Chapter 5 5

Hailey's POV.

Light taps on the door caused me to open my eyes to the sun rays that filled the room.

I didn't even know when I dozed off.

The knock on the door got my attention again.

"Who's that?", I groggily mumbled in frustration.

"We're your maids, my madam. We're here to run your bath, if you don't mind", I heard a sweet voice reply to me.

A stared at the door, half asleep and half confused.

Did I just hear well?

Maids?

To run my bath?

I looked around to see where I was.

I couldn't recognize this room.

It took a while for me to remember everything that happened last night, and immediately I did, I felt a light headache.

I remembered Axel taking me away from the chaos and driving me to an unknown condo. I was too tired to resist or fight, especially when he served me dinner.

I greedily ate everything, and he took me to bed.

"Ma'am? Have you gone back to sleep?", The maid's voice brought me back to reality.

I got up from the floor and opened the door to see three young women dressed in maid uniforms, holding towels and gowns.

I stared at them, perplexed.

"Do you mind if we get in?", One of them asked.

I was too surprised to speak, so I moved out of the way.

They led me into the bathroom, and undressed me. They got me into the already warm bathtub - which was filled with rose petals, and with their own hands, they scrubbed my skin until it became sparkling clean.

They were soon done and got me out of the bathroom.

They dried me, rubbed my skin with honey oil and dressed me up in the gown they brought in.

And throughout their actions, one thing kept running through my mind-

What the hell is going on?

Was I not brought in as a captive?

How come I had maids all of a sudden?

"My madam", one of the maids knocked me out of my thoughts, "Mr. Axel wishes that you have dinner with him at the dining table", she informed.

Madam?

Did they have any idea that I was working as a stripper twenty-four hours ago?

Now I am really confused, but I had no choice than to follow them downstairs.

From the moment I stepped out of the room, my nose got filled with the aroma of delicious meals...

We finally got to the dining table, I just stood there, my face expressing utter surprise, my jaw dropped at the sight of the display of meals I was seeing.

I was staring at every meal that could make one salivate shamelessly; from omelets to pancakes, french toasts, sausages and waffles, smoked salmon, bacon and scrambled eggs, banana muffins and more that I didn't think I would be on the table.

"Come, sit with me"

I saw Axel behind a chair he'd drawn back.

I stared at him for a moment, before taking him up on his offer.

I went over and had a seat at the table. He took out a plate and dished out the meals before handing them to me.

"I hope you enjoy the meal. I don't know what you like, so I had them cook everything-"

"Why?", I cut him off.

"What do you mean?"

"Why are you doing all this? What did my father do to you had to take me as punishment? Why are you treating me like a queen, when you keep making me feel like a nobody? Why do you keep telling your boys not to touch me? Why do you keep saving me just like you did yesterday? Why are you generously feeding someone you claim to be your captive, in your own condo?"

I threw so many questions under a minute, I had to stop to take a breath.

For a moment, he kept silent and sipped on his juice.

"Your father...", He started, "is a stupid man. It's just unfortunate that you had to pay for his foolishness."

I know I hated my father, but the way he threw those harsh words without any remorse made me hate him more than I did my father.

"Your father had been working for me for years. He never told me about having a family, and I didn't ask. He was loyal at first, but I recently began seeing changes.

He was to transport a truck of drugs for me to the neighboring city, but he came back bruised, telling me it was hijacked. The goods were worth forty-five million dollars."

My throat got dry at the mention of that huge amount of money.

"That was not exactly why I called him stupid. Before I could begin my investigations, he disappeared. Alongside thirteen of my most trusted men. It was too obvious that it was a planned robbery. He relocated the next day, but it wasn't hard to find."

"And what makes you think that I'm worth his sins? I'm just as useless to you as anything you can think of."

"I live by a rule, Hailey. I repay evil with evil. There were fourteen men that stole from me, and thirteen of them have been killed so far", he pointed out.

"Leaving just my father alive?"

"Yes."

"And are you going to kill him?", I tried to be as unexpressive as possible when I asked that.

"Not yet."

"So... You're going to let him live."

"Yes. So far you accept my offer and do as I say."

I thought of what offer he could possibly give me that would make him go back on his rule.

"What's the offer?"

"I need you to be my wife."

Silence hung over the dinning room for a full minute, as I stared at him in utter confusion.

I tried to observe his Express to see if he was one for jokes, but he kept a straight face as he stared at me.

