My Husband's Brother Owns My Secret

Annabelle's POV

"Please, Mr. D'Angélo, I just need more time!"

Father's voice was hoarse, raw with desperation.

On hearing his desperate tone, I paused.

I stood outside my study, my grip on the doorknob, tightening. My heart was slowly beginning to race too.

I had never seen my father so vulnerable like that before.

I kept wondering to myself, trying to figure out the scene I was witnessing at the moment.

"I have seen father feel pain, that was when mum died...

I have experienced him being scared and uncertain, but that is always just for a few moments, in times of difficult decisions or situations...

But I haven't seen him act this desperate before!" I thought to myself.

Before Mama's death (as we fondly called her), making the toughest decisions at home was so easy and simple for my father.

Mama acquired so much power because she hailed from one of the wealthiest families in their local clan. This gave Father an edge in most situations when protection was needed.

But then, she decided to keep a flower and paint shop because of me. She knew how much I had grown to love flowers and painting.

"I have seen this face before," I quickly remembered, on seeing our visitor.

Two other men stood almost motionless at his back as if keeping guard.

I couldn't fathom what was happening. Even though I have always known since my childhood that Father had some strange faces visiting us from time to time, because of his gambling and dirty involvement with gang leaders.

But that particular atmosphere was different from all others of the past.

I rushed to my study table to confirm the face of the man sitting, from the regular magazine always placed by the bookshelf.

Searching around for a few minutes...

"Finally got it!" I whispered nearly out loud but quickly caught myself.

This magazine, for years, has been seen tolling around the house.

"Antonioni D'Angélo? The Shadow King? The man who makes empires tremble?"

So many questions were pumping into my head. Including...

"Father is pleading with him!? Why?"

The huge man sitting on the threshold, his presence was suffocating.

His voice was smooth but deceptively calm. And for some strange and unknown reason, it sent a cold shiver down my spine.

Antonioni D'Angélo!

Everything about this man screamed danger-his broad shoulders, his tailored shady-black suit, the way his dark eyes assessed the whole room with chilling detachment.

He is one who effortlessly exudes power, the kind that doesn't need to be announced.

Antonioni leaned back in his chair, exuding effortless power and masculinity. His fingers tapped against the armrest in slow, deliberate beats. His silence is worse than words.

After an agonizing pause, a deep, icy-warm, and cold voice cut through the air. "Time is a luxury you no longer possess..."

I strained my ears further to hear what he was saying.

It seemed like Father was muttering something, but he flicked his hand, cutting him off.

"You gambled with what wasn't yours. You lost! Now, it's time to pay your debt, Edward!" I had heard him say.

I couldn't bear the sound of where their discussion was heading. Out of my hidden corner, I voiced out.

"What debt?" My voice barely sounded like mine.

My pulse pounded as dread coils around my ribs, like a snake.

Antonioni's gaze flickered over me, resting a little on my hips, then back to my father.

"Is this her? Not very bad looking."

Father nodded like a child pleading guilty to a clumsy crime.

My stomach twisted.

"What's going on?"

"She doesn't know?" He sounded almost amused.

Father lowered his head. "I was going to tell her."

"Tell me what?" My stomach continued to twist fearfully and painfully, my face slowly turning pink.

Father wasn't meeting my eyes, instead, he looked down at his palms, which he placed between his laps. "Belle, sweetheart, I..." He swallowed hard. "I had no choice..."

I turned to him, shaking my head. "...no choice about what exactly?"

His throat bobbed. "I...I owe Mr. D'Angélo more than I can ever repay."

While I tried to process my father's statement, Antonioni drew closer, with slow, deliberate steps, like a panther circling its prey, his scent, an expensive cologne, and something darker filled the space between us.

My heart was racing as he circled me. I was utterly confused. My gaze followed him carefully as he moved around me to check me out.

And then, his voice cut through the air like a blade...

"Your father owes me a huge debt he cannot repay..." His voice was smooth, but there wasn't any warmth in it. "...so he is offering you instead."

I stumbled back. "No, No! That's not...he wouldn't...!" I was so shocked that I couldn't find the right words to express my shock.

I finally turned to my father, pleading. "Father, please tell me this isn't true!"

He collapsed onto the chair, his hands covering his face.

Tears gathered inside my eyes and were ready to drop.

Antonioni's gaze dropped to the mess. His lips curled-not in anger, but something worse. Amusement.

"Hmm... interesting... You are even more fragile than I imagined." I had heard him mock.

Spontaneously, I balled my fists in anger, spitting the words, "I am not fragile!"

