Chapter 5 Just A Few Days Left

• MILENE'S POV
• “This won’t end well,” I thought to myself. Adrian smiled. “You can try, but you won’t win. "Liam nodded. “I think you’re a good choice, Jackson.” Jackson stepped back, keeping his gaze on Adrian, who ignored him. Then Liam turned to Raffaele. Liam was tall, and Raffaele had to look up to meet his eyes. He tried to seem confident, but he looked nervous.
• “I saw how you looked at Milene,” Liam said, his eyes narrowing. Adrian said, “Like she’s a peach you want to take a bite of.
• Raffaele looked to my father for help but didn’t speak. “Don’t deny it. You want Milene,” Liam said in a low voice. Raffaele stayed quiet. “If I ever see you alone with her or even see you touch her hand, I’ll end you. "Raffaele’s face turned red. “You’re not part of the outfit. No one will tell you if I hurt her. Maybe I’ll even ‘break her in’ for you.”
• I wanted to shout for him to stop, but before I could react, Liam had thrown Raffaele to the floor and pinned him. He held Raffaele’s wrist with one hand and pulled out a knife with the other. My legs felt weak. “Rina, go,” I whispered, but she didn’t move.
• Don’t look, Milene. But I couldn’t look away. My father wouldn’t let Liam hurt me, but as I looked over, I saw disgust in his face as he watched Raffaele. Liam glanced at my father, and when he nodded, Liam brought the knife down, cutting off Raffaele’s pinky. I gasped and bit my hand to stay quiet. Rina didn’t. She screamed and turned away, sick.
• Silence filled the room. They’d heard us. The hidden door opened, and my father’s angry face appeared. Behind him were Nero and Jackson, weapons drawn, but when they saw us, they put them away.
• Rina didn’t cry, but her face was pale. I held her up as she leaned on me. “Of course,” my father hissed, frowning at Rina. “I should have known you were causing trouble again.” He pulled her away from me and slapped her hard.
• I stepped forward, and my father lifted his arm again. I braced for another hit, but Liam grabbed his wrist. Liam’s other hand held the bloody knife. My father was the master here. Liam’s action was a challenge.
• Jackson reached for his knife, and my father’s hand went to his gun. Adrian, Nero, and Jackson all held their weapons, ready. Raffaele lay on the floor, whimpering. “I didn’t mean any disrespect,” Liam said calmly. “But Milene is my responsibility now. You lost the right to her when you made her my fiancée.”
• My father glanced at the ring on my finger, then nodded. Liam let go, and the tension eased, though no one put their weapons away. “That’s true,” my father said. “Would you like the honor of punishing her?”
• Liam’s cold gaze was on me, and I felt my breath catch. “She didn’t disobey me.” Father frowned. “You’re right. But since Milene will be under my roof until the wedding, and I can’t raise a hand against her, I’ll have to find another way to make her obey.” He glared at Rina and hit her again. “For each of your mistakes, Milene, your sister will take the punishment instead.”
• I flinched, trying not to cry and avoided looking at Liam or Father until I was sure I could hide my anger.
• “Jackson, take Rina and Milene to their rooms and make sure they stay there.” Jackson put away his knife and motioned for us to follow. I walked past my father, pulling Rina along with me as she kept her head down. She tensed as we stepped over the blood on the wooden floor and the severed finger lying in it.
• I looked at Raffaele, who was holding his hand to stop the bleeding. His shirt and pants were soaked in red. Rina gagged like she was about to vomit again. “No,” I said firmly. “Look at me.”
• She turned away from the blood and met my eyes. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and a cut on her lip was bleeding onto her chin and nightgown.
• I squeezed her hand tightly. I’m here for you. Our locked gaze was the only thing keeping her steady as Jackson led us out. “Women,” Father said with a sneer. “They can’t even handle a little blood.”
• I could feel Liam’s eyes burning into my back before the door shut. Rina wiped her lip as we hurried after Jackson through the hallway and up the stairs. “I hate him,” she whispered. “I hate them all.”
• “Shh,” I whispered. I didn’t want her to speak like that in front of Jackson. He cared about us, but he was loyal to Father.
• He stopped me when I tried to follow Rina into her room. I didn’t want her to be alone tonight, and I didn’t want to be alone either. “You heard what your father said.”
• I glared at Jackson. “I need to help Rina with her lip.”
• Jackson shook his head. “It’s nothing serious. You two together in one room always means trouble. Do you really want to anger your father more tonight?” He closed Rina’s door and gently pushed me toward my own room.
• I stepped inside, then turned back. “A room full of grown men watching a man beat a helpless girl, this is the courage you all talk about?”
• “Your future husband stopped your father,” he replied calmly.
• “From hitting me, not Rina.”
• Jackson gave me a patronizing smile. “Liam might control New York, but here in Chicago, your father is the boss.”
• “You respect Liam,” I said, shocked. “You watched him cut off Raffaele’s finger, and you still respect him.”
• “Your cousin is lucky Liam didn’t cut off more. He did what any man in our world would have done.”
• Maybe that was true for men like them. Jackson patted my head like I was a child. “Go to sleep, child.”
• “Will you stand guard at my door all night to make sure I don’t try to sneak out?” I asked
• “Get used to it. Now that Liam’s put a ring on your finger, he’ll make sure you’re watched at all times.”
• I slammed the door shut. I felt so suffocated. Even when Liam wasn’t around, he would control my life. I thought things would stay the same until the wedding, but how could they when everyone knew what the ring on my finger meant?
• Raffaele’s finger was a warning. Liam had made his claim, and he would enforce it without mercy.
• I left the lights on that night, afraid the darkness would bring back images of blood and severed fingers. But the images came anyway.
• The next morning, I could see my breath clouding in the cold air. Even my thick coat couldn’t protect me from Chicago’s harsh winter.
• Snow crunched beneath my boots as I followed Mum along the pavement toward a brick building. It housed the most expensive bridal shop in the Midwest. Jackson was close behind me, like a shadow. Another one of Father’s guards followed behind my sisters.
• The brass revolving doors led us into the bright interior, where the owner and her two assistants greeted us immediately. “Happy birthday, Ms. Russo,” the owner said with a kind voice.
• I forced a smile. My twenty third birthday was supposed to be a happy day, but instead, it was just another step closer to marrying Liam.
• I hadn’t seen him since that night when he cut off Raffaele’s finger. He sent me expensive jewelry for birthdays, holidays, and the anniversary of our engagement, but that was all the contact we had in the past five months.
• I saw photos of him with other women online, but even that would stop today when our engagement became public. At least he wouldn’t flaunt his mistresses in front of everyone anymore.
• I didn’t fool myself into believing he’d stop seeing them. I didn’t care as long as it kept him away from me.
• “Only five months until the wedding, right?” the shop owner said with bright eyes. She was the only one excited, probably because today’s sale would make her a lot of money.
• The wedding that would unite the New York and Chicago mafia would be a grand event. Money wasn’t a concern.
• I nodded. Only one hundred and fifty days left until I exchanged one prison for another.