𝑅𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑃ℎ𝑜𝑒𝑛𝑖𝑥 ✔︎ || 𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑑

20

~ phoenix ~

"A year."

That was what he'd vowed. There was no legal contract, no blood oath, just desperation on my end and impatience on his. I agreed, instantly, like magic and I saw the surprise in his eyes but my pride would not let me acknowledge it. I didn't want to agree. I was no man's fool but neither was I my own fool. A beggar had no choice and I was that beggar in a mafia's world.

The night before the wedding was a silent, empty dream.

Mom flew in a few hours ago. She sat behind me gently stroking my hair as I lay still on her lap.

"I'm sorry, baby," she murmured for the billionth time.

I was sick of hearing it. Yes, I knew she did everything she could to prevent it, but I also knew there was a part of me that resented her for letting it happen anyway. I was supposed to be her precious baby, my daddy's princess. And little Lyon's hero.

Back in Chicago, my father and seven-year-old brother were oblivious to my predicament. I guess Dad never knew about Mom's dark past and she'd do anything to keep Lyon away from it. I wondered what lie she'd concocted to explain her sudden departure.

There it was again, the anger. But I squashed it down until it was nothing but a mess of thoughts, wreaking havoc in my mind.

"What was it like, Mom?" I asked, softly, "Being in that- this world?"

I heard her sigh.

"It was home for a long time, baby," she began a moment later, "I knew nothing but my father's business with guns and drugs. But he was compelled by his father and his grandfather before that. You'd think being a woman in this world was hard. But our men, maybe they have it harder."

I scoffed. "They have the power to stop this vicious cycle whenever they wish. But they're greedy, Mom," I spat bitingly, "they sold me."

"No Phoenix, if it were that simple, do you not think your Dza would keep us in a world where any one of us could die any moment? Perhaps, there was once a man who began the cycle but the successors after him all had their hands tied like every one of us. We have enemies in this business in every corner of this world, even in our own country baby. This mafia, it is protection and family."

"Mom," I said, feeling the blood rush to my head as anger grew, "guns, drugs, killing people. It's evil."

The oppressive silence that followed fed the flames of my growing rage. Why couldn't she see the simple truth? This business was despicable.

Eventually, she spoke. "Yes, it is, baby."

I opened my mouth to argue further but she spoke quietly yet surely again.

"But it is life. And now it is yours."

Another flare of fury flapped in my chest. I suddenly felt too hot. Sitting up, I turned my back to her.

"I don't want this life, Mom. If this is what you wanted for me, then you should've done us both a favour and drowned me in a river-"

I heard the loud thwack of the slap before I felt it. The sting came soon enough, buzzing on my cheek.

Instantly, hot angry tears filled my eyes. I looked with shock up at her as her hand recoiled.

A tide of emotions crossed her pale features. I saw a surprise that mimicked my own and then a wrenching guilt. Mom extended a hand towards me softly, hesitantly. I flinched and so did she.

In a flash, she was standing with a shaky hand covering her mouth. "Don't say what you don't mean, Phoenix. I truly am sorry but it is a truth that is as hard for me to bear as it is for you."

Silent tears streamed down my cheeks, cooling the heat of the blood.

"It doesn't have to be so bad, baby," her tone became urging, "you could learn to love him."

My head snapped in her direction.

"Love?" I scoffed. "You're forgetting, Mom, that I'm marrying a murderer whilst you ran off with Dad."

I saw my mother flinch.

Then, her gaze hardened. "We will speak after you've calmed down, Phoenix. I am your mother. Remember that."

I crawled into a ball beneath my sheets after I heard the door shut behind her. My eyes burned with the effort to hold the tears at bay. What just happened?

𝑥𝑜
𝖗𝖔𝖘𝖆𝖛𝖎