Owned By The Psychotic Billionaire (Mafia BL)

ADRIEN’S POV

The fake behavior of these so-called ’elites’ makes me want to throw up on the stones. You can actually feel the fear hanging heavy in the air, even though it is hidden under layers of expensive perfumes and practiced smiles.

They reek of it.

Every single time Orion looks over at a group of guests, their laughter stops for a second. Their bodies stiffen up. Their smiles become a little bit too wide and a bit too desperate.

It’s like everyone is thinking the same thing— ’Stay still and don’t move a muscle so he doesn’t spot you’.

Orion shifts perfectly into his role as the powerful, charming prince of the family. More like the prodigal prince. He moves into the crowd of people smoothly, like a wolf walking into a bunch of sheep that have collectively decided to pretend the wolf is just a friendly dog.

These fuckers are so bad at pretending that even Alexis is fighting back a smile. Everytime Orion moves closer to them, they turn at least two shades paler.

His hand moves from the lower part of my back, his long fingers wrapping tightly around my waist. He pulls me hard against his side. The warmth of his body burns right through my clothes. I wonder why he runs so hot...it has to be all the insanity he’s carrying around.

”Smile for the crowd, duckling,” Orion whispers, his voice sounding completely calm and normal as he guides me toward a group of older businessmen from a huge technology company. ”You look like you’re standing at a funeral. We cannot have these people thinking I am being mean to my beautiful fiancé, can we?”

There he goes again with the weird-ass compliments.

”When are you not being mean to me?” I whisper back through a tight, fake smile. My teeth are clenched hard as I look at the businessmen, who are already bowing their heads down to show Orion respect.

”That is just a matter of perspective, and yours clearly does not count,” Orion whispers back, not caring at all. Asshole.

He stops right in front of the businessmen. His posture looks relaxed and easy, and a bright, totally fake smile spreads across his sharp face. ”Ah, Marcus, Julian. It is great to see you made the trip over here to France. I hope the rooms the Dubois family set up for you are comfortable?”

”Wonderful, Lord Orion, just wonderful,” the man named Marcus says. His voice sounds a little bit too high, and his eyes quickly dart down to look at Orion’s scarred hands before jumping right back up to his face. ”We are... deeply honored to be here with you today. Truly. This is a beautiful place for the event.”

If he pisses himself, I’m going to get the fuck out of here.

”Isn’t it?” Orion says, his voice full of dark mockery. He squeezes his hand tighter around my waist, pulling me even closer to his side. ”I wanted to make sure I introduced you to my fiancé, Adrien. I know there have been some... wild rumors going around after the little surprise at our last party, but I promise you, our connection is completely solid.”

Rumors that you drowned me in a vat of acid, right?

I stay totally quiet, my fingers gripping the edge of my own jacket to stop my hands from shaking. Or finding their way to his throat in a moment of impulsivity.

”Actually,” Orion keeps going, a sharp, mean smirk showing on the corner of his lips as he tells a beautiful, completely fake story. ”It is a pretty romantic tale. Adrien and I have actually been interested in each other since we were very young kids. A childhood crush that we both tried to ignore for a long time because we wanted to respect our families. But, as people say, true love always finds a way. I finally decided to put a ring on his finger before the world could find another way to keep us apart.”

I look up at him, my mouth opening a little bit because I’m so shocked by the bullshit he’s spewing with that smile on his face. Interested in each other since we were kids?

The only thing he has done since the day we met is circle around me like a hungry bird waiting for an animal to die in the dirt.

Since when was I ever interested in this fucker?

Marcus and Julian nod their heads up and down quickly. Their faces are twisted into big, forced smiles of fake happiness. ”Oh, how beautiful! A love story like yours in this day and age is incredibly rare. We wish the two of you the absolute best.”

For cursing me like that, I hope both your stocks crash...as well as your cars.

”Thank you very much,” Orion says in a soft tone, his dark eyes crinkling at the corners with that scary, playful look that I hate so much. ”We are both very excited about our future together. You can’t tell by looking at him, but I can assure you that he is even more excited than I am.”

Before I can completely lose my temper and scream the real truth to everyone in the courtyard, a sudden quiet spreads across the crowd near the main entrance. The polite talking dies down instantly. Everyone turns their heads at the exact same time to look.

The main characters of the night have finally arrived. Just in time to save my sanity. Or completely destroy it.

Louise and Leon walk out into the courtyard. Louise looks incredibly beautiful, wearing a complicated, ice-blue dress. But her dress contrasts sharply with the angry, tightly controlled look on her face.

You can change your color scheme, but a vulture will always be a vulture, dear sister.

Right next to her, Leon walks like a stiff soldier. His jaw is clenched tight, and his eyes look dark with a deep anger that has clearly been growing inside him for the past week.

If my forced engagement party exploded in my face, I’d be looking like that too.

They do not look like a happy couple getting married. They look like two soldiers being forced to march towards the front lines. It’s fucking hilarious.

But it’s not the bride and groom that make the air in the courtyard turn cold in a single second.

Walking right behind them, side by side with a superior kind of grace that instantly takes over the entire space, are the two mothers.

Ugh.

Lady Dimitra walks with the cold, stiff grace of a winter queen. Her walking stick clacks across the old stone ground without picking up a single speck of dirt. Her face looks like a perfect, frozen mask of old-money power. In short, she’s terrifying as always.

And right next to her is Lady Alice. My stepmother.

She matches Dimitra’s walking speed exactly. Her posture looks casual, but she gives off a scary, toxic feeling of pure control.

Her dark eyes look over the crowd of guests, and a knowing, mean smile stays on her lips. And as she steps closer and closer to where we are standing, the light wind changes direction. It carries the smell from her side of the yard straight toward my face.

It is the exact smell of dark orchid flowers and rare spices. The signature perfume. The exact smell from the night my mother died on those bloody sheets.

My heart completely stops beating inside my chest. I don’t know if I want to run, or scream, or throw up.

’You can surely do this little thing for me, can’t you, Adrien?...Or do I have to tell your father that you’re being a bad boy again?’

I want to throw up. Then die.

’I might have trashed your mother’s keepsakes as punishment, but you still have something of hers I can take, don’t you?...Or does her corpse not matter to you anymore?’

Orion instantly feels the sudden, violent shudder that runs through my entire body. His hand squeezes around my waist even harder than before.

I don’t know what my face looks like, and I know that I will hate that I let any emotion show on my face again just because I’m seeing Alice, but for now I need to not throw up.

His dark eyes snap down to look at my face, instantly seeing whatever emotion is written all over my features, and not for the first time, I wonder what he sees when he looks at me.

Do I look as pathetic as I feel to him?

Lady Alice’s eyes move across the crowd, checking the faces of all the guests until her gaze locks directly onto me.

My gut twists violently.

Her smile grows even wider, turning completely mean and wild, as she steps right around Louise and Leon, walking straight toward us.

*****

This Chapter has a lot of Adrien’s thoughts because seeing his thought process will be very important in the upcoming Chapters so you don’t get confused.

And in places where you don’t see his thoughts...expect the unexpected.

—TheLovePoet