November 10th, 1963
Leonardo signed the contract before shoving it towards Frederick, "Your first born daughter is to marry my first born son in order to tie our mafia's together, which will make us the strongest Empire in the world."
Frederick examinded the contract before replying, "What if I'm not to have a daughter?"
"Then the deal will be passed down the next generation and so on and so forth," he paused, "If one of us are to break the deal, war will begin between the two mafia's."
Frederick clicked the pen before looking back at Leonardo, "One last thing, a child will resolve between the marriage so when will the child be due?"
Leonardo paused thinking to himself, "One year from the wedding. They must be pregnant by there year anniversary."'''
Frederick quickly signed the contract, "Deal," he shook hands with Leonardo.
June 15th, 2019
- C H A R L I E -
"Dad I am not doing that," I yelled at him from across the living room.
"You don't have a choice Charlie!" he yelled back and I swear I saw steam coming out of his ears, "You're grandpa made this deal fifty years ago and I will be damned if your the one to fuck it up!"
I saw red, "Me?! How is this my fault! I don't want to marry an old man because grandpa wanted to fuck up his daughter's life!"
"Watch you language," he warned, "The contract is signed and you're to be wed in a week, so pack your shit so we can go."
I rolled my eyes, "I'm not marrying him."
"Yes you are," he roared, "You're the binding of the Mafias, I don't understand why you're treating this like a punishment!"
I wiped the tear that was rolling down my cheek, "Go to hell!" I ran to my room and slammed the door.
How could he do this to me? How could I get married off to some Italian man? I don't know anything about who I'm supposed to marry and nor do I want to.
I cried into my pillow as my thoughts consumed me. We're supposed to hate the Italian mafia, we have run ins with them from time to time and now all the sudden we're supposed to be allies? I don't know anything about the head family, besides that my future husband is about ten years older than me.
I heard a light knock at the door and immediately knew it was my mom, "What?"
"Can I come in?" her soft voice crept from behind the door.
"Yeah," I whispered and stood up.
She came in and closed the door behind her, "I know you don't want to do this," she looked at me with sad eyes, "Hell, I don't want to make you do this, but it's not our say. The contracts been in place for over 50 years, there's no way around it."
I paused, "I know, and I know that I should get over it, but I can't."
She wrapped her arms around me, "We should start packing, we're going up there in a few hours."
I nodded as we began to pack my bags.
I've known about the arrangement for about a month, they told me a few days after I graduated. Let's just say I've never used as much foul language in my life than I did that day, especially after they told me the rules and details.
I'm not allowed to tell anyone outside of the family and high end mafia members that it's an arrangement, but they bent the rules and let me tell my three best friends.
Maeve, Riley, and Camila are coming to the wedding to be my bridesmaids. Maeve and Camila are obviously a little weary of being surrounded by a bunch mafia members, especially ones that hated each other at one point.
-
We finished packing and I was just finishing getting ready for the plane ride there. I had most of my makeup done, my hair was straightened, and I was in a short green dress.
I finished getting ready and brought my stuff upstairs.
We all loaded to the car and sat in silence before we got on to the private jet.
Once we got on the jet my dad broke the silence, "You two know all of the rules, right?"
I nodded and Hudson just ignored him.
"Because Hudson doesn't want to answer me, I'll review them," he paused before he started into the rules, "They once were our enemies so be prepared for anything. Besides that they're very well trained, as much as I hate saying it, they're a lot cleaner than us. Lastly onto the agreement, you won't be meeting Vincenzo until the day of the wedding but you'll be meeting his team and immediate family."
"What kind of name is Vincenzo," I muttered.
Apparently my dad heard me, "The name of the most feared man across all of the mafias."
I rolled my eyes.
"Do you know all the rules with the marriage?" he asked quietly.
I shook my head.
He paused, "You two need to stay faithful to each other no matter what, if one of you cheat the cheater's mafia will go completely to their significant other. Neither of you can ask for a divorce either," he thought to himself before taking in a deep breath, "Then there's the officiation of the wedding."
My face went pale, "Do you mean-"
"You two need to have sex the night of the wedding," my mom cut in.
I ran a hand threw my hair, "You're kidding right?"
They all shook their heads in silence before my brother cut in, "I'm taking it you don't know about the baby either."
I snapped my head towards him, "What baby?"
"You need to be pregnant by June 20th, 2020," he replied bluntly.
I stood up, "Where are you going?" My dad stood up behind me.
"I'm going to jump off the plane," I walked towards the cock pit, "Death sounds better than Grandpa's arrangement."
"Sit down," he rolled his eyes.
I did as he said and he started into his lecture, "A year from now the two of you will be in love and a kid won't sound too bad."
"No we won't! I'm not going to fall in love with a random man because we're married!"
"Okay," he agreed although I knew he didn't.
-
Once the plane landed the four of us exited the plane. The taller woman had curled black hair, dark caramel skin, light brown eyes, and was about an inch taller than the other woman that looked just like her besides having lighter skin.
Two women walked towards us in long black dresses and tall heels.
They stopped in front of the four of us and smiled.
"Veronica Luciano Kol," the taller one put her hand out for me to shake.
I quickly shook it before the shorter one did the same thing, "Juliana Luciano Rydel, we're your soon to be sister in laws."
I flashed them a fake smile, "Charlie Bennet."
"Nice to finally meet you," Veronica smiled before they met the rest of the family.
After finishing the introductions Juliana gestured to the black SUV, "Let's go get you guys checked in to the hotel."
