~ Jordan's POV ~

Adrian hadn't spoken to me at all since that day and like he said, I've been doing all of the housework. He did give me my phone back but made sure to reiterate that he could have my family killed at anytime so I better not tell them anything. It didn't matter that he gave me my phone back though, I wasn't ready to call my family yet. I wasn't sure of what to say to them after the way I left, I didn't even say goodbye to my brother and sister and I'm pretty sure they won't ever forgive me for that. They probably wouldn't even want to talk to me.

"Jordan." I looked up at Adrian who was busy staring at his phone, I hadn't seen him for the last two days since he's been going to 'work' before I woke up and coming home after I went to sleep.

"What?" I turned back to the tv, I was currently lying on the couch watching Stranger Things on Netflix in the living room.

"My mom will be here tomorrow so you can go get a dress." Neither of us looked at each other as we spoke, I nodded absentmindedly as I stared at the screen. "A dress for what?" He sighed and I saw him look at me from the corner of my eye. "Our wedding next week."

At the mention of the wedding my mood instantly worsened. I paused the tv and sat up to look at him properly.

"I'm not marrying you Adrian. You can force me to live with you but there's no way I'm going to marry you." He glared at me with the same cold look he first had when I met him. "You have no choice." I scoffed and stood up stepping towards him, adrenaline running through me as my anger increased. "No? You can't make me say 'I do' Adrian, you can't. There's no way I'm going to marry you and throw the rest of my life away, living here and serving you; cooking your dinner and cleaning your house. You're freaking crazy if you think I will."

His glare intensified as I spoke, I knew he was already angry about something else because earlier I heard him shouting down the phone, this just seemed to make him furious. He stepped closer to me and pushed me forcefully down on the couch.

"Do you really want to do this Jordan? You know exactly what I'm capable of." His fist was clenched whilst he spoke, I really should have kept my mouth shut but I didn't. "I know exactly what you are too. A cold, selfish bastard who's probably been so damaged you take your anger out on everyone else, you think you're so untouchable just because of your position but in reality you're nothing Adrian and I'm not scared of you."

He let out a deep chuckle and pulled a gun out of his pocket, using his other hand he grabbed me by my hair and lifted me up causing me to let out a small scream, before I could even look at him I felt the handle of the gun make contact with my jaw. He dropped me to the floor as pain erupted in my jaw and tears burned my eyes but I refused to let them fall. He kneeled down next to me and looked me in the eye. "Next time, I'll break your jaw."

His eyes held so much promise I knew better than to even respond to him, not that I physically could speak anyway. He got up and left the room and minutes later I heard the front door slam.

I slowly sat up, the tears finally falling silently down my face. It took a me a moment to get out of the daze that the hit from the gun had caused, I shakily stood up and made my way upstairs to the bathroom. I stood infront of the mirror and my eyes landed on the large purple bruise already forming on the right side of my face. I washed my face with cold water hoping it would help me calm down. After grabbing an ice pack I lay on the couch, my mind going over the events of this morning. I know I shouldn't have carried on provoking him, but he makes me so angry, and part of me doesn't want to give into him just because he tries to intimidate me.

For the rest of the day I just continued to ice the bruise on my jaw and did some random bits of housework along side watching Netflix to keep myself busy. I had just started making dinner when I heard the front door open and close, multiple voices travelling through the house causing me to frown, I hadn't expected Adrian to even be home this early never mind bring people with him. I turned up the music which was playing from my phone using the speakers in the kitchen so that I could distract myself.

"Jordan." I heard someone enter the kitchen and from his voice I knew it was Adrian. I refused to turn around to look at him and instead I carried on stirring the sauce I was making to go with the steak. I heard him sigh and walk around the island in the middle of the kitchen where the stove was so that he could see me properly.

I kept my eyes down on the pan in front of me knowing exactly why he was staring at me in silence. The room was silent and tense as he stood infront of me looking at the worsening bruise which he left on my face. Eventually he broke the silence. "Matteo and Angelo are here, make them some food too and don't disturb us in my office."

I finally looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. "So you just want me to leave the food here to get cold then?" He shook his head at my sarcastic comment and started walking out the kitchen. "Just come and get us when it's done." I ignored him knowing from the anger I was feeling that if I opened my mouth I would just end up in a worse position than I was this morning.

I finished making the food and made my way to Adrian's office, I hadn't been inside yet since he only uses it when people come to the house and since I moved in, he hasn't needed to use it. I knocked on the door and waited until I heard Adrian tell me to come in. I refused to look at any of the men in the room as I mumbled that their dinner was ready. I'm pretty sure both Angelo and Matteo saw the bruise on my face but they didn't say a word.

I decided to eat my food in the living room since I didn't want to be around any of them in the kitchen where they were eating. Right now Adrian is just repulsive to me and I can't stand the other two.

