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Chapter 1 — The Wedding

Marrying into the Lombardo family was her destiny. Their parents had arranged the union since they were in Junior High School.
Armand's dreamy eyes, silky black hair, and a smile to die for had caught her eyes even when he was only 14 years old at the time. She could still remember when they were introduced at The Lombardo's summer home in Gastonburry. She was this shy 12-year-old girl who was about to enroll in the best Junior High School in the city.
Her family and The Lombardos had been friends for generations, and they enrolled their children at the same school. Her dad practically entrusted her to The Lombardos so she could get the best treatment at the school because The Lombardos were well known for their generosity to the school.
The Lombardos were well known for many other things that the kids weren't aware of at the time. All they knew, they had always got royal treatment wherever they went.
It wasn't love at first sight for Armand. The boy was a ladies' man even from a very young age. He knew his way into the heart of teenage girls who were always competing for his attention.
Armand Lombardo, the only son of Cossimo Lombardo, the heir of the Lombardo family legacy.
It was at the same summer home that Armand finally proposed to her at the age of 28, and Ariana 26. He had just graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Gastonburry, snatched a double master's degree. He would've been the most eligible bachelor in the country if his parent's businesses were all legal.
The Lombardos led a life on the other side of the light, they were smuggling weapons and drugs, they were well connected with the most powerful people around the world to ensure the business was running smoothly and people disappear all the time if they cross the Lombardo family.
But Ariana wasn’t completely aware of that, she was mostly kept in the dark about what her family and the Lombardos actually do for a living. She was smitten by the dazzling young man and they started dating when he entered college, and she was still in high school.
The wedding day was nothing short of extravagant. The wedding organizer had transformed their summer home into a magical palace where a prince and his princess would live, it was all covered in white flowers and heavily decorated with the best of everything that money could buy.
Cossimo Lombardo had instructed the wedding to be known as the wedding of the century to let his rivals know who was on top of the hierarchy. Cossimo had worked up the ladder of the mafia families for decades, it was almost time for his retirement and handed over his legacy to his son, Armand.
Everyone who was somebody was invited to the wedding. Mostly business partners and rivals of the Lombardos and the Monteneros. Two of the most well-known mafia families in the country were about to merge their wealth and power into their bloodline. The two families were about to take on the world in a whole new level of power and money. Ariana being the only child of the Montenero was bound to marry into another powerful family if they wanted their legacy to continue, it was something her parents had calculated since she was a child.
The heartwarming ceremony brought everyone to tears when they said their vows of love. She looked into the eyes of the man she loved with all her heart and soul and promised him that she will devote her life to him in sickness and in health, for richer and for poorer until death does them part.
The emotional ritual was soon followed by singing, dancing, loud music, and feasting. The endless supply of food and drinks was served on silver platters, the party was set to last for three days and three nights. Television reporters were invited to cover the story so the world can witness the most powerful merge as it happens right there in the city of Gastonburry.
"Have you seen Armand?" she asked her parents.
"No, sweetie, he was here a while ago talking to his friends ... maybe he went to the restroom," her mom replied with champagne in her hand.
"It's almost time to cut the cake ... I think I'm gonna go change and look for him," she said and left the hall full of guests.
They have cleared all the furniture in the family room and turned it into a hall, the room was large enough to be used as a dance floor with rows of long tables on each side for food and beverages display.
She walked across the room still in her wedding gown, fully embroidered and sprinkled with diamonds. She lifted the heavy cloak as she walked gracefully towards the corridor leading up to the master bedroom where she will spend her first night as Armand Lombardo's wife. Her hair was lifted with strands of her curls falling over her bare shoulders, the diamond necklace around her neck was said to weigh almost 1 Kg as a gift from her in-laws. It all made her feel like a real princess but they have worn her out throughout the day.
When she passed the last table in the corner of the room, there was a tall man in a dark suit who stood alone, away from the crowd. The man lifted his glass towards her, she responded with a smile. She had never seen that man before, she would surely remember him if she had because the man was strikingly handsome, clean-shaven, with dark hair, dark eyes. She rested her eyes on the man for longer than she should then she looked away. She took another glance at him only to find that he was still staring at her intensely and then she went to the other side of the wall into the corridor.
