#11

MEDDIE’S POV

The 6 month time limit ended quickly. It was a big blur of studying, exams, crying, messages from Damiano containing threats, and heated moments between me and my family. The only people supporting me or of any help were my friends. I told Megha, Sanjana and Yashika everything after that day at my house. They deserved to know about it. It was their lives on the line after all. My mom was sympathetic. Being supportive. Being there for me. My father was, I don't know how he was. Males you know. Never sharing their emotions. My brother, well he's a different story all together.

When we were kids, our relationship was better. But as we've gotten older, it has worsened over time. His thinking and mine, are polar opposites. He's mysogynistic, a little patriarchal and just stupid overall. On the other hand, I'm hard headed and annoyed at his every action and any condescending word that comes out of his mouth. It's always the same harp playing, you are just a child, you are stupid, you are dumb, don't interrupt me when I'm talking, don't swear it doesn't look good on girls etc etc. You can join the dots, why I hate Damiano when he tells me what to do and what not to do.

But it's useless living in a klexos. My life is just gonna get worse from this point onwards. The 6 months are up. My exams are over. My result will be out in a few weeks. And I'm about to get married in a week.

On the day I had my last exam, Damiano came to my house to take me with him. It was a day filled with angry words, a lot of cussing, and tears too. I refused him obviously. He was dragging me with him. He even reached till the front door of my house. But I was adamant on not leaving my house. Finally, we agreed that I can live at my house for the last week of my life here. But, his pet was to live at my house for the duration.

And you know what's the funniest thing? He sent wedding stuff to my house everyday, like it's supposed to be in my culture. The wedding clothes, jewellery and the whole shebang. I was murderous. Why would he do this? Make it seem like I actually desire to marry him. When it's the total opposite.

My deepest and most true desire at this point of my life, is to be free of him and his world. But I've read enough mafia books to know the reality and moreover I'm not stupid to believe that his world would let me live in peace now.

Finally, tomorrow I'm supposed to marry Damiano, according to my customs, in the morning. It is to be a small engagement. For obvious reasons but yet I believe this is a good thing as I don't wish to see the rest of the family from my father's side. They are all opportunistic assholes, no offence to my paternal grandparents, but it's the truth. They didn't care about me until I 'proved' myself by getting 97% marks in my 12th grade exams, before then I was just a stupid child worth nothing, no affection whatsoever. And the same behaviour they had towards my brother, Vasu, until he won a gold medal in an international full contact kickboxing tournament. I don't even want to explain the other family members' attitudes. Although I do wish I could get to meet my Nani once more. My friends are invited. A leverage against me so that I don't do anything stupid.

What is my life anymore? Do I even have a life anymore? I had so many goals to achieve. Travel the world with my friends. But one vacation in the USA and my life is over. The irony!

••••••••••

It's doomsday today. Doomsday for me. End of my freedom, whatever was left of it. I have decided something for today that might very well make Damiano kill all my friends and family members in front of me. But this is the only way of showing some form of resistance that I can think of.

During the past 7 days, he had sent a gorgeous navy blue lehenga, with beautiful gold embroidery on the skirt and a plain blouse with gold trimming and a stunning dupatta to accompany it. He had sent a beautiful bridal jewellery set complimenting to the lehenga. He had sent an amazingly embellished pair of heels for me to wear. And all this show of money had conveniently pissed me the fuck off.

(Lehenga is a three-piece dress. A blouse for the top, and a heavily embroidered and decorated skirt with a large flair for the bottom, a dupatta, a long piece of stunningly embellished rectangular cloth which is draped in many different styles to accent the whole outfit.)

So I had decided on a whole different range of clothing that I'd like to wear to this sham called a wedding. I'm hoping it will piss him off. Because I don't even know why he liked me in the first place. I'm nothing special. To summarise, I'm not the average standard of weight and beauty. But still he wants me which is beyond my comprehension.

But oh well if he is adamant on marrying me, then I am adamant on pissing him off. Of course only to the point where he will not hurt my near and dear ones.

After getting dressed in my chosen attire, I leave my room and the first person to see me is none other than Leo, one of Damiano's 'brothers' as I've found out.

"He's gonna be angry." Leo says. "I don't give a cazzo." I gave a sweet smile at what I'd said to him. (Fuck.)

If you're wondering about the foreign word I just spoke, I've always been interested in learning other languages. I had French in school, although I didn't prefer it that much. Funnily enough out of the languages I want to learn, one happens to be Italian. So I looked up some curse words in Damiano's mother tongue, as Leo has made me aware of his Italian heritage.

