Page 49 of Blackmailed to the Altar

If this was what married life was going to be like, then I was at risk of losing my heart.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Sebastian

The past rushed at me like a freight train, barreling through my confused mind with merciless speed. I was back in the house in Tirana, the air thick with the sweet smoky scent of burning wax, and the heady anticipation of pain and pleasure. Candles flickered in every corner, their flames dancing wildly in the dim room, casting shadows over my Amelia’s delicate features. My first toxic love.

The house was bustlingwith noise, as me and my fiancée argued in our wing. It was time to eat dinner with mia famiglia, but Amelia wanted to fight again.

“Why can’t you commit to me, Sebastian?” Amelia demanded. She had her hands thrown on her hips, rolling her eyes at me.

Amelia, my Albanian princess, with her dark, cascading curls, and pouty lips painted a deep crimson. She was the embodiment of spoiled luxury, born into a world of power and privilege, that made her as irresistible as she was insufferable. I loved her more than she loved me. And it showed.

Tonight, she wore a silk robe that clung to her curves, the thin fabric doing little to hide the fury vibrating through her small frame. She’d been ready to seduce, but I ruined that just like I do everything.

“I have committed to you. I gave you a ring, didn’t I?” I snapped back at her. All we did lately was fight. It was tiring. “Duty binds us.” I tried to stay calm, but my own anger was barely held in check. This was supposed to be a night of fun with the famiglia. However, Amelia had filled our suite with a ton of hazardous items for wax play, pain, control; the dangerous dance I craved. But Amelia had a way of turning everything sour. If she’d kept her legs closed, we wouldn’t be arguing right now to begin with. How hard was it to stay faithful?

“But we haven’t picked a date, or started wedding planning at all. The only stuff you’re interested in is business.” She picked up one of the soy-based candles I had just bought special from my recent business trip and threw it. I winced when I saw it make a slight dent in the wall.

“What the fuck is your problem, Amelia?” I demanded.

“You are! I’m good enough to fuck, and to burn, but not marry? All my friends have made it down the aisle, and where are we? Living in the same place, doing the same thing, not moving forward with our lives at all!”

I lost it. “Maybe I don’t want to do those things with you, Amelia. Have you ever thought of that?” I stalked towards her. I didn’t know what my intentions were, but I was over this argument. “You are only here because of the alliance forged. Nothing more, nothing less.” I sneered in her face.

She gasped as her face lit up with hurt, and I stopped in my tracks.

“If you don’t want those things with me, then why are you with me?” she cried. She was pretty when she cried, but these weren’t the tears I wanted to see fall down her face. She keptbabbling on. “You don’t care about me, Sebastian. You never did!”

I stopped myself from gripping her throat and choking her to death.

“Are you stupid? An alliance that benefits my business, and whatever deals I forge with your family. You’re less than a breeder to me at the moment, because I don’t need an heir.”

“Silas is never coming back,” she whispered.

“Enough,” I snarled. I curbed the urge to yank her closer. I couldn’t stand the sight of her, let alone touching her skin.

I saw red. My hands clenched at my sides, and it took all of my focus not to slap her across her fucking face right now.

“I think you should think very hard about the next words out of your mouth,” I said through gritted teeth. I controlled myself, not hitting her in the face with my fist like I wanted. We’d been down that road before, and violence never ended violence. Not in this situation.

“Where is this coming from?” she wailed. Her eyeliner slid down her face. I stopped talking when I realized her face looked different. Waxier. Along with the mascara, her skin also melted down her face, hitting the floor.

“Why did you kill me?” she wailed. Her arms stretched out towards me, the flesh falling to the floor. An awful stench emanated from her body. Like a dead animal rotting in the trash.

I stumbled backwards, trying to get away from the horrifying scene in front of me. The room lit on fire, and she came towards me. This time, her bones were dressed in her nightgown. Her arms still stretched out, ready to embrace me in death.

“No, no, no,” I muttered, panic clawing at my throat, as I dropped to my knees on the floor. This wasn’t real. Bloodtrickled from a gash on her forehead, mingling with the melting wax on the floor.

“Why did you kill me?” she wailed. The oxygen rapidly left the room. The smoke choked me, and I couldn’t breathe. “Why don’t you join me?” Her voice raised into an eerie cackle.

She reached me, leaning down, and I could see flames licking the sides of her very skull, enveloping her skeleton whole. Her burning hand seared my flesh–

I wokeup drenched in sweat, my heart hammering against my ribcage, as the remnants of the nightmare clung to me like a suffocating shroud. The room was dark, but I could still make out Mya’s silhouette beside me, her hand gently shaking my shoulder.

“Riccardo,” she whispered, her voice calm yet firm, the kind of voice that was meant to pull someone back from the edge.

But hearing that name, his name, hit me like a punch to the gut. She should know the difference between us. My blood ran cold, and anger flared up inside me, hot and irrational.

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