That part of the house was clear from guests. The security protocol was strict given the kind of guests they were having and they didn't want guests to stray away from the party and ended up in various rooms of the house.
She could hear her footsteps echoing between the walls of the long corridor, as pretty as the dress was, she couldn't wait to get out of it. When she came closer to the main bedroom, she could hear vague noises. At first, she couldn't tell where the sound was coming from. The house was riddled like a maze, corridors after corridors crossed at junctions. She looked around but there was no one else but her.
Then she realized the noise was coming from inside her bedroom. She approached cautiously, it was baffling, who could've got into the house and went to her bedroom. She pressed her ear against the door, her heart raced, the noise was the sound of a woman panting. Someone was having sex in her bedroom, someone was using her newlywed bed before she did. The thought annoyed her, she grabbed the door handle and entered the room. Whoever it was in there was going to be in a lot of trouble with the security.
She stormed inside in full anticipation to see the faces of the culprits. Her heart sank to the floor when she saw Armand's face. A full-blown naked woman was bending over by the post of the bed with her naked husband at her back. Her face turned white, words have left her. Her head was light and she felt her insides were turning like they were ready to jump out of her. On her wedding day, still in her wedding dress, she covered her mouth with the back of her hand.
"Ariana ... Ariana ..." Armand was saying something to her but she couldn't hear what he said.
Her vision was blurry, all she could see was the naked woman bending over in front of her beloved husband and was panting and whimpering. The noises were so much louder in her head now. She covered her ears. She was dazed, she bumped on the wardrobe, she was losing her way.
Armand was trying to talk to her, he came over to her without a shred of clothes on, but she couldn't even see him anymore.
She made her way out of the room, everything was blending in her head like a nightmare. She was wobbling on the corridor back to where she came from, she didn't know where else to go.
She was running now, almost tripped in her dress but she didn't care anymore. The dress was ripped, she hit tables and furniture along the way. She wondered if her mind had played tricks on her, but it wasn't. Armand was fucking another woman in her bedroom on her wedding day.
What is happening to her? How could this be happening?
She started to sob, tears came flooding, she wiped the tears with her hands and smudged her eyeliner all over her face. She was a walking mess. She tried to organize her mind but it was impossible. Her head felt lighter, she was giving up, she wanted to fall unconscious and maybe ... just maybe ... when she wakes up ... it was all just a very bad dream.

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Chapter 2 — The Mystery Guest

Her legs give-way, but before she fell on the floor, she felt someone's arms grab her waist from behind. Not Armand’s, she was too disgusted by him to even let him catch her when she fell.
She resisted and turned to look. It was the tall man she saw at the end of the hall.
"Sshhh ... take a deep breath ... don't make a scene," he said to her.
She looked at him confused, her sobs died down from the surprise.
"Don't cry ... pull yourself together ... this is no time for a meltdown," his eyes were staring into hers.
"Wh ... what? Who are you?"
The man looked around, they were still in the quiet corridor next to the main hall. No one noticed them but he looked concerned. He held her hand and led her away from there.
"Where are we going?" she was puzzled, she wasn't quite out of her shock from catching her husband red-handed.
The man picked up his pace and came to a wall, he leaned his back against the wall next to the double door to the main hall and peeked. He pricked his index finger to his lips to tell her to be quiet.
He looked to the right where the main bedroom was, someone was stepping out from the room, they could hear a door was slammed.
Just as they looked in the direction of the footsteps coming from the corridor, three black sedans pulled up at the lobby in front of the main hall. The cars screeched to a halt like they were in a hurry.
The man grabbed her with one arm, he was holding her tight in front of him, and then he pulled out a gun from his back.
She gasped in horror.
The man covered her mouth, "Don't scream ... I'm going to get you out of here."
The instruction came without an explanation, she looked to her right and saw Armand was walking towards their direction. He had put his wedding suit back on. She wanted to scream for him but her mouth was covered, she was crying for a whole different reason now, there was a gun in the man's hand and it was really close to her face.
Men came out of the three sedans and barged into the party. She could hear the guests screaming. She forced herself to look and the men were holding guns, they were all dressed in black, their faces were covered in masks and without a warning, they started shooting.
