Katerina Dale

This cannot be happening.

Why is this happening? What sin have I committed to be enduring this madness?

Standing at the patio door near the pool, all of the De Luca family members except for Elijah, were staring in shock between Isabella and I. There were mixed emotions in everyone's faces, except for Arosio whose darkened gaze had never left my wide, frightened eyes. He looked like he just returned from his long meeting since he was still dressed in his expensive sleek black suit with his dark hair neatly styled back. I could tell that he was already tired and this situation seemed to piss him off further.

For a few moments, everything remained completely silent. I wasn't sure what the hell I should say and Isabella looked shell shocked as soon as she heard Arosio's angered voice so she stood there simply staring at everyone with her mouth agape. I wanted to walk up to her and shake her like hell since it was her fault all of this was happening.

"What is going on?" Arsenio's deep voice boomed as he didn't bother to hide the annoyance in his voice. I wasn't sure if it was because we were cutting into their dinner time or if it was because he was enraged at the surprise appearance of two Dale sisters.

"I apologize pa--SIR! I apologize, Sir. My name is Katerina Dale, I am Isabella's younger twin sister," my eyes remained on the ground as I refused to look into the older man's dark eyes while lying to him and pretending as if I hadn't stayed in his home for two days. I almost called him Papa and silently cursed myself for making such an error.

"Sister?" Arsenio questioned as he looked between the two of us. There was something hidden in his sinister gaze, a form of amusement and I saw the same in Arosio's darkened gaze and his two brother's gazes.

I wish I could dig a hole and bury myself right now. Isabella still remained silent as if she was too afraid to speak and offend the powerful Mafia family. My gaze slowly lifted towards the De Luca family but I found myself staring at the floor when I saw Arosio's dark gaze still narrowed at me. He looked like he wanted to bury me alive, making my heart race and tears gather in my eyes under the terrifying pressure he was releasing into the air. I willed my heart to function normally and not give me a heart attack before I replied.

"Yes...Sir. I apologize for visiting without prior notice. I had not seen my sister in a few weeks so I came to visit her. I was just about to take my leave, have a lovely evening," I rushed out before swiftly turning around and was about to run towards the back gate when Adriano and Alanzo's voices pierced through the air.

"Sembra che la puttana sia tornata. Fratello, la tua coniglietta sta cercando di scappare, ha persino cambiato i suoi vestiti. Ti ha persino tolto l'anello," Adriano mused aloud in his infuriating Italian and I instantly froze when Arosio's expression darkened even further before he took a step in my direction, making me take several steps away as I averted his furious gaze and hid my left hand when he stared at it. (Looks like the whore is back. Brother, your bunny is trying to escape from you, she even changed her clothes. She also took off your ring as well,)

"Quanto può essere sfacciata quella puttana? Pensa davvero di poter ingannare la nostra famiglia nel crederle? La nostra principessa è troppo innocente e pura rispetto a lei," Alanzo spoke with a mischievous glance as he looked towards me just like the rest of his family. (How shameless can that whore be? She really thinks she can fool our family into believing her? Our princess is far too innocent and pure compared to her)

I felt my heart sink down to my stomach as the thought of them knowing that Isabella was not me crossed my mind. Unconsciously, I began to take a few more steps away from them with my eyes darting backwards towards the gate where the car leading to my freedom was waiting. Suddenly, the patio door opened again and a light pair of feet came running towards us.

"Mommy!" Elijah suddenly ran out and I opened my mouth to tell him to be careful but quickly shut it when I saw the De Luca family members raise their brows at me.

To my pure shock and horror, Elijah landed in front of me and not Isabella. How the hell did this kid recognize me even though my twin sister was standing there in the clothes they saw me wearing before?

I stared at him for a few seconds before steeling my heart and uttering words that broke my heart and made it impossible to meet the little boy's innocent gaze.

