THE MAFIA’S MISTAKEN BRIDE

Jasmine’s POV

My tears are uncontrollable.

I really can’t figure out why I am crying when I ought to be happy that I will never be bothered by him ever again.

Vicenzo is gone but Sebastian is still alive and he wants me now that his boss is gone.

Is Xavier going to kill Sebastian as well?

I should have known that they were all the same. These Mafias are all the same. All they know how best to do is to kill and torture people. I should have known that he was not only going to torture Vicenzo but also kill him.

I guess that thought escalating in my mind is what hurts me the most. I never thought Xavier would do such a thing; having Vicenzo’s blood on his hands.

This is all to protect me but I don’t feel happy about it. He shouldn’t have killed him. There are better approaches to take. Not kill him.

I clap my hand over my mouth to stop myself from sobbing all over again as I try so hard to stop my tears.

Now that he killed him, does it mean that he believes I am not Andre now or is this just to make up for the personal beef between him and Vicenzo? Now that Vicenzo is gone, will he let me go or do I still have to wait till Andre shows up in the flesh?

To be honest, I am damn scared of Xavier now. I don’t know what to think of him. I know he wants to protect me but I can’t help feeling scared. But the disappointment I feel of him being just like Vicenzo or every other Mafia out there overrides my fear of him.

Just then, a knock comes to the door. I quickly wipe my tears as it opens to reveal Grandma in her wheelchair and the maid right behind her.

An ache blooms in my chest at the sight of her and the question of what she thinks of her grandson.

Does she know he is into the Mafia? Does she support him too?

In silence, the maid wheels her forward until I can see the sad smile on her face. When she is in front of me, the maid takes the exit out and Grandma grabs my hand, the height of the wheelchair equal to the edge of the bed I am sitting on.

I have a lot of questions that I wish to ask her but I can’t bring myself to form a word.

“Does this mean you can’t remember Rossi?” Grandma questions out of the blue, making me raise a confused brow as I quickly extricate myself from her hold to wipe my tears.

Who the hell is Rossi?

I am about to ask her when she smiles and holds my hands again. “I understand if you don’t remember him. It was obvious from the way you reacted earlier.”

She does not say anything anymore. Just smiling at me and patting my two hands in comfort.

Finally, I find my voice. “Who is Rossi?”

The smile vanishes almost immediately when the word comes out of my mouth and it makes my curiosity grow wilder.

She shakes her head as if changing her mind about the topic of Rossi. “Never mind, darling. I just came to see if you were ok. You should probably take a nap. My granddaughter will be here soon, I would love to introduce you two.”

I am less bothered about all of that. My concern is about Xavier having Vicenzo’s blood on his hands and now there is an addition to it.

Who is Rossi? Why is she asking me if I don’t remember him? Is he someone I am supposed to know or this is just because she thinks I am Andre too?

Realizing that this is not my life, I decided to keep mute. I am living a life as Xavier’s wife for Andre so I shouldn’t be surprised about any of these anymore but I really want to know. I want to know what Rossi has to do with all of these.

Giving me a final pat on the hand, the maid comes in and approaches to wheel her out again when I stop her.

“Grandma”, I call calmly, hoping she won’t mind if I ask the questions in my mind in the presence of her maid.

Suddenly, I remembered the gift I got for her. The maid turns her back and she watches me with an expressionless face.

“I got you a gift”, I say with a smile. I watch her face light up at the word and slowly, the maid goes out again.

As soon as she is out, I stand up and turn to the other side of the bed to grab the painting that the driver brought into my room a few minutes ago. I couldn’t help but ask him about the guard who got shot.

I hold onto the painting carefully before walking back to where Grandma is sitting with a radiant look on her face. I place it on her lap but stop her from opening it.

If it was in a different circumstance, I would love for her to do that so I could see how much she loves it but I am not in the right frame of mind at the moment.

My curiosity about Xavier and Rossi is eating at me. I am tempted to ask her to tell me who this Rossi is and I don’t know how to go about asking her why Xavier is this way.

“Xavier…” I pause, not knowing how to start or where to start from.

I sniff.Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

She signals to me to sit across her just the way I was sitting a while ago and I do that quickly.

“I know it will take time to recover all your memories so I guess you should let things be till you remember who the man you got married to really is.”

That intensifies my confusion. What the hell is she talking about? My memories? Who the man I got married to really is? What the hell has Xavier been feeding her with?

“Who is he? I don’t understand?” I find myself saying this despite my confusion.

She nods with another smile. “The reason why he does this all the time. That is what I mean. I don’t want to trigger anything. Just take your time to accept who he truly is but I assure you he is doing all of this to protect the people he loves, including you.”

I almost shout out that Xavier doesn’t love me. We are married but not in love. He can’t protect me then. I shouldn’t feel safe here when all he does is protect the people he loves.

She continues. “You don’t need to be scared of him or anyone. Xavier will protect you with his life, okay?”

I don’t know whether to nod or shake my head. My head is in turmoil filled with numerous unanswered questions and confusion.

Just before I can think of what to do, the door bursts open and I look up to see a tall girl come in, walking majestically with her short pink dress and weird make-up.

She looks 20.

“Hey”, she waves at me excitedly before moving close to peck Grandma on her cheeks. When Grandma sees her, she smiles and embraces her again.

“I was just telling Andre about you”, Grandma mentions, making the girl look back at me with a big smile on her face.

Within a second, a hand is stretched at me. “Hi, I’m Barbie.”

Barbie? What a weird name!

Without hesitation, I grab her hand and introduce myself. “Hi, I am Jas…Xavier’s wife.”

She lets go of my hand finally and smirks. “Who would have thought that jerk would wound around getting married at the end?”

Then she rolls her eyes.

I look from her to Grandma, wondering who she is when she mutters all of a sudden. “Do you mind partying?”

I don’t understand what she means so I turn to Grandma who only shakes her head with a smile.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m going to a party tonight, would you join me?” she rephrased, the smile still on her face, forcing me to let out a small smile too.

I have never been to a party before. Not once. Thinking of how vulnerable I would feel, especially in a strange country like this and considering what happened earlier, I don’t think I like the idea.

“Don’t worry, Andre. The guards will accompany you. You have nothing to fear. The club is just in the neighborhood”, Grandma states, wanting to encourage me to accept the invitation from this Barbie girl but my mind is made up.

I have had enough for the day.

I am going nowhere.

“Come on, my brother won’t mind you coming with me. I will inform him right before we leave”, she bumps her shoulder into mine purposely as she slumps right beside me on the bed.

Then it hits me as the words process slowly in my head.

My jaws drop unconsciously as I ask her. “You are Xavier’s sister?!”

And she nods with a mischievous smirk.