I was so confused, I could help but burst into laughter at this point.

"You... You must be joking! You're kidding, right?!", I rolled my head in laughter.

It slowly died down, and Axel still had that emotionless face.

"You're not joking?"

"I need you to get married to me in less than five days' time. I need you to be my wife and produce a son that will inherit my assets, or everything I've worked for will be taken away from me by someone who doesn't deserve it", he explained.

"Over my dead body."

"What?"

"You heard me, Mr. Axel or whatever you call yourself!!", I sprang up on my feet, anger surging through my whole being by his stupid plan. "It's not going to happen. If you grand plan to find a wife was to abduct and torture an innocent girl who'd done no wrong to you, then it'll never work! For your information, I have a boyfriend, and we plan to get married soon. He loves me and I love him too. Nothing is ever going to come in between us-"

"Your boyfriend, whoever he is, is nobody compared to me, Hailey. We both know that."

I couldn't help but scoff, genuinely surprised at the cockiness that exuded from him.

"Gregory is the best man I've been with, and you are nothing compared to him. I've gone through a lot of things and accepted fate plenty of times, but not this. I'm not going to be forced in marriage by a cold demon like you who runs a mafia empire in the dark underworld!"

"I don't expect you to agree to it immediately. Take your time to think about it, even though you don't have a choice. Meanwhile, my men are waiting outside to take you shopping. Buy anything that you need."

****

TWO WEEKS AGO

Axel's POV.

I sat in the car for two more minutes, bracing myself for whatever conversation my father wanted to have with me.

I begged him to tell me whatever it was over the phone, but he was as stubborn as a stone.

I finally got out of the car and walked into the Ivan mansion.

"You were supposed to be here by eight on the dot", he grumbled when he noticed my presence.

"I had some things to take care of", I simply replied.

"Something more important than your father-"

"Can we not do this, dad? You know it gets very busy at the time of the year. What you want to tell me that you couldn't say over the phone?", I begged him to go straight to the point. I was too tied have to have an unnecessary brawl with him.

"The way you talk to me, what Agatha said was true", he muttered under his breath.

"Who's Agatha, and what did she tell you?"

"That you're not my first son."

He was getting old with wrinkles on his face, but he still knew how to get under my nerves.

"I didn't come here for jokes. If you don't have anything to say, I have to be on my way-"

He threw a couple of pictures on the table, and I had no choice but to give it attention.

"30 years ago, I had a thing with Agatha, my father's maid. We had hot nights and I planned to marry her. That was until my father introduced your mother to me as my wife. I did everything to fight his decision, but it was best for business. I had no choice but to give in", he explained.

"So, you didn't even marry my mother willingly?", I questioned, already irritated by his story.

"Days before the marriage", he continued, ignoring my question. "Agatha told me she was pregnant. I planned to run away with her, but my father got news of it and sent her away with a million dollars to abort the baby."

I was already beginning to hate where this was going.

"I reconnected with Agatha, and she told me she never aborted the baby. That's the man in the pictures - Jason Ivan."

"You let your dick direct you, and now it's giving you problems even though it's not working anymore."

"Good. That problem is going to be the heir to my mafia."

His statement wiped that smirk off my face immediately.

Did I hear him right?

Surely, my ears were playing games with me.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Don't you get it? He's my first son and he's also running a mafia in another state, so he automatically gets a say in the inheritance-"

"Nonsense!!!", I thundered in rage and slammed the pictures on the table. "I've worked hard for decades, making sure the mafia becomes the biggest empire in the world. I've killed, and I've given life. I've created cities from dust. I've busted my ass just to please you, and what do I get in return?!! Your bastard son coming to take everything I've worked for?!! I will never let that happen, old man!! Never!!"

"There's only one way - get married."

I stared at him in utter confusion. Was this a fucking joke?

"If you get married and bear a son who will be the heir to the mafia, only then have you cemented your possession over the inheritance. Jason is coming over in a few weeks. If you don't get married before he comes, you'll have to step down for him to rule."

This was a fucking set-up.

He knew that there was no possible way I could get married in a few weeks.

I despised him all my life, but I stared at him with so much hate coursing through my veins. At this point, I concluded that there was nothing I could possibly do to please this man. Even if I laid my life for him, he wouldn't be moved.

Fury had taken over my ability to speak, so I stood up without a word and walked out of his house, on a reluctant search for an emergency wife.