"I'm not your mommy. You must be Elijah? I am actually your auntie, your mommy is over there. I am her twin sister," the words left a bitter taste in my mouth as I pointed towards Isabella who looked at me shocked. Elijah looked at me in confusion before turning around and looking towards Isabella who slowly nodded her head as if to agree with me.

"I'm sorry, auntie. Mommy!" Elijah's eyes widened when he noticed Isabella wearing the same dress that I was wearing just moments ago. He quickly apologized to me before hurrying towards Isabella and hugging her legs.

Isabella visibly stiffened before pushing the little boy away from her legs. I stared at her as my jaw dropped to the floor, completely disgusted by her behavior. Elijah looked up at her with teary eyes since he couldn't comprehend her sudden coldness and I felt my heart break into a million pieces.

"Are you mad at me, mommy? I promised to be a good boy before though," he mumbled sadly while he got up and slowly hugged her legs again.

What happened next shook me to the core and I almost committed manslaughter for the first and last time in my life.

Isabella scoffed at the little boy hugging her before she pushed him away, this time with more force, making him fall into the in-ground pool beside us. I couldn't even process what had happened until I heard the big splash, making me instantly release a blood-curling scream.

"ELI!" a scream escaped my trembling lips before I jumped into the pool and gathered his small struggling body into my arms.

The water surrounded both of us but thankfully, we were not in the deep end of the pool so I was able to keep his head above the water. Gathering all of my strength, I lifted him into my arms and quickly exited the pool before sitting on the cold ground with him coughing in my arms. I was gasping for my own breath as well but tried to rub his back soothingly while whispering reassuring words to him when he began to cry.

"It's okay, my little prince. You are safe, don't worry, it's going to be alright," I continued whispering to the little boy as my body began to shiver from the cold night breeze. Suddenly, we were both wrapped in a man's suit jacket, making my gaze snap up and finally notice what was happening around us.

Arosio had removed his suit jacket and wrapped it around Elijah and I. He was standing beside us with an indescribable emotion in his eyes as his family watched us in a mixture of shock and horror. I looked behind him and saw two guards restraining Isabella as she began to fight back.

"Unhand me, do you know who the fuck I am? I am Isabella Dale, how dare you touch me?" she continued to yell profanities as I hugged Elijah closer to my body and covered his ears from hearing that horrible woman's words. Elijah eventually calmed down, making me release a sigh of relief but I froze when I felt Arosio's dark gaze remain on me. Several maids rushed forward and took Elijah away from me, probably to change him into dry clothes and I thanked them quietly.

Suddenly, a hard slap was heard, and I looked up in time to see one of the guards backhand Isabella with the hilt of his gun twice, making my mouth fall agape in horror. She immediately quieted down before the other guard shoved papers in her face and yelled at her to sign them.

"No, I won't sign them. What is--" Isabella's words were cut short when Arosio suddenly pulled his gun out and pressed it against her temple. I froze seeing him standing so naturally with a gun pressed against her forehead, as if killing was the easiest thing to him.

"You have three seconds, whore. You are lucky no one here has shot you dead for what you just did to my son," Arosio stated sadistically as he shoved the papers and pen in her face. I looked towards the rest of his family who also held killer intent, making me crawl away from them on the ground in pure terror.

Isabella quickly nodded her head with tears, probably knowing that the Mafia boss would not be bluffing. Before he could even count to one, she had signed each of the papers and Arosio handed them to Adriano while smirking in a sinister manner that had shivers raking up my spine.

"What were those papers?" Isabella questioned fearfully as blood trickled down the side of her face, making me grimace and shut my eyes. I was never one to do well with bloody scenes, another reason why I want to stay the hell away from this Mafia family.

"Divorce papers." Arosio's simple two words had my eyes widening in shock as an involuntary gasp escaped my lips. His darkened gaze instantly snapped to me and I finally realized what I had failed to realize before.

No.

God no.

Please, no this CANNOT BE HAPPENING.

Arosio knew that I wasn't Isabella.....

Wait...did his whole family know?

My fearful wide eyes shifted to the rest of his family who did not look surprised, in fact, the men looked quite content when they saw Isabella sign the divorce papers.