Hours later I heard them finally leave and Adrian came into the living room where I was watching tv. He sat on the couch opposite me, he was looking at me but I didn't look back at him. Like I said he's repulsive to me.

"You said you weren't going to be bringing anything to do with the mafia here." Adrian was silent for a while before he spoke. "They're different." I nodded and didn't bother saying anything else to him, I didn't really understand how they were 'different' but I honestly couldn't care less anymore.

"Tesoro.." I scoffed at his nickname but kept my eyes on the tv, at this point I wasn't even watching it, I just didn't want to look at Adrian. "Leave me alone Adrian." He sat quietly for a moment before getting up and leaving the room.

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It was past 10pm and I had just come home from a whole day of wedding dress shopping with Adrian's mom for the wedding and honestly she is one of the nicest people I've ever met. She was nothing like Adrian or Matteo, I have no idea how they could have a mom like her and turn out the way they did.

She seemed to know what the situation was between Adrian and I thankfully so I didn't have to explain it to her or pretend that Adrian and I were in love or anything. It was a little awkward at first but as I got to know her she was so easy to talk to. I told her about my family and what I wanted to do for my career, I did mention that Adrian said I couldn't carry on teaching here which she was angry about, that just made me happy knowing Adrian was in trouble. I know I'm immature yes.

She didn't see the bruise from yesterday on my face since I hid it with lots of foundation and concealer but she did notice that I didn't like Adrian, at all. She tried to convince me that he'll be nicer to me once he's comfortable around me and knows I'm not a threat to him or that I won't leave him. I just laughed at this though, I hated Adrian, nothing she said was going to convince me not to. She told me about her own story with Adrian's dad, that she met him when she was nineteen and married him when she was twenty, they had kids straight away. She told me she was madly in love with him, but she didn't agree with his 'profession', although she got used to it and claimed I would too.

I know I won't though, she loves Adrian's dad so of course she would overlook the fact he was a monster, he probably wasn't even as bad towards her as Adrian is towards me. I on the other hand, hate Adrian, I know I will never get used to what he does. I will never love him enough to do so.

I took my shoes off and walked through the house, I saw Adrian in the kitchen and I made my way over to him ready to give him a piece of my mind. "Adrian." He looked up at me with weird expression, like he was waiting for me to explode. Which I definitely was about to.

"I'm not happy. I want my wedding to be perfect and I found out that you're having someone else plan it?" He leaned against the counter with a small smile on his face, he nodded in response to my question and gestured for me to continue.

"I want to plan my own wedding. I want to choose the cake and the flowers and the colour scheme and the decorations. Not some stupid Italian with no taste." His eyebrows rose at this as he held in his laughter, this just pissed me off even more. "You're such a jerk Adrian! It's not funny!" I shook my head and paced backwards and forwards.

"Okay sorry. It's just that the 'stupid Italian with no taste' that you're referring to is my sister." My eyes widened a little when he said this, but instead of feeling guilty for saying that I just felt even more angry. "You're having your sister plan our wedding?! Why don't you just marry your damn sister then!" He finally burst out laughing, he stood in the kitchen laughing for a good few minutes before he finally calmed down.

"You're funny when you're angry." I sighed in frustration. "I'm being serious Adrian!"

He nodded and walked over to me. "Fine, plan it if you want to. I just didn't think you would want to do it, honestly I don't care." As soon as he said that I had ideas bouncing around inside my head about what to do for the wedding, however my mood instantly deflated when I thought about one particular aspect and I shook my head at him.

"I don't want to plan it." He frowned in utter confusion at my sudden change of mind. "What? Why not?" I turned away from him as tears sprung to my eyes.

"Because! I'm not going to know anyone there am I? My family and friends aren't going to be there, I'm not going to have anyone to walk me down the aisle. I'm just going to be getting married infront of a bunch of strange people!" He cracked a small smile at this, before slowly wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me closer to him.

I tried to move away at first but he just held me tighter and eventually I gave in knowing it was no use. I looked up at him as he gave me a soft smile causing his eyes to seem a little brighter than usual. "Invite your family then. If it makes you happy." I frowned whilst sniffling slightly. "But you said no." He nodded and rested his chin on my head. "Now I'm saying yes. Just don't cry please." I closed my eyes savouring his scent and the comfort I got from being in his arms. I still hated him, he just gave really good hugs.

"You're so weird Jordan." I chuckled a little at this as I pulled away from him. "I'm gonna go call my mom now then.." He nodded as an awkward silence began to set in, so I quickly left the kitchen. I went up to our room and closed the door before sitting down on one of the couches. I scrolled through my contacts until my thumb hovered over my mom's contact. I took a deep breath before clicking on it. It rung for a while and I started to think she wasn't going to answer but eventually she did.

