Morozov

Chapter 1

         • Morozov - Arranged to Die •

Before you start to read my story, I have a question for you to answer: How far would you go to protect a loved one? Would you lie for them? Would you ally with your greatest enemy? Would you kill for them? Or even die yourself? Would you make up a story and live a life full of intrigues only for them to be safe? Would you betray your closest friend? Think about it for a second and you might find yourself going further than you ever expected you could.
~Anonymous

I never meant to harm you, love.

I will forever loath you, little traitor.

Niveen
My father cleared his throat and shifted in his seat at the end of the table. "I have an announcement to make," is what caused the five of us to look at him - it was his most important rule; everyone must look at him when he speaks.

"Mallory is getting married."

Oh shit.

"She is getting married to Ace Rodrigues," the pride in his voice was abnormal, I could even sense the ghost of a smile on his face. Mallory, my bigger sister, swallowed hard, trying to hide the fear rising in her. Not that her pale face gave her attempt any justice.

While my siblings and mother looked surprised, I wasn't. I suspected something like that for a while because I overheard him talking about an arranged marriage on the phone. And since I was his favorite child, I figured I wasn't the unlucky one of us.

"You don't mean Ace Rodrigues in the biggest Mafia leader to exist, do you?" "Are you out of your mind, Gabriel?" "I made this arrangement for the sake of the Mafia so keep in mind if you disrespect my decisions, you disrespect the Mafia."

Marvolo, the oldest of us, must've seen me inhale to speak. He kicked my foot under the table, making me drop my attempt immediately. Upsetting father probably wasn't a good idea, I'll give him that.

The next day at school I told my friends about the news. Me and my brothers all visited the same private school while Mallory attended a public one. She wanted it that way and I stopped overthinking it at some point to be honest. Maybe she did it to piss our father off, maybe not. No matter what her intentions were, it worked either way.

"Oh my god that's horrible," Eleanor exclaimed. Eleanor was a descendant of a long line of nobility so I guess you could say she's some sort of princess. While she took her status very seriously, we low key found it funny and joked about it behind her back sometimes.

"I kind of feel sorry for her. Especially after what she did for us on Halloween," Malcolm said, earning a glare from me in response.

'She can bury the leftovers. If there's any.'

I shook slightly from a shiver that went down my spine at the memory. Trying to brush it off, I closed my eyes but all I could see was the damn dog crushing Tinker's bones.

"You know damn well she didn't take the blame voluntarily. And now stop talking about it all the time," I snapped. We barely talked about that night, only when Malcolm brought it up once again. He felt at fault because it was his idea to prank my grandparents in the first place. Despite several attempts to convince him that it's not only his fault, he still felt guilty about it.

"Can we stop arguing and come back to the marriage part? Who is she supposed to get with?" Vera asked excited, leaning into the conversation with her hands supporting her on the bench she sat on.

"It's concerning how invested you are in this," I said, frowning my face at her. "It's Ace Rodrigues."

The next thing I could hear were gasps leaving every one of my friend's mouths and Eleanor blurt out a 'what?'. "That's so cool," Alice smiled widely, causing my gaze to snap over to her.