Bound by Betrayal (The Mafia King Captive Bride)

Damien’s POV:

“Sebastian…” I called out, my face contorting with a slight frown. Seriously, do I really have to deal with this annoying person right now?

But the idiot flashed me a grin, glancing at Eros and Pasito before turning his gaze back to me. “Hey, bro… it’s been ages,” he said with that same grin plastered on his face.

I shot him a glare, already fed up with his presence. And you know what’s even funnier? Even though he’s my cousin, Eros, and Pasito never liked him. That guy is just terrible, or should I say my dad’s little plaything. He is my cousin, Sebastian Albrecht…… though I still wonder how I managed to have this fool as my cousin.

Yeks!…….. I had a bunch of cousins, and this fool, Sebastian, is one of them. Even though they’re answering that influential surname, they’re not exactly well-known to the public. But as for me, I was the recognized heir to the Albrecht group, and this was the reputation my father had painstakingly built from scratch.

“Sebastian, why are you here?” I said clearly not comfortable with his presence. A grin reappeared on his lips as he glanced at Ashley who was curiously staring at him, “Wasn’t expecting you here either, this is not your kind of outing,” he said, ignoring my question.

“You were asked a question,” said Eros. He already seemed pissed off and couldn’t hide his irritation anymore.

“This is a party, puppet,” Sebastian smirked, earning a raised brow from both of us. I could feel Eros’ anger boiling as he clenched his fist and lunged at Sebastian, but Pasito was quick to hold him back, preventing the scene from happening.

**********

Ashley’s POV:

I was just watching in curiosity, the black jet-haired guy seemed to be close to Damien for him to be able to address him like that though his presence seemed to be irritating them. I wonder who he was?

Turning to my side, I noticed the guy with a haircut whispering something to his friend who was at the edge of punching the daylight out of the black hair guy. The brown-haired guy chuckled and eased back, but you could still see the hostility in his eyes. I quickly turned my head to see Damien standing there while looking at the scene emotionlessly.

I wonder if this guy even has a heart or something. He seems calm like his friend was not about to punch the other guy to death.

“Hey, it has been five years since you left home and since then, nobody has seen you,” I turned my gaze towards the guy who spoke up, and Damien’s eyes shot daggers at him. My curiosity was piqued as I wondered if they were brothers. It seemed like their relationship was more complicated than what we were told, considering Damien was supposed to be the only son.

I might have known Damien through the media and being his number one fan but his private life is something that I had no idea about. Besides, we were married based on a mere contract, not like we even had a relationship before marriage, so enough reason that I knew little or nothing about him aside from what the media told us.

“Why are you here?” Damien asked again, his voice carrying a hint of seriousness. I could sense the weight behind his question, wondering the type of relationship he had with this guy.

Nevertheless, the black-haired guy cleared his throat, his voice dripping with boredom. “I was so bored at home, I thought, why not crash this party? Plus, it’s an open invitation,” he heckled but the brown-haired guy and his friend rolled their eyes at him.

“Not for idiots like you,” the brown-haired guy snarled with so much hatred when glaring at him but the dude brushed it off while still grinning, “My surname makes it easier for me to be invited,”

Damien on the other hand, who had a bored look on his face, leaned forward beside the brown-haired guy and I heard him ask him something about having not seen Alexander. The guy whispered something back to his ear and he nodded. I couldn’t do anything but continue to sip my drink.

Surprisingly, the black-haired guy turned to look at me, giving me a long look when Damien and the other two strangers were conversing before asking. “Hey, who are you?”

I sure wasn’t expecting that, so I almost choked on the drink. Letting out a slight cough, I slowly cleared my throat and that question seemed to have drawn their attention. I can feel their eyes on me as I opened my mouth to talk but quickly before I could say a word, Damien jumped in and took over the conversation. “She is my wife, do you have any issue with that?”

And instantly, my heart skipped hearing him for the first time acknowledging me as his wife but the other two strangers looked stunned. Their surprised gaze added to my confusion. “Oooh!!! So she is the one,” I turned to look at the surprised-looking black-haired guy.

“Wow!” Regaining his senses, he stretched out his hand, “Well, I am Sebastian, Damien’s cousin,” he said, smiling.