As we walked towards the SUV Juliana leant towards Veronica, "Sta per essere tutto su di lei."
"Povera ragazza, non riuscirà a dormire," they laughed.
We all got into the SUV, a while later we pulled to the side of the road. I looked up and saw a huge building.
I looked up and was completely amazed by it, "Oh my god," I whispered to myself.
"Buildings aren't too big it California," Juliana stood next to me.
"No where near this," we walked into the building.
"Well our family has six of these buildings and this is the biggest one," she bragged, "This is where you'll be living, the top floor actually."
"Oh," I accidentally groaned out.
She laughed, "How long have you known about the arrangement?"
"Almost a month," I sighed, "What about him?"
"He's known his entire life," she shrugged, "He's actually somewhat excited."
"Why?"
"I think he just likes the idea of actually having someone comitted to him," she replied, "And the sex."
I didn't say anything, I just nodded.
We got in the elevator, "He's nice-"
"Don't lie," Veronica cut in.
They both laughed, "He'll be nice to you," she corrected herself, "He can be an asshole, but he won't be to you. He'll be nice and patient with you."
"Especially because you just found out about the arrangement," Veronica chimed in before getting cut off by Juliana.
"And you being a virgin."
I choked, "Come again?"
"Your mom told us," Veronica didn't think twice about throwing her under the bus.
I looked back at my mom and gave her a death stare before returning to our conversation.
"Does he know that?"
"He knows just about everything about you," Veronica replied before changing the subject, "All of your bags are on the way to your room, but we'll be going to the event room so you can meet our parents and are top men."
"Okay," I nodded before the doors opened.
I heard a woman yell as we exited the elevator, I looked up to hear who the yell came from but quickly figured it out once an older woman that looked a lot like Juliana wrapped her arms around me and pulled me in a hug, "You're so beautiful!"
"Thankyou," I fake laughed as I hugged her back.
"I wasn't expecting this," she gestured to my body.
I just smiled as she continued, "He's going to like you a lot, I already know," she paused for a split second before gasping, "Oh! I'm Ava Luciano."
"Charlie Bennet," I smiled back at her.
"Let me introduce you to my husband," she grabbed my hand and guided me to an older man that looked a lot like Veronica, "This is my husband, Franco."
He shook my hand, "Nice to finally meet you," he smiled.
"You too," I nodded.
"Are you ready for the wedding?" he asked.
"Yes," I lied.
"Speaking of," Ava chimmed, "I want to see your dress, oh and I want to meet those friends of yours."
"I can show you the dress tomorrow and my friends will be flying into here tomorrow night," I replied.
"You guys can interrogate her later," Juliana slipped her arm through mine, "Let's go meet everyone else."
She guided to me to where to tall men were standing, one had Veronica draped over him so it had to be her husband.
"This is Marcello Rydel," Juliana gestured to the tall man that had black hair, dark brown eyes, and dark toffee skin, "He's my husband."
"Nice to meet you," he nodded at me.
"And this is Danny Kol," Veronica put her hand against her husbands chest.
"We've heard a lot about you," he smiled, "Vince is excited about something for the first time in his life."
I looked down to the ground before Veronica pulled out her phone as she got a call, "How are the kids?"
"Good, good, we should be home in about an hour, I'll pay you extra."
"Okay, see you in a little bit."
She hung up her phone before looking to me, "Sorry about that, it was the sitter."
"No need to apologize," I defended before questioning her, "How many kids do you have?"
"Two," she replied, "Same for Juliana and Marcello."
"We'll introduce you at the wedding," Danny smiled, "You'll have one of your own before you know it."
"Yay," I said sarcastically.
"Do you not want a kid?" Marcello asked.
"Not next year," I replied honestly, "I'm 18, a kid wasn't exactly in the picture until recently."
He nodded before Juliana changed the subject, "I should introduce you to the rest of the inner circle."
"Okay," I agreed as she brought me to a group of mostly men.
"This is Kingston Ferrari," she gestured to the tall guy that had his arm around a shorter girl, he had dark brown hair, dark blue eyes, and lightly tan skin, "and this is his wife Rizzo," the short girl had light brown hair, brown eyes, and darkly tanned skin.
Rizzo looked me up and down, "Charlie?"
"Yes," I replied.
"Oh," she sounded dissapointed.
I almost rolled my eyes, but held it back.
"Nice to meet you," Kingston shook my hand, "Ignore Rizzo she's on her period."
Rizzo rolled her eyes, "I'm not."
"Are you pregnant then?" he shot back.
She stormed off and he groaned, "I'll see you in a few days, it was nice meeting you," he chased after her.
"They're always fighting but nothing ever happens," Juliana shrugged before gesturing to the two other guys.
"I'm Travis Rolino," the slightly shorter man smiled, he had dark brown hair, caramel skin, and close to black eyes.
"I'm Kahn Cortez," the other man smirked at me, he had black hair, bright green eyes, and light skin, he was really good looking.
"Charlie Bennet," I smiled at the two of them.
"Good luck with the boss," Travis laughed.
"What do you mean?" I questioned him.
"He's a little hard headed," he shrugged, "He takes a while to warm up to you, but he's been talking about you for a lot so you're probably already on his good side."
Kahn cut in, "Just do as he says and you'll be fine."
"What do you mean?"
"If he says something, do it," he paused, "he doesn't do good with the word no."
"So he's a toddler in a twenty something year old's body," I laughed.
Travis laughed as Kahn corrected me, "He's actually 33."
"Hm?"