Well now all I have to do is wait. Because you know what the venue for my wedding is? My house. Yup! You heard it right. My own fucking house. Another reason for me to hate him. It feels like by doing this Damiano wants to destroy any happy memories I held dear in this house. There aren't many to be fond of anyway, and now the ones there are will be tainted with a sour taste.

Damiano arrived shortly after and he was not alone. He had four other very buff men with him, not resembling bodyguards in the least. My parents had arranged a pandit to perform the marriage ceremony rituals. And my friends had come to the house early in the morning, to support me. (Pandit, the priest who performs the whole wedding ceremony.)

I was sitting on the sofa set in the living room of my house which had now been re-arranged into a horizontal position, facing each other, instead of being against the walls.

I could see his eyes moving right and left, searching for me probably. But I can't be bothered by anything to do with him right now. All my focus is on concealing my true emotions from surfacing on my face. On the inside, I'm in turmoil. I'm in grief. I'm in need of crying my fucking eyes out. On the outside though, I'm stone faced, or as much as I can be. Putting forward my best resting bitch face on.

My friends and I used to joke about my resting bitch face in school and how it repelled any boy who wanted to talk to me, even though that wasn't the only factor for that situation. Now I think it was good practice.

Damiano's searching eyes finally land on me and the face he makes is priceless. Lol! I almost captured it on my phone. Almost. But I was too busy trying not to laugh that the thought got pushed to the back of my mind.

"What the fuck are you wearing?" He seethed with a clenched jaw.

"What I wanted to wear on my wedding day, coglione." I replied in the same tone. He could fuck himself for all I cared. (Fucker.)

He grabbed me by the back of my neck, forcing me to look up at his face and said, "what did I say about the way you talk to me huh?"

"You denied me of speaking in my mother tongue in front of you, cagna but you said nothing about me speaking Italian now did you, stronzo?" (Bitch, asshole.)

He was speechless and I was glad about it. Always commanding me to do this or that. Ughh!!

There were a few chuckles from behind him. I jerked away from him and went towards the crowd and I almost smiled because Sanjana was filming mine and Damiano's, exchange of words shall we say. I shook my head at her. She was being held here as a hostage technically yet she still found time to make a video of everything like she has always done. I love her spirit because of it. She's lively and has a child-like heart. But she's also intelligent and smart. I manage a little smile towards her and move on to assess the situation in front of me. There are 6 very buff Italians in their best suits, Damiano and his 'brothers', standing beside me and my friends. And 5 more well built bodyguards, two guarding the front door of my house and the remaining, one each behind my mom, dad and brother. I hope Damiano's 'brothers' didn't take a liking to my friends. That will be disastrous to say the least. All of my friends, my sisters are pure hearted souls with different goals and I sincerely wish and pray they achieve them.

Suddenly my elbow is grabbed in a tight grip and I'm turned around to face Damiano again.

"What are you trying to do huh? I want you to change your clothes right fucking now!"

"I'm not changing anything. And I'm not trying to do anything. It's my wedding today. And I'll wear whatever the fuck I want to. Do you get it Damiano?" I turn to face the audience again and ask them, "what is wrong with sweatpants and a t-shirt? Meri shaadi me main jo pehenna chahti hun mujhe vo hi pehenna chahiye, haina Yashika?" I question her. I know I'm putting her on the spot but I need to have my friends' support. (I should wear whatever I want to in my wedding, right Yashika?)

Yashika looks timidly around the room and then slowly nods her head. "Yes." She whispers slowly, giving me a small smile at the end. I nod and smile at her in return. Grateful to have her support. And look around at all my friends. All of them nodding one by one. I finally look at my parents too and they nod as well. I smile at all of them, thankful for their support in this dire situation we're all in.

I turn around yet again, "see Damiano, my loved ones agree with me. I should get the choice of what I want to wear to my marriage. So pandit ji, aap shuru kijiye shaadi ki prakriya." (Pandit ji, please begin the wedding ceremony.)

"You will regret putting on this show in front of everyone." He whispers in my ear and pulls me to sit beside him at the 'wedding alter'.

••••••••••

All my belongings are packed away in his car. I'm saying my final goodbyes to my favorite people on the planet for the time being, including my brother. Because even though he's an asshole and has been for almost my whole life, he is still my brother.

My tears are pouring out now. I can't stop them. The tap has been opened. And no one knows when it'll stop now. I thought I could contain them, contain my emotions in an air-tight box, but alas I cannot. I hug my friends one by one, they have gathered around me in a circle.