"Hello?" I bit my lip to stop myself from crying at the sound of my mom's voice, you don't actually realise just how much you miss someone until you don't speak to them for a while, in my case it's only really been a few days but it feels like forever. "Mom.."

She took a sharp breath before speaking. "Jordan?" I nodded even though she couldn't see me. "How are you mom?"

She went quite for a while before speaking again this time her tone was cold and curt. "I'm okay, you?" I knew she was going to be angry, I could tell straight away. "I'm okay. How's everyone else?"

She cleared her throat before speaking. "Fine. Everyone's fine." I sighed and decided to get to the point since she clearly didn't want to speak to me. "Mom my wedding is next week."

"Next week? Why so quick? Jordan what's going on? You never mentioned this guy and now all of a sudden you're in Italy telling me you're getting married next week!" I sighed and leaned back against the couch. "I love him mom, let's just leave it at that. I just wanted to ask if you would come to the wedding. I don't want to do it without you all."

"I don't think so Jordan." I shook my head trying to keep my mouth shut so that I didn't say something I would regret our of anger. Every little thing was either making me angry or sad today. "Why?"

I felt my voice break from the desperation in my tone, all I wanted was for my mom to be there.

"I don't support this marriage Jordan. No way do I support it. I can ask Riley and Grace but I don't think they will come either." I can't lie and say that last part didn't hurt, because it killed me to know my own siblings, who I used to be so close with, didn't want to come.

"What about dad? I want him to walk me down the aisle." I heard her scoff at this. "Your father wants nothing to do with you Jordan, quite frankly neither do I. Don't call again, send me the information and I'll ask your brother and sister. Bye Jordan." She disconnected the call before I could say anything else, I just sat there staring at the wall across from me, feeling my heart break even more.

"Tesoro?" I looked up to see Adrian staring at me with a worried expression, I quickly wiped away any tears before giving him a fake smile. "Yeah?"

He sighed and kneeled down on the floor next to the couch so that he was eye level with me. "I told you not to cry."

I couldn't stop more tears from falling at the sympathetic look I was receiving off Adrian, once again he pulled me into his arms and I cried onto his shoulder. We stayed like that for a few minutes before he moved away.

"What do you want to do tesoro? You can just go to sleep now or we can do something to take your mind off everything." I shook my head and stood up which prompted Adrian to do the same. "I'm just gonna go to sleep I think. Have you eaten? I can quickly make you something if you want." I walked into the closet to get some pyjamas whilst speaking to Adrian.

"No I'm fine I've already eaten. I've got a bit of work to do then I'll probably go to sleep too." I nodded at him before he left the room to go back downstairs.

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I resisted the urge to let out a moan in pain as I stretched to check the time on my phone. 3:44am. I sighed just as another wave of pain hit my lower stomach. Aunt Flo decided to make an appearance and let me tell you, she's kicking my ass.

That explains all the crying I've done recently. I nudged Adrian with my elbow. "Adrian wake up."

His eyes slowly opened and he groaned before closing them again. "What do you want?" I bit my lip trying to ignore the stabbing pain in my lower region. "Um.."

He sighed and looked at me properly. "I need tampons." I was glad it was dark so he couldn't see the blush on my face as I spoke to him. "Okay."

I was a little surprised at his reaction, I thought he would be either really grossed out or pissed off that I woke him up. He tiredly got up and grabbed his car keys off his bedside table. "Do you need anything else?" I shook my head and he nodded in response. "Go to sleep, I'll be back soon."

He quietly left the room after putting a hoodie on over his sweatpants and t shirt which he was sleeping in.

I felt myself being shaken slightly. "Jordan." I mumbled in response as I opened my eyes groggily. "Your tampons are in the bathroom." I nodded and sat up to go to the bathroom when another wave of pain caused me to grab Adrian's arm tightly. He stayed still and waited for me to let go of him. "Is it really that bad?" I nodded and stood up feeling slightly faint. "I've always had really bad periods. This is normal for me." He frowned at this.

"Go to the bathroom, I'll get you a hot water bottle." I couldn't help the small smile that spread across my face at his thoughtfulness. He didn't say anything else, so I went into the bathroom.

When I came back he handed me the hot water bottle for my cramps. "Thank you." He nodded silently as we both got back into bed. "Why were you crying earlier? Did you speak to your mom?" I sighed and nodded as I got more comfy in the bed. "Yeah, she's not coming, neither is my dad. They hate me." It was quiet for a moment before he spoke again. "What about your brother and sister?"

"She said she'd ask them, but I doubt they'll come." He sighed and rubbed his hand over his face. "I'll deal with it." I didn't say anything to him since I was too tired to talk about that anymore. "I just want that day to be over now." He chuckled quietly before closing his eyes. "I think everyone does."

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