedding anniversary and then you will leave me and I will be the lonely one while you have your Mafia and" I stopped because Ace cupped my face and locked eyes with me. I hadn't noticed that I talked faster and faster the longer I spoke.
"Mallory stop it you're talking nut's do you know that?" he said as he shook his head and then went in for a kiss.
I wrapped my arms around his neck as he pulled me onto his lap by my hips. His hands made their way under my dress, pushing it up in the act and grabbed my ass hard when suddenly the doorbell rang.
We stopped and both sighed in sync before laughing. Then we went to open the door.
Who else hates his father?
One more chapter to go for today, what do you think will happen? Will it stay a good birthday?
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Morozov
Romance † • Morozov - Arranged to Love • Sometimes, the Universe makes weird decisions. Sometimes, you'll be brought into this world, thinking you're actually in hell. But sometimes, that...