"Shit," the man muttered, he kept his back pinned against the wall and held her tightly in his arm.
Armand jumped when he heard the gunshots, for a second he saw her in the arm of an armed man but he turned around and ran back to the bedroom.
She screamed her lungs out to no avail, her voice was muffled by the calloused hand of a stranger whose intention was not clear to her. A man with a gun holding her against her will was not someone she could trust. She struggled to get away, but he was too strong.
The screaming from the main hall was distracting, everyone scurried out of the house but the men with guns kept shooting at them. And then she saw it, one of the men came over to her father and shot him point-blank on his head, the gunman turned to her mother and did the same thing. Both of her parents fell on the floor with their heads blown away, all the blood, all the horror, all the chaos cannot be real. She was screaming hysterically and there was no one to hear her scream.
"We have to get out another way ... to the garage?" The man who held her didn't seem to be part of the group of the armed killers who crashed into her wedding.
She was losing her mind at that point, she couldn't comprehend what was happening around her.
The man had to act quickly, he carried her on his shoulder and ran quietly through the corridors to get to the side exit of the house. He seemed to know his way around, he had been there before. Shots were fired again, they were already halfway out of the house.
He was strong enough to carry her all the way out of the house to the garage, he took the keys to one of the cars and threw her in the backseat of Armand's favorite silver-grey Porsche. He started the engine and zoomed their way out of the premises.
She was screaming uncontrollably in the backseat as she looked back to the carnage that was her wedding only minutes before. She screamed and screamed until it was too much for her to bear and then everything went black.
When she finally came to, her hands were bound and her mouth was taped. She struggled to remember where she was and then it slowly came back to her. She was still in her husband's car, she looked outside and it was dark. She was inside a parking lot, an abandoned one. The man who took her was nowhere in sight. She tried to open the door but the child lock must be on. As reality sunk in, she started to cry again. She jacked up the door handle but it was no use, she was locked in, the engine was on.
She kicked the door, twisted her wrists and tried to lose the tape around them, the only thing she could do was to control her fear and not cry.
The front door was opened, it was the man, he had changed into a casual outfit and he brought a duffel bag with him. She recoiled to her seat, she remembered he had a gun. Her eyes stared at the man in horror.
He glanced at her briefly, his expression was serious, he took the gun from his back again and cocked it. He moved to open the backseat and stared into her eyes, "We need to leave ... don't make a scene or I will have to sedate you ... do you understand?"
She swallowed hard, there was no one in the area, if she screamed no one would hear her. She nodded.
The man pulled her out of the car and let her walk across the lot to another car. It was a small dark blue SUV, it must be the getaway car. He pushed her in the back seat and put a handcuff around her wrist, he cuffed it to the headrest of the front seat. At that moment it was clear to her, she was being kidnapped.
Her breaths increased, she had no idea where she was and who this man was. She remembered her parents were shot dead, her husband ... what had happened to Armand?
The man sat in the driver's seat and started the engine. Without saying a word he started driving. When they were out of the building she recognized the area, they were still in Gastonburry. It wasn't long until they reached the highway and the car sped away out of town.

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Chapter 3 — Where Are You Taking Me?

The two hour drive out of town was silent. His eyes were glued to the road, he put on his sunglasses and barely glanced at her. He seemed to know where he's going but the further they go the more she felt lost, she had no idea where they were.
Once in a while he would roll down the window and light a cigarette. He checked on his watch and back to driving. She tried to keep still but the tape around her wrists was tightened because of her effort to loosen them. She wanted so badly to say something, to ask this guy questions or at least to take off the tape from her numbed cheeks and mouth.
She just leaned her head to the front headset and looked out the window, tears started to fall again, there was no word to explain how scared she was.
The car was slowing down in the middle of the highway. She jolted to see what was going on. The man seemed calm and stopped the car on the side of the road. He took out his phone and dialed a set of numbers. He got out of the car and leaned his back on the front driver's door.
"I'm here."
She was listening in.
"What?" he sounded surprised.
"What do you mean? Whoa ... whoa ... that's not the deal man, I'm here ... let's get this over with."
Her heart raced.
"No ... no ... no ... that's not going to work ..." he sighed deeply.
