The Mafia's Forgotten Obsession

They said love makes you soft, and will make you do things you have sworn not to do again. Such as sitting alone at a high-end eatery, waiting for your childhood lover who had another woman straddling him just a few weeks ago at his birthday party.

The picture of the immoral act had gone viral and yet, here was Vivienne, waiting on him, butterflies dancing in her stomach in anticipation and eyes darting out to check the entrance every now and then to catch the sight of him.

She sighed in frustration as she checked her diamond wristwatch for what seemed like the tenth time in the past two hours. She gazed down at her high low red dress that she had selectively bought for a thousand dollars just to look attractive for this date.

The eagerness she had felt to be with Tristan again was slowly wearing off. Now that he wasn't here yet, and nor was his number going through, she doubted that the long awaited date would hold at all.

"I should just leave." She said to herself and stood up to leave the fancy eatery Tristan had chosen for their date.

"How was your date, Miss Vivienne? Trust you had fun." James, her family driver, grinned in the driver's seat as he watched her open the back seat of the car and slide in.

"Just, let's go please." Vivienne said sourly as she leaned back in her seat, letting out a deep sigh. Jame noticed the sour mood and decided to press on. "Is... everything okay Miss Vivi..."

"I said drive!" Vivienne interrupted him. She wasn't even aware that she was that annoyed until she passed her frustration onto James. "Of course, off we go." James said, respect lacing his tone as he kickstarted the car and drove off.

Throughout the ride, Vivienne was silent and lost in thought. She wasn't even aware that they had gotten home until James notified her. "Uh-uh okay", She said and alighted. On getting upstairs to her room. She met Zoe, her best friend, who had an enveloped letter in her hand, and was stretching it to her.

"What's that?" Vivienne asked.

"I've been calling you since forever. Why wouldn't you even pick your call?" Zoe asked, more like scolding her friend.

"I saw it. Tristan didn't show up and his number isn't going through. That explains why my mood got fucked up and I couldn't pick your call."

"Maybe you wouldn't have wasted your time waiting if you had picked my call, dummy. He sent you this letter through a delivery man. I don't know what it's about. Maybe he changed your venue or something." Vivienne squeezed her face, looking from the letter to Zoe.

"Why would he even send me a letter instead of texting me?" She murmured as she took it from Zoe.

"Don't know. Testing the old-fashioned way I guess," Zoe shrugged, chuckling. But Vivienne's lightened expression turned sour as she consumed the content of the letter.

"Marry my stepbrother", She read, her hands quavering, a dazed expression on her face as she tried to make sense of what she had just read.

"Is everything okay Vivi?" Zoe asked. Vivienne was still confused when she noticed another letter that was placed at the back of the one she had just dropped. She picked it up.

She read "Vee, I've stayed up all night thinking about this, and I've concluded to stop deceiving you. I couldn't muster the courage to face you and confess that I've stopped loving you. I know I gave you a promise ring and I promised to marry you after college, but I can't control how I feel about you anymore. It's true that I cheated on you with the blonde at my birthday party. Tobias never lied.

I'm sorry I led you on when you called to get back together with me. Tobias loves you better than I would ever do. I will be happy to see you both together, find it in your heart to forgive me -Tristan"

The letter fell off Vivienne's trembling hands as soon as she finished reading. Her heartbeat had quickened, and her face was growing paler as her gaze lingered on the pink silk curtains draping down to the polished bronze tiled floor in her room. Her high school sweetheart, the love of her life, the only one she had ever been intimate with...was leaving her just like that? And worse, he had easily volounteered her for his cruel step-brother, Tobias.

Zoe, who couldn't get an answer from a flustered-looking Vivienne, dashed to her side and picked the letters from the floor.

"What the hell?" Zoe's eyes widened as she read. "Is this some kind of joke?" Vivienne snatched the letter from Zoe again as if hoping the content would change when she read it for the second time, but it was the same. Tears had stained her face now as she tried to get a grip of herself. The elegant red dress she had slipped into while she prepared for the date night ahead with Tristan now felt like a mockery.

Zoe knelt in front of Vivienne, who had sunk to the floor. She grabbed her hands. "Okay, breathe Vivi. It's not the end of the world."

"He... he was happy that I called this morning, what had changed?" Vivienne wondered, her eyes hastily glancing at her surroundings in confusion. The following words from Zoe sounded like a blur in her ears as drowned into her dazed state. Tristan had been begging her since forever to reconcile with him after she broke up with him over an alleged cheating footage of Tristan that was rumored over the campus. It was the first time they would officially break up since the two started a romantic relationship.