"Huh...what...how could you? Our grandfathers made a pact, a marriage needs to take place between the De Luca and Dale family! The Mafia never breaks a pact," Isabella uttered in shock and was yanked and made to stand up roughly by the two guards.

Instead of replying to her, Arosio let out a dark chuckle before signalling Adriano over who brought forth documents. The papers looked extremely familiar, making that sinking feeling at the pit of my stomach resurface again. Slowly standing up, I inched further away from the Mafia family before freezing when Arosio's gaze snapped to me as he held up the documents. He stared at me with a pure evil glint in his eyes, as if to challenge me to take another step away from him.

"Indeed, we never break a pact. I am married to a Dale family member and will always be married to her for the rest of eternity," Arosio's started as my heart dropped and I could do nothing but look between him and his family in pure terror. Eliana refused to meet my gaze and she held the same guilty look from before.

"What? To who?" Isabella's brows furrowed and she tried to take the documents away but was pulled back by the guards.

"To my sweet Katerina, of course. Guards, take this whore off of my property and throw that ring on her finger into the trash. I will need to make my tesoro a new ring," Arosio's deep voice penetrated straight into my terrified heart and made me lose the last grip on sanity that I had desperately been clinging onto.

Throwing his jacket onto the floor, I rushed towards him and tore the papers out of his hands. I didn't even pay attention as the guards dragged Isabella away. Instead, I was focused on reading each page and saw the signature that I had done during breakfast. It was a marriage document and I had signed and sealed my fate away for forever. A sob escaped me as tears poured down my eyes nonstop, I turned to look at Adriano and Alanzo who looked slightly guilty and turned their faces away from me.

Those fucking piece of shits! They were distracting me earlier during breakfast in order to make me sign this document.

Wait.

This means they all knew who I was? Since the very beginning, they knew that I was Katerina and not my twin sister?

"Ah, my little cucciola. Did you really think you could fool the Mafia family with your terrible acting?" my gaze snapped up to meet Arosio's wicked smirk and he chuckled at me darkly. I glared at him and took several steps away from.

Remaining perfectly still and silent, I tried my best to breathe and suppress all of the rage that had been building up inside of me. The anger from how my father threatened me, the anger from how Arosio and his family tricked me, the anger from how my sister treated me.

I am so tired of it all.

But I found myself struggling to remain calm when Arosio stalked towards me and leaned down towards my face. His lips brushed against my ears, making me shiver in both terror and another emotion that I did not want to feel.

"Behave and be a good obedient wife from now on. If you listen well, I will lessen your punishments for trying to leave and for taking off the ring, tesoro" Arosio whispered huskily into my ear as I finally lost my grip on my sanity. Without missing a beat, I pushed him away from my face and slapped him across his wickedly handsome face.

"FUCK YOU" without thinking, I rammed my knee up into his precious jewels, making him instantly topple over in pain.

But my anger wasn't over yet so I did what any girl would have done in my place.

My fist flew up and punched Arosio straight into his perfectly chiseled jaw before I kicked the Italian Mafia boss into the pool. His family stood on the side completely shocked but I didn't spare them a second glance before sprinting towards the back gate while ripping the marriage documents into pieces. I let the pieces fall over the grass and sprinted towards the gate.

Good thing I ran track in College and was a silver medalist. By the time any of them could comprehend what was going on and start running towards my direction, I was already at the back gate and sprinted towards the black Audi that was waiting for me.

"DRIVE NOW!" I yelled as soon as I ripped the front door open, making the poor elderly man who worked for the Dale family widen his eyes in surprise before accelerating towards my freedom.

'Finally, I escaped from the Mafia boss' I thought to myself with a victorious smile gracing my face.

*****

Hello lovely readers,

It's 5 am and I couldn't sleep so here a double update. Thanks for supporting me!

PLEASE VOTE, COMMENT & COMMENT! YES, I wrote comment twice because I truly love seeing your comments and I try to respond to each one!