He started to pace back and forth and dug his fingers into his hair. He was listening to what the other person was saying on the phone.
"How long?"
It went quiet for a moment, she tried to peek outside and see if he was still on the phone. He was.
"This changes everything ... this is not part of my job, okay? I don't do this ... you know that ..." he sighed again.
She wasn't sure what was going on, but it didn't look good.
He hung up the phone and got into the car. He put his hands on the steering wheel and stared into nothing.
"Fuck!!" he hit the steering wheel.
"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" he hit it again three times.
She was frozen in fear.
He turned around with an intense look on his face. "I'm gonna take off that tape from your mouth if you promise to calm down."
She nodded.
He yanked the tape off of her and it stung. "There's been a change of plan."
She looked at him in confusion, she didn't even know what the initial plan was.
"You're gonna be stuck with me for a few days ... shit!" he muttered.
"Where are you taking me?" her voice was weak.
"Somewhere ... the less you know the better ... look ... if we're gonna do this, I need you to cooperate with me, okay? If you so much try to scream or yell for help ... if you try to run away ... I will shoot you."
His threat sounded legit, she believed he meant every word.
"But why are you doing this? Who would wanna do this to me? My parents ... they killed them ... I don't understand what's happening?"
"Yeah ... this is some shit you're going through, but if you play nicely ... " he hesitated to continue, "Just play nicely."
He started the car and drove away. It would be another 3 hours until they stopped again. They stopped in front of a motel in a deserted area where there was nothing else around. Her heart sank, she was going to be stuck with this guy in a sleazy motel and it scared her to death. She whimpered.
"What? We have to stop ... remember ... don't do anything stupid if you want to stay alive," he looked annoyed. He put a tape back to cover her mouth and got out of the car to check-in to the motel.
She looked around, it was a desert. A gas station right next to the motel and nothing else. There was no one around.
He was back in less than 10 minutes, he held a room key in his hand. He moved the car to the row of rooms and parked in front of room number 4. He went in first and dropped all of his stuff and came back to get her. He took off the handcuff and cut out the tape that bound her wrists. He held both her hands and kneel to meet her gaze. "You're going to walk normally into the room and not attract any attention ... and then you will do as I say without question ... do you understand?"
She nodded, she realized she had no other choice than to comply with her kidnapper, at least until she knows she can run and be safe away from him. So she did as she was told. They went into the room, locked the door behind them, hooked the chain, and closed the curtains.
The room was only big enough for a double bed in the middle and two side tables on each side of the bed. There was a TV hung on the wall across the bed and a desk with a chair in the corner. The bathroom was in the back and a wardrobe in front of it.
She struggled to walk inside the room with her extravagant gown, she wanted to sit but the bed was the only thing big enough to accommodate her. So she just stood, she hugged herself, it was the only way she could make herself feel somewhat better. She glanced at this stranger who had snatched her out of her wedding day.
"Did you want my necklace? Is that why you kidnapped me?," she took it off, "This was a gift ... but I know it's worth at least a million dollars, just please don't hurt me."
He chuckled, "Don't you think that necklace is as good as mine already?"
He threw himself on the chair and lit a cigarette.
"I'll give you anything you want ... just don't hurt me ... please," her voice was soft, she didn't want to provoke him.
He snatched the necklace from her hand and put it in a small paper bag, "I don't want your money lady ... I just need to get you somewhere and be done with this." He stuffed the paper bag in his duffel bag.
"Are you going to kill me?"
He scoffed, "You'd be dead by now if that's what I was going to do."
"Then what? I don't understand? Can you please tell me what's going on?" she was on the verge of crying again.
He let out a long exhale and rummage through his duffel bag. He took out a set of clothes and underwear and threw them on the bed. "You need to change your clothes, that dress is too distracting."
She looked at the outfit on the bed and looked at him.
He was staring at her without an expression.
"Here?"
He lifted his shoulders, "Do you prefer to do it somewhere else?"
She turned to look at the bathroom, there was no way she was going to strip down in front of him. She took the clothes and walked over to the bathroom. The door was too narrow for her gown to fit through. She looked at him again.
"You're gonna have to do it here then," he said and puffed a cloud of smoke.

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