Vivienne's heart had gotten broken deeply and Tristan had sworn it was a set-up, but she was too blinded by rage to listen to him. She couldn't stand the footage being spread in crescent high while students who had always envied their relationships rained mocking comments around. To avoid it all, she had traveled out to Paris for a mini vacation to heal, but she couldn't get her lover out of her mind. And after a month, she had concluded that breaking up with him wasn't deserving of their years of friendship and romantic relationship. If anything, Tristan deserved her listening ears. She still loved him deeply and unconditionally.

"There is only one way to find out." She put a call through to Tristan, but it kept ending in voicemails. She stood abruptly and wiped her tears. "I'm going to find him". She headed towards her door.

"Vivi wait" Vivienne turned around. "You can't let him see you this upset", Zoe said, smiling as she walked over to the vanity. She picked up a diamond necklace and fastened it around Vivienne's neck. "And you look like a goddess doing it."

Vivienne managed a small smile. "Thank you, Zoe". Her friend nodded at her, showing support. Vivienne hastily wiped away her tears and slipped into her heels. She then grabbed her clutch and ran downstairs, her heels clicking against the smooth steps of the grand staircase. The mansion's grandeur, with its opulent décor and timeless elegance, felt hollow as she sped through the foyer.

"James, I need you to take me to the Bennett's house" She instructed the chauffeur who had just brought her back from the restaurant some minutes ago.

"Right away, Miss Vivienne", James replied, sensing the urgency in her tone.

The drive to Tristan's house felt like an eternity. Vivienne's mind raced with questions, her heart heavy and fluttering as the contents of the letter kept surfacing in her head.

"Marry Tobias? Tristan would never want me with Tobias, not with anyone else but him, that's how obsessed he is. Something is definitely wrong." Vivienne muttered to herself as she pondered deeply over the issue at hand.

"Are you speaking to me young Miss?" James asked when he heard Vivienne's voice. "Not you, just drive" Vivienne responded, her voice tinged with deep anxiety. When they arrived at the estate, her breath caught in her throat. The house was dark, and the gates were locked.

She jumped out of the car, running to the gate and frantically pressing the intercom. "Tristan! Tristan, are you there?" Her voice echoed in the silence.

Desperation clawed at her as she pulled out her phone, dialing Tristan's number for the sixth time since she left her house. Each ring felt like a dagger, and when it finally went to voicemail, she left a shaky message. "Tristan, it's Vivienne. Please, call me back. I need to talk to you." She was losing her mind, she pondered on calling Tobias to ask him about Tristan's whereabouts but thought against it. He's a bad idea. And Laurel, who is Tristan's sister, was away in college.

Just when she had given up for the day and had gotten back into the car, her phone vibrated with a WhatsApp message. She opened and read the content. Her blood instantly ran cold. Her pupils dilated, and her palms got sweaty, it suddenly felt hot in the car where the air-con was on full blast.

"Tristan Bennett and his parents, the billion dollar CEO of TDC, Richard Bennett and Bianca Bennett, were shot by armed robbers while they were driving down the road on a mini trip, leaving them dead. It's a black day for tech space and the country at large."

Vivienne let out a hysterical laugh that jolted the chauffeur. "I hope all is well miss?" James tilted his head while he drove, curious about Vivienne, who hadn't been acting sane since they left her parents' mansion.

"Stop the car now!" James quickly yielded. Vivienne bolted out of the car and vomited on the roadside, beating her chest wildly while at it. Her phone rang in her hands and she picked it up without checking the caller, but the moment the voice started speaking, she knew it was her mother.

"Hello Vivi, have you seen the news?" Her mother's voice was shaky and low over the phone. Vivienne felt she could go mad if her mother confirmed the gibberish she had just read.

"No Mum, I haven't. What's up?" She steeled her voice, looking forward to her next words, her body trembling uncontrollably. "Where are you? Let's meet at home, Vivi"

"Mum, just talk!" She screamed. There was silence over the phone before her mother spoke again. "The Bennetts are dead Vivi. They were robbed... and shot". Her mum sobbed over the phone and Vivienne's phone slipped from her trembling fingers that couldn't hold it anymore.

The last thing Vivienne remembered was her phone slipping from her fingers, and now, a white ceiling stared back at her. Her brain was fuzzy as she tried to remember what had happened.