"Agar koi bhi tum logo ko pareshaan kare to turant mujhe batana. Ab to hamare paas takat hai apni apni hit list ke upar action lene ki-", they all laugh at this, "-tum sab apna dhyaan rakhna. Mujhse video call karte rehna. Aur apne goals pe dhyaan dena. Stuti, Sanjana, break lete rehna varna dimaag ka dahi ho jaayega. Pragya, tension kam liyo chhoti chhoti baaton par. Megha, doggos ki photos mujhe behjte rehna. Yashika, agar tumhara boyfriend tumhe pareshaan kare to mujhe batana. Ek baar Pragya ne daraya tha usse, is baar meri baari hai." I tell them.

(If anyone troubles you tell me immediately. Now we have the power to take action on all our hit lists. Take care of yourselves. Keep in touch. And stay focused on your goals. Stuti, Sanjana, take breaks in between or you'll fry your brains. Pragya, Don't stress over little things. Megha, keep sending me pictures of the doggos. Yahsika, tell me if your boyfriend troubles you. Pragya scared him once, now it's my turn.)

I move towards my brother and parents. I hug them, not knowing what to say to papa and bhai, I hug my ma harder. Now a sobbing mess, snot running down my nose. "Tu to meri strong beti hai. Rona band kar. Agar tere saath kuch bhi galat ho, to ise chappal se koot ke vaapas ghar aa jana. Phone karte rehna mujhe varna pata nahi mera kya haal hoga. Meri pyaari beti." She kissed my forehead and the bell rang. I have no idea who it could be. (Brother. You are my strong daughter. Stop crying. If anything happens, then come home after beating him with a slipper. Keep in contact with me or I don't know what will happen to me. My lovely daughter.)

Megha moved to open the door as if she knew who it would be at the door. I moved in the door's direction as well and opened the door after pushing the hulk look-alikes away.

Oh no!!!

This can't be happening right now. "Megha why would you call him here? It is not the fucking time."

"He wanted to meet you Meddie. He considers you a good friend of his. Also I told him everything."

"What?!" I looked at Megha bewildered.

Fuck!

I look at Damiano and his stance isn't inviting at all. His legs are shoulder width apart, hands folded at the chest, an angry expression on the face. Like he's ready to pull out his gun at any moment.

I don't even know what to say to Prakhar. I consider him a friend, yes. But not a close enough friend to do this. Why he would risk himself when he was crystal clear about the situation here is beyond me, similar to a lot of things going on in this unprecedented period of my life.

Megha opens the door to pull him inside. He looks in my eyes with sympathy. I hate it. I hate it because I'm the girl who was intimidating to Prakhar and the other two boys 12th grade, even some of the girls didn't talk to me due to my resting bitch face. And now, here he is showing me sympathy.

I hate it.

He gives me an awkward side shoulder hug. This is weird. Even for me.

The moment is broken by not one but two growls. I'm pushed behind Damiano and Megha is gripped by one of his brother's. Oh god! Fuck no! And Prakhar is grabbed by one of the guards who was at the door.

Can this situation get more fucking worse?!

"Ughh! Fucking stupid brutes. Damiano fuck yourself, he's just a friend. Tell your brother to leave my friend. And your guard to leave Prakhar. He's harmless. How daft can you get? You bhenchod." I rant. (Sisterfucker.)

Moving forward, I slap the guard and he leaves Prakhar, in shock himself. "And you, brother to Damiano, leave my friend. Or do you want a kick to the balls to do so?" I glare at him.

"Saala koi mujhe shaanti se dukhi bhi nahi hone deta. Pata nahi kya pareshaani hai sabki? Saale sab chutiye mere palle padne the!" I ramble to no one in particular. (Fuck this none of them are letting me grieve in peace. What is their problem? Every asshole just had to cross paths with me!)

••••••••••

The flight journey from India to Sicily took forever to get over. He obviously had a private jet. Eye roll. What else do you expect from rich people? I cried and slept and ate fruits as that was the only vegetarian food available on flight.

His 'brothers' went separate ways after landing.

How obvious can he get? Sicily? Really? Ah! The training I've previously received from online books is somewhat true…I hope.

I kept my distance from his advances, his little touches and tries at kisses.

The castle he calls home is magnificent. I'm truly speechless at this spectacle.

The driveway is long, to put it mildly. At the end is a big fountain, the drive way curving back towards the exit. The 'castle' itself is an odd shape. It is shaped like an 'w' from the front. The main unit is installed with a gorgeous wooden door with engravings, it looks royal. There are two subsidiary buildings attached to the main unit, pointing outwards, like an arrow-head. The outside showcasing too many windows to count. The walls a light beige, complimented with light grey roof tops.

There is greenery all around the area. Neatly trimmed hedges and bushes. It was very pleasant to the eye.

But before I could see more of the property, I was dragged in the direction of the entrance by my 'lovely husband'.

The front doors open, without the need of knocking, he just pressed his thumb on the electronic pad. And then...