Antonioni's smirk deepened. "Well, we will see about that." He shifted his buttocks on his chair (in a way that suggested it was about time), checking time on his wristwatch.

In an instant, his deep voice startled me again as he said the words..."You belong to me now, Annabelle. Guards! Take her, let's go!"

Panic surged through my veins. "I'm not something to be owned, Mr D'Angélo! I'm not going anywhere with you!"

Father remained face-down, with his hands covering his face completely, looking defeated.

Antonioni's lips curled into another smirk, this time around, a more wicked one, kind of:

"You don't have a choice."

At this time, I was dumbfounded, in no particular order of emotions or feelings.

The tears that had been running down my cheeks had already drenched the upper piece of my dress-the one close to my collarbone.

Antonioni's fierceness cut across my anxiety. "We'll be on our way now, Edward. Word will continually be sent to you as to how the marriage is going. Good bye man."

He took his leave after saying those last words. Walking majestically toward the exit.

Shockingly enough, father still couldn't utter a word. It's only that this time, he was able to lift his face from his hands, only gazing at Antonioni like a lost sheep.

His eye bags were heavily sagging down on his upper cheekbones.

"Father, please say something." I cried further, looking at him and expecting him to save me.

Instead of getting the protection I expected, I saw him still looking transfixed at the exit where Antonioni had taken out, again defeated.

He stayed in the posture for a few minutes.

The next feeling that came was a feeling I had never felt in my entire life.

I was shattered and disappointed.

Before I could say another word, the two men in suits who had been with us stepped forward and made to put their hands on me.

I jerked back, my heart hammering in my chest.

I still couldn't believe Father could do such a thing to me.

"Father, please say something! Don't allow them to take me away, please," I cried uncontrollably.

Just immediately after I spoke, two gunshots were heard from outside.

One of the guards, in a split second, pointed his rifle at my father, and Father's hands immediately swung up into the air in surrender.

I didn't see that coming, but he pointed the gun at me, too, and commanded me to move closer to my father.

In an instant, I flipped my hands to my mouth and obeyed. I was shivering in fear, almost about to urinate

on myself.

There was a great rage of fear and tension in the atmosphere.

I prayed that my father and I didn't end that day dead. What could be happening outside?

Antonioni's POV

"What's her name?" I had asked, although not like I sincerely wanted to know. I had almost asked subconsciously.

"Annabelle," Edward had replied.

"Hmm. She got a sexy name," I admitted.

Edward remained mute, face down.

Being in that house felt hot and boring like hellfire. No power supply throughout our stay.

I don't know how someone could be so broke.

Although he works for some bad boys in the city, as I heard, it could be that they don't pay him half as much as they should.

I prayed Edward didn't make a move to do something silly. Not like I feared their blood, though, but I didn't have enough time to spend there.

Although the inner guards and the outer ones did a great job as well. My boys are well-trained.

Did I mention I had my fellas out, watching the neighborhood as well? I made sure every corner of their compound and streets was charged with protection. I'm never one to be caught unprepared.

"So you already know why I'm here, to get my promised bride. I have just 20 minutes more to do that, man. I hope it'll be worth it." The last sentence came out in an undertone.

"At least let's get you both to familiarize yourself today, and you can come back to take her tomorrow, please, young boss," My potential bride's father had pleaded.

"I got a lot to do with my time, pappy...ain't no idle man like you. I can't be coming back here and forth to lick over a girl when I should be out there running my businesses."

I had asked impatiently: "Where's she?"

Edward piteously looked down like a caught chicken about to be slaughtered, and stuttered, "Som- som- somewhere around the house."

I don't care about how bad he felt. He owed me.

"Then she better be pretty and worth it, 'cause I'd kill you." I had proudly pointed out, leaning forward on him, to address my last clause.

I have always been one to have everything I should have in three years just in one day.

I waited for a while for Edward to do the needful-call her out and quickly hand her over to me so we could be on our way home, but the atmosphere between us remained rather icy.

"Time is a luxury you no longer possess...I have other engagements today. Fuckin' call this girl out here already!" I barked, cutting him off from whatever the hell he was saying.

Truly, my gang and I had a major operation to run before the day drew its curtain. It was scheduled for the afternoon slash evening when the chance is high for us to pull through successfully.

Our goods, which were in transit from China, were hijacked by a rival gang-a deadly guy named Lorenzo, the Viper lord.

I couldn't afford to have my time wasted in the countryside at all.

"You gambled with what wasn't yours. You lost! Now, it's time to pay your debt, Edward!" I reminded him.

Just then, out of nowhere, came the damsel I had been waiting for all day.