She took in the faces in the hospital room with her: her mother, their chauffeur, and Zoe. Zoe looked like she had cried a lot, and her mother's eyes were puffy as well. Even James looked remorseful, and then the memory came crashing back.

"Tristan" Vivienne muttered.

"She's awake" Zoe's voice trembled. Her mother dashed to her side and clamped Vivienne's face in her hands. "Mum, tell me it is not true. I had a bad dream, right?" The look on her mother's face said otherwise, and she started crying all over again.

"No! No!" Vivienne cried wildly, jumping off the hospital bed, but James and Zoe were fast enough to hold her down. She was in total denial and was not ready to accept the dreadful reality.

"I talked to Tristan this morning. No, this can't be true," she sobbed, her body racked with grief, breaking her into tiny pieces. Worry deepened in her mother's eyes as she watched her daughter. Audrey had never seen her this broken before. The doctor entered and told Vivienne she needed to rest, but his voice was like breeze passing by her ears as she expressed the pain of her loss.

"She loved Tristan so much. Allow her to mourn him," Zoe said, between sobs. Audrey nodded in understanding.

Hours later, Zoe had Vivienne leaning on her arm in her room. Her whole body was tense and she hadn't spoken since. She had not been able to see their bodies because they were said to have been burnt afterwards. Three burnt bodies were recorded.

She seemed to be feeling the pain above everybody else, even though her parents were close friends with Tristan's parents as well.

"You need to eat something and change your clothes, Vivi," Zoe said gently. Just then, the door to Vivienne's room opened, revealing a face she was not expecting and probably didn't want to see. Tobias-Tristan's stepbrother, a young, handsome teen with prominent features, clad in a white shirt with three buttons open, a twisted rope tattoos visible on his bare worked-out chest. Vivienne didn't notice his arrival until Zoe called her attention to him.

"Tobias is here." Vivienne lifted her head, frowning at the sudden intrusion.

"No one said you could walk into my room without my permission," Vivienne cautioned with bloodshot eyes, she had cried alot and her eyes were now overly puffy.

Tobias almost rolled his eyes but was courteous enough to consider the tragic circumstances surrounding them. His green eyes, fixed in his bold face card, awkwardly looked around before he spoke. "Your mum did."

"Richard Bennett was his father too, and Tristan was his stepbrother. You should take it easy with him, Vivi. We are all feeling the losses." Zoe muttered close to Vivienne's ears, her face expressing pity. Tobias took Vivienne's silence as a cue to sit on the other side of the bed beside Vivienne, burying his head in his hands as he did.

"I know I'm not exactly welcome here considering that you never liked me, but we have both lost, Vivienne. Tristan wouldn't expect less from me right now. He would want me to be here for you. Let's get through this loss together." Tobias expressed to Vivienne, who now sat up, staring into nothingness. She could remember that Tobias played a huge role in her break up with Tristan. He was the one who sent the trending footage of a girl straddling Tristan on his eighteenth birthday to her parents and that had made them grow furious with Tristan. Apart from that, Tobias had always been the stepbrother who made Tristan's life hell while he was alive. Tobias was a jealous one, evil even. He had always wanted what Tristan had ever since he was introduced to the Bennetts as the bastard child Richard had outside before his marriage.

His narcissistic traits had been vivid and he didn't bother hiding them. He had only hidden them from her parents of course. Maybe because he wanted her. He had always wanted whatever Tristan had. She hated him.

She would have even preferred that her parents didn't know about the trending Tristan's footage drill she sorted things out, but it didn't matter anymore, he's dead now. She suppressed a sob that threatened her throat and finally glanced towards Tobias.

Despite the utter disdain she felt towards him, knowing he was grieving too was enough reason to allow him to stay. He needed support, just like she did. But as for her, she knew the demise of her lover would haunt her forever.

The teens pushed their grudges aside and grieved together.

But there was one thing... Vivienne couldn't help but think the Bennetts' death was suspicious.

*

Days later, all efforts to find Tristan's elder sister, who was said to have not been in the car with her family when it happened, proved abortive. This almost drove the Donovans insane, especially Vivienne. But the Donovans made sure to distribute her pictures everywhere in case anyone saw her.

By the following month, the media reported that there were no traces of Laurel Bennett.

"She could have been kidnapped and killed as well or maybe burnt," Vivienne's father said, shocking her with his assertiveness.

"You can't be serious, Dad." A look of disgust was narrowed at her father, but he only shrugged.

"We've tried our best. It's high time we all resumed our daily lives," her father insisted.

