Taken By The Mafia Lord

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“Clara!” Both women shouted and reacted at the same time. However, before the wedding planner, Alexi could even stand to her feet, Diana had already reached her daughter.

Clara fell into her mother’s arms, breaking down in tears while the other woman watched in confusion, with no clue on what to do.

With the way Diana was holding onto her daughter, it was obvious that this wasn’t the first time Clara was having a meltdown and Alexi felt like a stranger invading something private. It made her feel uncomfortable.

Hence, before she could be asked to leave, Alexi said to the woman, “I would take my leave and perhaps, schedule the meeting for another day,” when everything was under control, she didn’t add that part.

Diana didn’t say a word but she nodded her head in understanding and the wedding planner took her leave. This wasn’t the first time she’s seen drama in her line of work, but this one? She would make a miserable bride. The marriage was doomed before it even began.

However, it was none of her business whether her client married the wrong partner or not. Her business was to give them the wedding of their dreams and up her reviews. Moreover, marriages these days weren’t even guaranteed. It was a game of luck.

Back in the receiving room, Diana knelt by her daughter’s side. Clara placed her head on her chest bawling her eyes out while her mother rubbed her back soothingly, trying to comfort her.

.....

“He said he would be here when I needed him, yet....y-yet... he’s not even picking my calls....!” Clara cried out.

She felt humiliated and disappointed. Why must Marcel treat her this way? She bet he was with that other woman. What was so special about that ugly duckling?

Clara might not have graduated from Harvard, but she attended one of the prestigious Universities in the world and graduated from it summa cum laude. She had her own booming business and came from a respectable family, a royal one at that. Why must he disgrace her like this? Marcel made her a laughing stock and she bet that other women must be celebrating her victory. But not for too long.

Clara’s resolve to be with Marcel strengthened upon thinking about the mistress her fiancé was keeping. She has come this far, there was no going back.

She tried to conjure the woman’s face but all Clara could remember was the shock of red hair. Right now, it wasn’t a matter of whether she liked Marcel or not anymore, this was now a challenge. She was determined to own Marcel.

Her pride was on the line and she couldn’t let some city pumpkin take her place. Who was she? She was Clara Louise Alberta, a blueblood descended from a long line of royals. If the anarchy were still in power, she would be the queen and everyone else would be nothing but ants that she could easily squash beneath her feet.

Thinking about it, what would her ancestors say if they were to see her in this pathetic condition. They would think of her as weak and unworthy of the name, unfortunately, no princess with the Alberta bloodline was known to be a weakling. She would not be the opposite.

While Clara had plans, her mother thought otherwise. Hence, after she managed to calm her down and there was nothing but silence between them, Diana finally said, “I think we should call off the engagement or marriage. Whatever, I don’t care.”

As soon as her mother let out those words, Clara pushed away from her body as if she had been electrocuted. She stared at her mother intensely as if seeing her for the first time. Diana might as well have grown a horn with that kind of stare.

“What do you mean by that?” Clara was having a hard time comprehending what she just heard.

“I want to cancel the marriage promise between you and Marel. You deserve someone better, Clara,”

“No!” She said sternly.

“Clara?”

“No, no, no, mother. You can’t do this to me too!” She shifted away from her mother, getting up on her feet.

“What do you mean by that?” Diana asked her daughter, standing up as well. She knew this wasn’t going to be easy considering her deal with Daniel, but to think that her own daughter was the one rejecting the suggestion nearly broke her.

Diana was trying to liberate her daughter from this mistake before it was too late and there was no going back, but the fool wasn’t even seeing the bigger picture. No, this was her mistake, it was all her fault. In her quest to preserve their lives, she has jeopardized her daughter’s happiness and she needed to correct that.

“Why now?!” Clara screamed at her, “Why do you have to do this now that I have come this far? Do you even know what, no, who I threw away to come to this point?” She referred to Luther, her ex-lover.

Clara was sure that at this point even if she went back to Luther, he wouldn’t accept her back. It has been weeks since they broke up, not that she wanted back in his arms anyway.

You see, the thing is that when you associate with top-notch people like Marcel, you’d discover that other males fell in comparison to him. In one word, Clara couldn’t picture herself spending the rest of her life with any other man but Marcel.

“I know, it’s my fault!” Diana admitted, “I should have spent more time with you as your mother and given you a listening ear than randomly deciding what was best for you. It is my fault, I take the blame. But Clara, there’s still time and you can avoid this miserable fate that awaits you!” She told her anxiously.

“It’s not a miserable fate!” Clara went on the defensive, “You told me yourself, you were in a loveless marriage with father and yet, you made it work somewhere!” She reminded her.

“That only worked because your father respected me!” Diana yelled back, finally losing her calm composure. She pointed to the entrance, “This Marcel, he has no respect for you and that is even deadlier than not being loved at all!”

A tense silence stretched between the mother and daughter after that outburst. The both of them looked each other dead in the eyes, their breath thick and heavy. Their chest heaved with emotion.

Clara suddenly laughed sarcastically,

“Respect? Don’t worry about that, I’d earn the respect in no time and Marcel would treat me better like you always wanted. You say a miserable fate awaits me, but I’ll tell you mother, even in my misery, I’ll be the one to carve my path. You were the one to start this in the first place, see to it that you finish it, because I’m not giving up now.” She told her and took her leave.

Her feet were suddenly rooted to the ground and no speech could come out of Diana’s mouth until her daughter passed her by and she turned, shouting her name, “Clara? Clara! Come back here this instant, Clara!”

But the young lady ignored her and didn’t even glance over her shoulder in her direction until she reached her room.

Once in her room, Clara went straight to her drawer and pulled out another phone which she powered on instantly. Perks of being rich was that you could have as many phones as possible – especially for her who had a bad habit of destroying them.

As soon as the phone was functional, the first thought that came to her mind was to call Daniel. He was the only one that listened to her and was capable of putting Marcel in order. Also, she remembered the way Marcel had reacted when she brought up the issue of his red-haired mistress.

It was obvious that Marcel wanted her hidden away from his father’s sight. Clara was a bitch and she knew that, else she wouldn’t have made a lot of lives miserable. What if she made Marcel’s life a little miserable?

Clara was confident in her acting skills and knew if she cried to Daniel about the redhead, he would grant her request immediately.

Who knows what he would do to her? Kill and make her body disappear from the surface of the earth? Clara was sure of that, after all, wasn’t that what the Luciano family did for a living?

A sinister smile crossed Clara’s lips when she thought of that scenario and she tried to imagine what Marcel’s face would look like if that were to happen. Would he still carry his pride with him or would he crumble down like a child and cry for his loss? That would be quite a sight – a sight she would love to watch.

She found her soon would-be father-in-law’s number and her long and slim finger hovered near the call button. All she needed was a tab and the call would go through, however, Clara changed her mind at the last minute.

Why should Daniel keep fighting her battle for her? She was an Alberta, only cowards hide behind the shadows of others. Moreover, it’s not like this was the first time she tried to make Marcel miserable.