Surrender to the don's embrace (Gio and Millie) novel Chapter 1

1
MILLIE

I was lying comfortably on the long couch in our library, reading, when I heard a knock on the door. My sister Sienna's head was resting on my lap, and she didn't wake up when our mother came in. Mom looked worried, with her blond hair tied up in a bun at the back of her head.

"Is there something wrong?" I asked.

She forced a smile and said, "Your father wants to talk to you in his office."

Carefully, I moved Sienna's head and put her down on the couch. She curled up, being a small eleven-year-old, while I, at five feet four inches, wasn't very tall either. Nobody in our family was particularly tall. As I walked towards Mom, she avoided eye contact.

"Am I in trouble?" I wasn't sure what I could have done wrong. Usually, Sienna and I were the well-behaved ones, and our sister Harper was the rule-breaker who got into trouble.

"Hurry up, don't keep your father waiting," Mom said simply.

My stomach churned nervously as I stood in front of Father's office. After taking a moment to calm my nerves, I knocked on the door.

"Come in."

I entered, trying to keep a poker face. Dad was sitting behind his mahogany desk in a big black leather armchair. The mahogany shelves behind him were filled with books he had never read, but they concealed a secret entrance to the basement and a corridor leading off the premises.

He glanced up from a stack of papers, his grey hair slicked back. "Have a seat."

I sat down in one of the chairs across from his desk and folded my hands in my lap, trying not to bite my lower lip, as Dad disliked that. I waited for him to speak. He had an odd expression on his face as he looked at me. "The Bratva and the Triad are trying to take over our territories. Their boldness is increasing day by day. We are luckier than the Las Vegas familia, who also have to deal with the Mexicans, but we can't ignore the threat from the Russians and the Taiwanese any longer."

I was confused. Dad never talked to us about his business. Girls weren't supposed to know the details of the mob business. I knew better than to interrupt him.

"We need to resolve our feud with the New York Familia and join forces if we want to stand up against the Bratva and the Triad." Peace with the Familia? Dad and everyone else in the Chicago Outfit hated the Familia. They had been fighting each other for decades and only recently decided to ignore each other in order to target members of other crime organizations, like the Bratva and the Triad. "There is no stronger bond than blood. At least the Familia got that right."

I furrowed my brow.

"Born in blood. Sworn in blood. That's their motto."

I nodded, but my confusion only grew.

"I met with Agatone Merante yesterday," my father said. Agatone Merante was the head of the New York mob. A meeting between New York and Chicago hadn't happened in ten years, and last time it didn't end well. They called it Bloody Thursday. My father wasn't even the boss; he was just an adviser to Vernon Ruberti, who ruled over the crime in the Midwest.

"We agreed that for peace to be possible, we had to become family," my father continued, looking at me intensely. I didn't want to hear the rest. "Ruberti and I agreed that you would marry the oldest son of the Merante, Gio, who will be the future head of the Familia."

I felt like I was falling. "Why me?"

"Merante and Ruberti have been talking on the phone, and Merante wanted the most beautiful girl for his son. They couldn't give him the daughter of one of their soldiers, and since Vernon doesn't have daughters, they chose you as the most beautiful available," my father explained.

"But there are so many beautiful girls," I choked. I couldn't believe this was happening.

"There aren't many Italian girls with hair like yours. Vernon described it as golden," my father laughed. "You'll be our way into the New York Familia."

"But, Father, I'm only fifteen. I can't get married," I pleaded.