"Your Dad is only being realistic, Vivi. Let's... move past it," Tobias, who had now become a regular at their massive mansion since the incident, said. Vivienne turned her head towards him, looking from him to her father. She scoffed in disbelief, then shook her head at them and angrily left the living room while her mother watched her rush up the stairs.

Tobias stood up to go after her, but Daniel Donovan, Vivienne's father, held him back. "Let her be for now."

"Nora," Audrey, Vivienne's mother, called, and a maid with pale skin and brown hair ran forward with her head slightly bowed. "See that Vivienne eats her lunch."

"Yes, ma'am." She turned and ran up the stairs, heading to Vivienne's room.

---

Japan (Sendai city)

Gray eyes fluttered open in a monk's temple, greeted by a harsh, small-white light. He groaned, his head pounding as he tried to make sense of his surroundings. The room was creepily stark white. He tried sitting up but was held back by a deep pang of pain that hit hard at the back of his head. "Argh!"

His hand flung up to hold it and he felt a huge bandage on it. Suddenly, the huge door creaked open, catching his attention. "Ah, you are awake." A man dressed in a long and large white robes hanging off his hands and feet, entered. Beside him was a girl, no older than sixteen, with long, dark hair and wide brown, curious eyes. She clutched a bundle of clean linens, her gaze fixed on the boy on the bed.

"Who are you guys?" the boy asked with an hoarse voice, looking back and forth between the man whose appearance was scary, a vivid contrast to the white cloth he was clad in and the girl with him

"I'm Sebastian, and this is my daughter, Mandy. You've been through quite an ordeal." He said, crouching to access the boy closely which the boy found creepy, his eyes giving away his feelings.

The boy blinked, trying to process the information. "Where am I? Who am I? And why does my head hurt so bad?" he asked, his voice croaky like a chalk scraping ona board. The man and his daughter exchanged a curious look, realizing he had lost his memory.

"He just asked who he was." The girl notified her father even though he knew already.

"You don't remember anything?" The man asked and the boy gently shook his head. "I don't" and just like that, a small smile made its way to the man's lips before he readjusted.

"Your name is Thompson Blake, but we call you Tom." Mandy frowned, clearly uncomfortable with her father's lie.

"You are an orphan. I will tell you everything you need to know about yourself later, but you need to freshen up now, and Mandy here will treat you to a nice meal." He added. Mandy gave Tom a dry smile.

Later that night, a man clad in a black suit and Sebastian met in a dark room beneath the monk's quarters. His expression was grim as he said, "I have gotten every detail about him, boss. The boy you have in your care is named Tristan Bennett. And he was announced dead a few months ago.

The soft clicking of heels sounded through the wide foyer of the Donovans' company, announcing an elegant presence. With the delicious scent of her exotic perfume coming forth, they already knew who it was.

The staff, already aware of her arrival, exchanged knowing glances and grins stretching across their faces.

"Welcome, Miss Vivienne," Tiffany, Vivienne's acting PA, greeted her as she stepped out of the elevator, followed by other staff greetings. Vivienne forced a smile with her deep-red-colored lips and made her way to her office.

As she walked past them, she could hear their murmurs.

"She's so beautiful. Does she ever stress at all?"

"I wish I were her, imagine being the soon-to-be CEO of this billion-dollar company."

"And she's marrying that handsome, wealthy Tobias Bennett."

"Poor Miss Vivienne, I heard she still mourns her lost lover and-"

"Shut up, let's focus on work before we get fired for gossiping."

Vivienne shook her head, sighing at the sickening whispers. She wondered if they knew how to gossip quietly.

She hastily walked to her office, having deliberately slowed down to eavesdrop on their conversations.

Upon entering her office, she didn't bother to settle in. She needed to stay busy, to keep her mind from wandering over her past and most recent burdens. Her hands glided over the spines of numerous books and files lining the mahogany shelves, searching for the file she had placed there the previous day.

The soft click of her office door reached her ears, but she couldn't register it. Suddenly, two pairs of hands snaked around her waist from behind, pulling her into a close embrace.

"Miss me, Vivi?" The masculine voice whispered against her neck, inhaling her scent deeply.

Vivienne tensed, her body stiffening at the unexpected contact. She turned around abruptly, breaking the embrace. "Tobias, what are you doing here?"

The young man who was clad in an Armani suit let out a dark chuckle, clearly accustomed to her attitude. "What am I doing in my fiancée's office? C'mon Vee, you need to relax and start acting like my fiancée. Don't you think?" His hand reached up to coil a few strands of her hair around his finger and she cringed.

