Taken By The Mafia Lord

122 Kiss Her

Arthur wasn’t exactly his cousin, but a second cousin since they share a great-grandparent, Fergus.

There was a very good reason Marcel avoided his second cousins, although it’s been years since the first incident involving their grandparents, both sides have never gotten along. And Marcel had to admit, his father contributed to that.

After Mattia was banished from the family for killing Albine – his would have been uncle if he was still alive – his sons were not cast away with him since they knew nothing about his crime.

Hatred, they say is contagious and his father had made sure they didn’t communicate with Mattias’ descendants, treating them as nothing less than an enemy, widening the gap between the family.

Now, a family that is supposed to stand together views each other as nothing but competitors that need to be wiped off.

Unlike Marcel’s side of the family that had fewer males, Mattias’ grandchildren were numerous and had a total of seven heirs of which two had died from an illness leaving them to a number of five – three boys and two girls. So yeah, Marcel had a total of five enemies to deal with.

Sexism and male chauvinism were common in the Mafia since the females are mostly never considered for the boss position- especially with the presence of other male siblings – even if they possess great skills, due to the belief they would be married off in the future. And the Luciano Clan would never let their hard work cannot fall into the hands of a strange man.

Hence Marcel didn’t count the females as much threat to his position, focusing on his male rivalry instead. Thanks to him being “outnumbered”, his father Daniel tried getting another son, and let’s just say it didn’t work out well. The boy was born with a disability and died years ago.

Scorched by that traumatic experience, Daniel never thought of producing another seed, afraid that it would turn out as the second one. He was afraid that his reputation would be smeared if the news were to spread that he produced a second imbecile son.

.....

But that meant his father turned his full attention on Marcel, making sure he didn’t make any mistake, until now. Daniel would do everything in his power to make sure authority never left their lineage again – even at the expense of his son’s happiness.

“Marcel!” Clara squealed upon noticing his presence and to his surprise, ran up to him and looped her hand around his arm. His gaze narrowed at that gesture, what was she doing?

“Just the man I was looking for, my dearest cousin,” Arthur said, walking up to them.

“Unfortunately, I am not here to entertain you,” Marcel was not in the mood for pleasantries.

Amongst his second cousins, Arthur was the most annoying and competitive as well. Having ascended as the boss, there was a need for the Underboss who would be the second in command of the family. The underboss is usually first in line to become acting boss if the boss is imprisoned, and is also frequently seen as a logical successor.

So far Victor has been performing both roles and soon, Marcel would be expected to appoint one and Arthur already saw himself as a likely candidate.

Unfortunately, there was no other male on their side of the family to take up that role and Marcel was not stupid enough to let the enemies into his chambers. If Arthur were to become an underboss, who knows he – Marcel – might die from an “accident” one day and Arthur becomes the boss.

No wonder his father wanted to marry him off as soon as possible to Clara to produce an heir – and achieve his obsession of becoming of noble descent.

“Seriously, don’t be like this, dear cousin,” Arthur said playfully, placing his hand on his shoulder but Marcel’s gaze was so murderous that he removed his hand quickly. It was so awkward.

“Let’s go,” Marcel ordered Clara, wanting to leave whether she wanted it or not, only for his annoying cousin to block his way.

“What now?” His tone held a warning.

“Why are you leaving so quickly? Come on, you didn’t even introduce me to my sister-in-law?”

At the mention of sister-in-law, Marcel turned sharply to Clara, “You told him?”

Clara rolled her eyes, “Isn’t that the truth? We’d be getting married soon, why hide it?” she tightened her hand around him as if trying to show off her possession.

“Exactly, sister-in-law’s mind and I work together. If the both of you are together, why won’t you show her off unless...” He trailed off insinuatingly.

“Unless what?” Marcel was on the defense, taking a step towards him threateningly. Although Marcel was tall, Arthur was lanky and towered over him yet he was not intimidated. He was confident of taking out his cousin easily if a fight were to occur.

“Don’t be so uptight, it’s not like it’s a crime to be in an arranged marriage, after all, our great grandparents were in one and it turned out to be successful. You would eventually learn to love her, that is if you don’t like her already, right? Wait a minute, tell me you like her?” Arthur tried to empathize with him but Marcel knew he was having fun with this.

“Who says he doesn’t like me?” Clara was offended by that comment, “I’m going to be his wife, why won’t he like me?” She loved to be the center of attraction and didn’t like this unfavorable light.

“Then prove it,” Arthur demanded.

“Prove what?” Marcel growled.

“Kiss her,”

“What?”

“They say a kiss can express sentiments of love, let’s see how much you like her,” Arthur demanded.

Marcel scowled at that idiot, he knew this was a challenge from his cousin but then, he hated people putting him in a tight spot the most and leaving him with no option.

He pulled free from Clara and took another step, saying to Arthur, “I do not need to prove myself to you because you’re not worth one bit of my attention.”

Done, Marcel turned and said to Clara, “Let’s go,” trying to pull her along.

But she slapped his hand away and said in an outburst, “Or maybe you’re not man enough to do it because you’re afraid of losing your heart to me once we kissed!”