So he is his cousin, wow! I took his warm hand in mine, “Nice to meet you, Sebastian, I am Ashley,” I said with a forced smile. He doesn’t seem bad after all, so I wonder why the hatred.

He smiled a bit. But Damien was quick to pull me toward him, untangling our hands from each other. The sudden action not only confused me but also the two strangers beside him.

“You left the house after the incident with Zuri for five years and now married to another beauty. We only have to hear the news through the media,” Sebastian complained, but his action seemed to have infuriated Damien and left me curious.

“Shut the fuck up!!” Damien growled, trying to silence him but the dude continued, “Will let your father know that I saw you today,” Sebastian’s words seemed to have pricked Damien, making his eyes burn with anger. That grin on Sebastian’s face almost pushed Damien into strangling him to death.

“Now! Get this fool outta here,” Damien growled, and two big dudes stepped forward. I didn’t even notice them until now.

“Hey, you don’t have to keep running away from home. Besides, Zuri is gone, and your parents…”

“Get this thing away!!”

The guys stepped forward and one of them warned him, “Behave yourself and respectfully go away.”

I stood there looking at them, luckily their altercation didn’t attract much of the audience but Sebastian hot-headedly pushed their hands off him and turned to glare at Damien, “We’re in public, so you can’t do anything. You can’t disrespect your cousin like this!!” He kept talking, and it made me wonder about the type of relationship Damien had with his parents and who Zuri was.

However, those guys were still trying to get Sebastian away, when an old man walked up to us. “Hi, Damien Albrecht is nice to have you on my son’s birthday,” he said, grinning from ear to ear like a child though there was a hint of fear in his eyes.

Damien gave the men and one of the strangers a quick signal before turning to the man in front of us, “You invited us right? So we came, Senator Juan,” he said with no atom of respect or emotion. The old man nodded with a fearful smile on his lips. The smile on his face vanished away, and he extended out his hand to Damien who ignored him and instead turned to scan the hall.

“Someone is about to get his ass beat up,” the previous brown-haired guy murmured with a dirty smirk but I heard him clearly, he stepped forward and followed Sebastian and the two bulky men outside. Oh! Poor Sebastian….. I looked up to Damien, is it, not his cousin brother that is about to get his ass whipped? I shook my head and looked away.

I turned to stare at the influential man in front of me, this was my first time seeing Senator Juan in person. I gave the man a pitiful look. So he searched for someone to invite, and it happened to be this beast beside me, a cold-hearted demon! The man looked awkward, clearing his throat and trying to start a conversation with Damien, who seemed distracted as if he was searching for someone else.

And that action of his reminded me of the question he asked earlier about someone like Alexander who wasn’t in the party hall. I wondered if that person was important to him. I sighed and turned my attention back to Senator Juan, who was asking me a question.

“Excuse me,” I said in a respectful and soothing tone, and that seemed to calm him down a bit. “You look more pretty in person,” he remarked.

“Thank you,” I nodded. Just then a call came into Damien’s phone, and he looked at it with a mix of frustration and anger. He whispered something to the guy with tinted hair before storming off, not even sparing me a glance or acknowledging my presence. This action just showed me how unimportant I am in his life.

I pulled my gaze away from his retracting figure back to the party and noticed that the tinted-haired guy had started having a conversation with Senator Juan and of course, I was left all alone.

Having stood there for a while, I sighed and stepped away from them. Sipping my drink and pretending to vibe to the music, when suddenly I heard my name……

“Oh, hey! Ashley, who do we have here? Finally a moment to yourself,”

I turned immediately, my heart pounding heavily as I heard that sickeningly familiar voice. “Olivia…” I whispered, my voice filled with a mix of surprise and confusion. “What are you doing….. here?”

She smiled, but my eyes widened as I saw the person beside her. I couldn’t believe it, not now!

“Is nice meeting you sister,” she flashes me her cocky smile. But I ignored her and turned to stare at the guy beside her, their hands intertwined like two crazy lovers. “Nice to meet you again, Ashley,”

He greeted me like we were just casual friends and my heart sank as he extended his hand towards me, but I felt paralyzed, shocked, and heartbroken.

“Mas…. Mason,” I whispered, my voice trembling and cracking a bit as his name escaped my lips.