"What debt?" She asked, looking soft and confused, like a wild cat.

I ignored her question and took in the woman standing in front of me, whom I had come all the way from the coastal town to the countryside to pick up as a wife.

Facially, she's not worth it, but she's looking very curvy and womanly. My eyes stayed there for a while.

"Is this her? Not very bad looking." I had said. It was crazy, but I was suddenly getting hard just looking at those hips.

"What's going on?" Her tiny but firm voice suspended my erotic thoughts, and her sad countenance, too.

I was confused and almost bursting out in laughter, "She doesn't know?"

That old fool said he was still going to tell her.

"Tell me what?" That tiny but firm voice had come again, her face almost turning pink

"Belle, sweetheart, I... I had no choice..." The old man had answered her.

Then came the voice that turned me on again, and left off somewhere. There was something that voice was doing to me, honestly. To even think I was just meeting her...

And then came the one like someone who had swallowed a frog. "I...I owe Mr. D'Angélo more than I can ever repay."

Scrap that. I had no business with their little father-and-daughter moment. I needed to check out my bride and dump her right behind if she didn't look like what I wanted.

I stood up and went around about her in a 360 motion, invading her space until I was satisfied. She looked like she didn't see it coming.

She stood there, mouth agape.

She was truly beautiful, even when she looked obviously like a confused feline, watching me like she honestly wanted to understand what I was doing.

Being satisfied that I liked her a little, I felt it was time to explain to her the situation of things so that we can also quickly be out of that blazing shit hole called a house-no, a hellfire.

"Your father owes me a huge debt he cannot repay, so he is offering you instead."

She suddenly stumbled back. "No! No! No, No!"

She continued shouting "No", unconsciously maybe, and pleading with her father.

She's really feminine and reminds me of someone, although someone I dread to remember.

Her pleading was just too sexy to watch.

I could already imagine how she'd be pleading and screaming my name later in the night when I'll be fucking away her timidity.

She's just too sweet, innocent but fierce, sexy, alluring, ladylike, and vulnerable in a very delicate and fragile way.

I was now enjoying this part of the visit. "Hmm... interesting... You are even more fragile than I imagined."

Her eyes crossed mine. I shook a little, in a way that no woman had ever dared to startle me before.

Again, her rigid and angry tone yanked me out of my sexual thoughts.

"I am not fragile!"

She also seemed quite stubborn.

No need to be there, arguing with some fragile chic when I had some serious business to handle. It was high time I left for the coastal town.

"Well, we will see about that."

She seemed not to understand that it was a futile choice to keep flexing her muscles. I shifted on the chair, losing patience.

Adjusting my gaze between the two culprits and on the watch on my wrist, my eyes flashed on the time that it told, and I just knew I couldn't stay any longer.

Edward and his stubborn daughter aren't enough to waste my time.

"You belong to me now, Annabelle. Guards, take her, let's go!" I commanded, ignoring Edward, since it seemed to me like he was deliberately wasting my time.

The words Annabelle spat made me know she's got quite some nerves. I might be dealing with it for the rest of my life.

"I'm not something to be owned, Mr D'Angélo! I'm not going anywhere with you!"

Quite unusual for a woman to yell at me; they don't have the guts to do that.

For the first time being there, I got pissed. I had to reply to her guts in a way that she'd be pained too. "You don't have a choice."

Amidst her begging, I was going to tell Edward it was about time when we heard gunshots from outside.

Edward must have counter-planned us, I thought. But he must be assured that I didn't come unprepared.

I warned him.

I needed to because if it turned out to be that I was right, I didn't mind sending a bullet into his gambling brain, burying myself deep and roughly into his fragile daughter until she cried out in pain, before also sending her to meet her father in the land of the dead.

Either way, I must collect what he owes me from him. "You better not be playing a deadly game, Edward."

I went outside to know the exact situation of things, even though I knew that whatever it was would be taken care of by the guards who were positioned outside.

One of my boys, who was inside with me, followed me out, and the other kept watch on Annabelle and her father.

Without fear, I rushed out of the room to supervise the environment, knowing my boys were effectively securing the area.

"What is the challenge?"

"Nothing, boss, it's just to scare the dangerous animals away," replied one of my guards, Danky, who was more like the head of the security team.

I adjusted my tie. "I trust you guys to cover this vicinity, Danky. Make sure everyone's back on their duty post."

I trust them. They're well-trained.

The Gracias were still in the room when I returned, without any need to share the news of what had just happened in their neighborhood.

My boys had almost killed two cultist boys who came to rob their hood.

