His yellow obsession (You do, I don't)

Chapter 5

The sun is shining,
The birds are chirping,
The world is smiling - James Rivers is gone.

I get out of bed with a smile on my face, just like I have the past four days. My smile is from ear to ear as I head towards the bathroom and get ready for another good day as a not engaged girl.

James Rivers disappeared the night of the engagement, and he's still not been found. Last they saw him he was on a yacht, in the middle of the ocean and when that yacht returned it came without him.

Maybe I should be feeling bad, or sad about the fact that he may be dead but I'm not. I refuse to feel bad for a man who speaks with no respect and treats women like objects.

The only thing I feel bad about is the fact that there's been a couple of issues between my family and the Rivers. They're accusing us of having something to do with it, that we wanted out of the contract and alliance so we got rid of him but it doesn't make sense, I wanted out but my father was very much on board.

He's asked me multiple times If I had something to do with it and I answered truthfully every time, I didn't. How could I? They track my every movement, and even though I couldn't stand the man I wouldn't have killed him. I'm not complaining though, he probably fell of that yacht and was too drunk to swim his way back.

"Mademoiselle Bella, breakfast is ready."
I smile to my maid and give her a nod before I make my way out of the bedroom.

My father has been cursing everything these past days, alongside with Alexis and Adrien. It seems like the issues with Rivers are only growing and they're not backing down.. the blackeye on Adrien's face is good evidence of that. Every time I see him I have to suppress a smile, he got what he deserved one way or another.

I'm nineteen in two weeks and by then I can at least have some more time as a single women. No chance in hell they'll be able to find me a husband before my birthday.

Life is good.

"You look happy, ma chérie." My mother says as she greets me,
"I am." I answer truthfully, I don't have to put on a mask in front of her, she won't get mad because she knows just how much I didn't want to get married - not everyone falls in love at the age of eighteen like her with papa.

She fills my plate with food, "Don't let him see you smiling like this - he's already stressed and angry, I don't want him to take it out on you."
"I know.." I sigh, I hate having to pretend like I'm not on top of the world right now but I also get that my father is stressed, we've gained a new enemy and they're powerful.

I eat and small talk with my mother, neither my brothers or my father comes to eat with us which is completely fine, it means that my mood won't get ruined by Adrien and his comments.

I get up when I'm done, and help cleaning the table. Luckily no one is here to tell me that it's unnecessary because we have "workers" like it's a crime to clean after yourself.

When I'm done, I head towards the living room but stop quickly when I bump into a wall - a wall in beige suit.

"Perdon, I didn't see you there." The wall says, as I it helps me stand up. I lock eyes with a pair of dark brown ones,
"I noticed." I mutter, I recognize him from somewhere - the slash across his brow. He looks at me like he's intrigued, almost like he just solved some kind of puzzle.
"So you're the girl running around in his head." He says with an excited smile... what?

My father clears his throat, catching our attention. He's standing there with both of my brothers. I look at him and he has a defeated look on his face, he looks tired and annoyed.

"Pleasure doing business with you Mr. Lyon, you'll be hearing from us soon." He says shaking my father's hand. My father nods but doesn't say anything.

The man flashes an arrogant smile, which means that whatever meeting they had led to him winning more than my father. He turns around to leave but stops right next to me,
"Time to pay rent little one."

Before I can ask what the hell that's supposed to mean, he walks away and is out the door.

"Merde!" My father curses.
"Fuckers, took advantage of our situation." Adrien scoffs, with an angry expression. I look at Alexis, he doesn't say anything, but he doesn't seem as annoyed as them either.
"It's a win win." He says, "it's not like we weren't going to find someone sooner or later."

My father shakes his head,
"That's the problem you moron! If we had found them, we would have had the upper hand but they found us, and they're the one providing protection because they know we need it - which gives them the upper hand."

Adrien scoffs, "fucking Rivers - should've put a bullet inside every one of them." He turns around and throws me a glance, "I don't know what the fuck makes you worth the trouble either."

What the hell did I do wrong now?

***

"what?" I almost yell, this just turned from the happiest day of my life to the worst in a couple of hours. "Dad, even you know how ridicules this is, I just came out of an engagement."

It's not even been a week, a damn week and somehow they found me a new fiancé already. By the look on my father's face, he doesn't seem to be very onboard with this either but for some reason he agreed.

"I know damn well how it looks." He snaps, brushing his hand through the little of hair he has left.
"Then why did you say yes?" I ask, none of this makes sense - it'll only make us look worse in front of the Rivers, it seems like we planned it.
"We have no other choice, get over yourself." Adrien butts in.

I take a seat in front of Alexis,
"Can you please explain to me how this happened?" He might not like me, but he's the rational one here. If I want some answers, he'll be straight forward.

"We need protection, Rodriguez offered it as long as we work on their next projects, and you'll marry one of his men as a way to confirm the alliance. You get it or do you want me to feed it to you with a spoon?"

Normal people write a damn contract, but the men of the underworld? They use women as a way of forming an alliance. I hate them all, so damn much.

"How are they going to stand up against the Rivers?" I ask, looking at my father.
"They're way stronger, and they already have an alliance with Landon, so he won't go against it."

This just went from worse to worser. The Rivers are corporate men that are involved in some shady business, but by what I've gathered - Rodriguez is the leader of a damn mafia, these men are way more ruthless. My first fiancé was involved in the mafia and the only way I got him to back off was when I caught him in bed with some leader's wife and threatened to rat him out.

No way in hell I'm doing this, I'll run away the second the wedding is over, and they have their guards down. That man will make my life a hell, mafia men are the worst kind of the underworld, they don't give a shit about anything or anyone. Their power gets them away with anything which let them act just how they want.

"Who is it?" I ask, I don't know about many of the men in the underworld, but I can research and get my fingers on anything I need to scare him away.
My father sighs, "Pablo Romero."

Prince fucking charming.