"Don't call me Vee, Tobias. Only Tristan called me that. I've warned you severally but you delusionally believe you can replace hims. Even if we eventually get married, you can't, so dream less. You can't have me the way you want." She bit out coldly, stepping away from him, and maintaining a decent amount of space.

Tobias brows pinched, an emotion flashing in his eyes but he recovered before it could linger there. "You are my wife-to-be, It's high time you start accepting we are meant together, babe"

Rolling her eyes, Vivienne scoffed disdainfully. Tobias was good-looking and he had the charms most daring women would love to have around them. But for her? He could never be that guy he so much wished he would.

"You make it sound like I should be eager to become your wife. We both know I am not your biggest fan, and I would only do this because Tristan and my parents want me to." Her attitude was evident as she folded her arms across her chest.

Not being able to bottle the anger anymore, Tobias landed a book on her desk with a thud that jolted her, his eyes glinting with menace. "It's been eight years, Vivienne. Tristan is long gone. Why do you always bring him into our conversations? It's unpleasant and becoming unbearable." Sparing him another dry look, Vivienne shook her head at him and settled in her leather chair, ready to ignore him and focus on work, but as she expected, he wasn't going to back off.

What she didn't expect was his next action. Suddenly, Tobias forcefully grabbed her chin tightly and tilted it upward in his hard grip. "Don't ignore me while I'm talking to you, Vivienne," He snapped and Vivienne's eyes contorted with fear. "Let go of me, Tobias," she managed to say before she successfully wriggled out of his hold and held her aching chin.

Suppressing his anger, Tobias turned away from her to collect himself before turning back abruptly, looking frustrated. "What do you want, Vivi?"

"I wish you could give me what I want, but you can't. I want you to leave me alone and tell my parents you don't want this marriage!" Vivienne lashed out at him with disdain in her eyes.

"You promised me we would be officially together once you are out of college. I had to pretend to everyone, including our parents, that we were dating. Now, you've graduated, and you think I will just allow my years of patience to go in vain?"

"You asked me what I want." Vivienne simply mouthed in response while fiddling with the dove chain pendant hanging down her neck, a gift Tristan gifted her many years ago. Tobias eyes fell on it in a temporary glance, knowing she was fiddling it on purpose but he looked away.

"I mean... what do you want so that I can have you the way I had always craved!" Tobias ran a hand through his brown curls, infuriated. Vivienne had a look that said 'you are unbelievable' before she leaned over her desk, ready to address him.

"We are not compatible, Tobias. Why are you forcing it? You are violent, irresponsible, selfish, and... you are just a stark contrast to Tristan. You can never be him for me," Vivienne spat. Just when Tobias thought she was done, she continued,

"I can't believe you've liquidated your late father's company to build a club, do gambling and other irresponsible stuff. Tobias, can you really do something right about yourself? Maybe I might possibly start considering you if you could, but sadly, people like you don't change." She exhaled tiredly.

"Now, if you will excuse me, I have work to attend to if you don't. Leave my office." Anger blared in Tobias' eyes as he glared at her, jaw clenching as if he was going to lash out but he ate it up. With one last menacing look at her, he exited her office.

A few hours later, Tobias was in the late Richard Bennett mansion's living room, sat on the couch looking agitated. His everly modern mother, Natalie, stood by the large window, dressed in a short black gown, sipping expensive red alcoholic wine.

"You complain of stomach aches lately a lot Mum, you should limit how you take alcoholic drinks" Tobias complained. "I'm fine son." She tilted her head towards him and flashed a smile, giving Tobias relief.

"Do you think we should come up with another plan, It's been eight good years and she's still as stubborn as ever, damn it"

"She must be delusional if she thinks she won't marry you," Natalie's voice, though calm, was tinged with coldness.

"But she's making it difficult. We might just eliminate them all and take what we want," Tobias suggested, an evil smile curling his lips. Natalie took another sip of her wine, letting out a low throaty giggle before turning to him.

"It's not done that way, boy. We would easily be suspected. You have to marry her first, then we execute a second plan after she gives you a child. We can eliminate them after that. Don't worry about her stubbornness, her father won't allow her cancel the marriage plan. I know a secret about Donovan that he wouldn't want me to reveal." Tobias' evil smirk deepened at this revelation, giving him newfound confidence.

It wasn't long after that he received a call from the Donovans which he left home to attend to.

"We are buying the Bennetts' company" Audrey Donovan informed Tobias and a deep frown morphed his face instantly.