Annabelle's POV

"You better not be playing a deadly game, Edward," Antonioni warned Father before he stepped outside, with the other guard following him closely behind.

I saw Father freeze in fear, with beads of sweat dripping down his face.

They had returned in the shortest minutes, Antonioni's face looking fulfilled as if he had settled whatever the issue was outside.

He fixed a piercing gaze on Father and me as he kept on adjusting the wristwatch on his left wrist.

I just knew his patience was thinning and it was about time-the time I dreaded.

I was right.

His fierceness cut across my anxiety. "We'll be on our way now, Edward. Word will continually be sent to you as to how the marriage is going. Good bye man."

He took his leave after saying those last words. Walking majestically through the exit.

Shockingly enough, father still couldn't utter a word. It's only that this time, he was able to lift his face from his hands, only gazing at Antonioni like a lost sheep. His eye bags were heavily sagging down on his upper cheekbones.

"Father, please say something." I cried further, looking at him and expecting him to save me.

Instead of getting the protection I expected, I saw him still looking transfixed at the exit where Antonioni had taken out, defeated. He stayed in the posture for a few minutes.

The next feeling that came was a feeling I had never felt in my entire life.

I was shattered and disappointed.

Before I could say another word, the two men in suits who had been with us, stepped forward and made to put their hands on me.

I jerked back, my heart hammering in my chest.

I couldn't believe Father could do such a thing to me.

"Father, please say something! Don't allow them to take me away, please," I cried uncontrollably.

We bolted for the door.

I was being pulled like a criminal who wanted to run away.

As I was about to be pulled through the last step, I fell face down, but thankfully, I didn't get to the ground-a firm grip closed around my waist and held me up.

Antonioni.

With him coming close to me, the two men stepped back for their boss.

I gasped. His touch was like ice and fire all at once.

He licked his lips seductively.

This time, he leaned in on me as he spoke, searching my eyes provocatively. "You don't get to run because I will find you. Do you understand?"

His voice came across as both a whisper of warning and protection. His breath brushed against mine. "You are coming with me tonight. You dig? You are all mine from henceforth."

With that warning, he let me go.

For some strange reason, I was supposed to be anxious since I was in danger, but I suddenly felt my adrenaline rushing with tingling pleasure at his touch, his deep voice, and his piercing gaze from up close.

I had heard my heart pound heavily. I could hear myself whispering to my inner mind, "Annabelle! Wake up from that crazy feeling! You're in danger after all."

I just wished that what was happening was a nightmare and that I'd get to wake up later.

As the two men continued to drag me closer to the car, I turned to look behind, wishing my father were following.

I saw him standing far off, closer to the house's door, while gazing at us with bitterness on his face.

This was the man I spent my adult life paying some of his debts and feeding from my late Mama's business, which I managed.

"Where are you taking me to?" I managed to ask amidst the ragged, hiccuping breath that followed after a long, hard crying.

"My hom-! Now you just come with me and stop asking brainless questions, little girl."

"Then I'm not com-"

He cut me short. "Stop resisting. I don't like repetition, and if you don't take time, you won't like what may follow if my fellas get impatient."

Antonioni's voice kept coming off, startling me like a deadly sound from a horror movie.

Then, without further warning, the men pushed me into the car, into the back seat.

It was the latest model Rolls-Royce, black, clean and expensive-looking.

Then they sat side by side with me.

Antonioni sat in the front with the driver.

I observed they had come with two other black cars, filled with guards.

The two cars quickly followed behind us like a convoy.

As soon as we drove off my compound, I felt my world shatter, and I realized this was real.

We drove to his apartment. The route to his place was rather far and complex.

I was looking outside the car window throughout the journey, refusing to look at any of the three men with me in the car-not Antonioni, not the two men who yanked me through like a rogue while taking me to the car.

I was devastated by what was happening to me.

At some point, I noticed Antonioni's phone ring. He brought it out from his inner tuxedo and took the call.

He put it on loudspeaker and their discussions echoed through.

"Hello, Dee. Oh yes, the plan hasn't changed. We're already on our way to the Park. Please get the other boys ready, really ready, and we shall be heading out once I step in." He said.

"Okay, boss, noted." His caller answered from the other end of the line.

I blurred my ears from their discussion. I was too sad to listen to anything. My heart was aching.

I thought about my family-Father.

I thought about how alive going to the flower shop every day made me feel.

I felt rather peaceful to be lost in thoughts, in trance, in fantasizing about my father's house, anything but Antonioni.

Soon, all those would be memories. Nothing but memories.

Henceforth,

I was going to live with a criminal as his wife.

How much worse can I expect?

There was no escape, no turning back.