Mafia Lord's Escaped Prisoner

Holly's Pov. My hands gripped the side of my gown firmly. Beads of sweat formed like a line of barricade across my forehead as I sat before my dressing mirror. The woman staring back at me was definitely not the one I knew a month back. It all happened so quickly. I had been in my room, my headphones blaring music into my ears and blocking out the world. It was my only way of staying jiggy in a family of crazy people. But then the music stopped and the worldly noise had resumed. “Dad wants to speak with you, Holly!” It was my annoying older sister. She was our parent's third born while I was the fourth and last. Did I forget to mention I was the black sheep? “I'm coming,” I replied grudgingly. Moments later, I stormed down the stairs to meet with my dad who had a newspaper spread before him as he sat on the white million-dollar couch. “You called for me, dad?” “Yes,” he replied without looking up from the papers. “We have a little bit of a problem with the Poison gang that has to do with breaching an agreement I had with them.” I snorted internally knowing what would happen if he heard me. After a few seconds of silence, I spoke. “How does that have anything to do with me?” With a bang, he dropped the papers and shot his eyes at me. I quickly looked away. “You see, this is why I always say you're useless to our family. For years, I have fed and clothed you but you've never shown interest in my business to repay me.” At this point, I said fuck it and snorted. “That's probably ‘cos it's your fucking responsibility!” With a few strides, he approached me and as expected, hit me on the cheek. My face stung like fire but I waited patiently for the next wave of insults and emotional damage. “Talk to me like that again and I'll have you thrown off a cliff, you understand?” I nodded hesitantly. “Speak up!” “Yes, sir,” the last word broke apart as I started crying. But not as broken as my heart at the statement that followed. “You'll be getting married to Poison's leader to make up for my mistake. I already agreed and all I need is for you to get prepared, chin up and be useful to this family. For once.” My head shot up to look straight into his eyes. I was furiously searching—searching to see mockery, amusement or probably a quirky smile at the corner of his lips satisfied to see that I was shocked. But his eyes gave away nothing. Not even the slightest expression. Wide-eyed, I could slowly feel the blood in my face draining. “What?” Instead, he picked up his newspaper and turned away. From the corner of my eye, I could see my sister, Angie, coming in after my dad had left. “Looks like someone has made up their mind.” She said, looking at me with pity. “I guess you're on your own, kid sis. Happy married life. In advance.” I could sense the mockery in her voice that was overshadowed by pity and sadness. It was obvious this was only dad's decision. Falling to the ground, I whimpered. “I don't even get a say in this?” A month later and I was still bewildered by my lack of ability to have a say or make a decision. To accept or to refuse. It was worse when I realized I could never set my eyes on him until the wedding day. What if he was ugly? What if he had a scar on his face? Most gang leaders do, so I was very sure he would have a gash on his face. An ugly one at that. Like the one I'd seen that fateful night. Two days before the wedding. Closing my eyes and letting out a sigh, I concluded that I was going to push it off my mind. But the image of a gun to the battered woman's head and how after pulling the trigger, I'd watched life slowly drain out of her life constantly tugged at my heart. The one who had pulled the trigger had a scar on his face. I clearly remembered his face. Whether he saw mine before I escaped the scene, I couldn't tell. A knock jolted me out of my reverie and I fluttered my eyes open. The door opened and one of the girls that had helped me dress up entered. “I think we are running late already, ma'am. Everyone is waiting.” She said politely. I took one look at my curly brown hair that had been tightly put up into a bun and my heavily made-up face and straightened my shoulders. “I'm ready.” The orchestra was one beautiful melody flowing across the field where I was going to get married to a man I knew nothing about. The field was a nice choice as it was right beside the sea. It was my dream wedding venue but obviously not how I'd dreamed my wedding to play out. Angie had volunteered to walk me down the aisle. For that I was grateful. Together, we walked down the steps and over the red carpet that cut through chairs where guests I'd never seen before in my life sat. As soon as I got to the stage, I decided to take a deep breath before the moment of truth. “Now, that the bride has arrived, we shall proceed with the vows. To the groom, repeat after me…” Everything the preacher said fell on deaf ears as I zoned out, scared to my bones of what would happen later today. Whenever it got to my turn, I would softly say out my vows as well. All these while, my gaze was intentionally fixed everywhere else but my side. Until… “You may now kiss the bride.” I hesitated but the groom yanked my arm and made me face him. As if on cue, we both paused for a moment. My eyes widened in fear and his frozen in shock. It was him. He had a scar across his face. Memories of that night began to bombard my mind and my head felt light. Murmuring arose but soon became muffled as I swayed and fell. Darkness enveloped me. With a gasp, I came to. I started breathing heavily, trying to make sense of my surroundings and what had happened before. The huge skirt around my wedding gown had been removed and I was now in my reception gown. A short skimpy dress that fell just above my knees. My hair was worn down and was now a mess. I was in a dark room save for the tiny speck of light that seeped in through the window. I followed the light and found my hand on the knob. The door refused to budge as I tried opening it which meant I'd been locked in. If that was so, I needed to find a way to escape or I'd be dead as soon as he walked in. “What am I going to do?” Running to where the light was coming through, I realized the room was dark because the window had been coated in paint from the smell. I hit the surface and found it easy to break. There was no time to find an object to break it. From watching movies, I knew I needed to break the window in certain areas. Before long, the window had come down. But not without several cuts on my hands and arms. I climbed through the window and began to run as fast as my legs could carry me. The rain started to drizzle and soon became a heavy downpour. This would make it easy for me to escape. I started to hear yelling and shouting which meant they already found out about my escape. Shivering and already losing so much blood, I decided to hide behind a container. “She couldn’t have gone far!” The voice was so close I had to clasp a hand to my mouth to stop myself from screaming. “Find her immediately!” Crawling as low to the ground as I could, I moved further away from the clearing. As I dragged my body through the muddy ground, my body hit something solid. I looked down and saw the gate to a hole. Was that a tunnel? With hope and prayers, I dragged myself through the hole until I came out of the other end several minutes later. Looking back at the hole, I sighed in relief. “Thank God.” But then I heard a click and something cold pressed to my temple. “Turn around before I fucking blow your head off!”