Taken By The Mafia Lord

She could see that Claudia was scared as well; her lips were trembling, beads of sweat on her forehead, and of course, the fear in her eyes.

If that whip landed on Claudia’s body, in addition to causing her pain, she might approach a state of hypovolemic shock due to loss of blood. And as much as her cousin was a bitch, Arianna couldn’t lose her.

She turned to Big Joe hurriedly, speaking with a hushed tone, “You said it was a cane, that doesn’t look like one,”

“Don’t cause any scene, just sit back and enjoy the show,” Was all Big Joe said to her, causing her hands to fist with anger.

Enjoy what show? The freak show? As much as she loathed Claudia, Arianna would rather exert her revenge on her by herself than let someone else make a public show of it.

Arianna was sure she would never forget her cousin’s terrified scream in a hurry as she watched helplessly as Claudia was forced onto the table and placed on her stomach.

The straps were put in place, restraining Claudia from moving around while the soldier who would execute the whipping stood over her with a sadist grin on his face.

Arianna marked his face, she would definitely hunt him down after this was over. Claudia was hers to handle, no other person. He would pay for that. Yes, it was true he was doing his job but the asshole loved every bit of it especially when he spanked Claudia hard on the ass building anticipation.

.....

The guard wasn’t the only asshole in the room, most of the guests laughed at that gesture while Big Joe wore an indifferent mask, busy eating his meal unaffected by what was going on. He didn’t care that the woman he was humiliating was the cousin to the woman he planned to marry. That confirmed her thoughts, she would not have a say in this marriage.

Arianna looked around, this wasn’t the type of life she wanted to be part of. Although gangs were known for the wrong things, these sets of people were heartless. Even Marcel wouldn’t treat a lady this way. Well, what does she know about Marcel anyway? She thought she knew Big Joe and this happened.

When the first lash landed on Claudia’s back and she screamed in pain, Arianna did not look. She squeezed her eyes shut and turned the other way, unwilling to watch her cousin’s disgrace. Claudia was not a circus animal or a source of entertainment to the guests yet Big Joe made it that way – and it was all because of her. Because of what she did.

She tried to tune out every opinion there. The cheering jeers from the guests made her clutch her palms so tight it turned pale and trembled with rage. Their misogyny was so irritating that she was tempted to just pick up her knife and stab every male being in here.

But Arianna knew before she made even one kill, she would be shot down. She cleared her thoughts instead and sought that inner peace.

Ariana imagined she was away from this place and everything was perfect. She accomplished her dreams and was married to the love of her life. The only problem with her imagination was that she couldn’t exactly conjure the face of the love of her life which was quite disturbing because the name was right at the tip of her tongue.

It wasn’t until Arianna felt total silence that she finally opened her eyes to see that the whipping session was over and all eyes were on her. But she didn’t care about them, her gaze resting on Claudia who thankfully was not bleeding. She didn’t know if she would be able to bear the grief if Claudia died from this – she let her die.

Don’t get her wrong, Arianna still very much hated Claudia and her family for what they did to her, but at the end of the day, they were still family. It was family against the world. They were supposed to be united and fight against their enemies. Well, here they are. Divided and in pain.

“Since we are all done here, I’ll be taking my leave,” Arianna announced and it was quite obvious that Big Joe was not pleased with her dismissal.

He was the one who invited her to breakfast, she could not leave without him asking her to.

Big Joe was just about to stop her when Arianna interrupted him by placing a kiss on his cheeks unexpectedly and his jaw dropped. He didn’t see that one coming.

“I’ll see you later,” She disarmed him with her charming smile. Arianna leaned towards Big Joe making sure her cleavage was in full display and the man was unable to think properly while staring at it.

The guests who had been waiting for Big Joe’s reaction were stunned when he simply said, “Sure,” granting her request right away. At that moment, they became skeptical of who held the power here, Arianna or Big Joe.

Yet none of them dared to say a word, especially not after the whipping scene minutes ago. They didn’t want to push the leader of the Red Giant to the wall.

Claudia was being released from the table when Arianna took her leave and was relieved. They wouldn’t do anything to her behind her again. Even at that, Arianna didn’t dare to look at her. Some things were better left that way. Claudia and her parents were the ones who started this, they should clean it up.

The guards from earlier were the ones to escort her back to her room and as soon as the door was shut close, Arianna rushed to the bathroom where she leaned over the toilet and began to throw up every single thing she had eaten.

She felt sick to the stomach during the whipping and it was only by willpower that she didn’t throw up at the scene. The experience in that room made her sick to the stomach.

When she was done, Arianna leaned against the wall wondering what to do. This wasn’t just punishment for running away, Big Joe was giving her a warning. If she ran away again this time, he would end her family to teach her a lesson. The whipping today had only been an appetizer.

If that was the case, her escape plan was as good as useless. She can’t let Big Joe murder Claudia and her parents, and though they brought everything happening upon themselves, they were the closest thing to a family she had left.

Exhausted, troubled, and unable to come up with a solution, Arianna went to lay down on her bed only to stumble upon a small note there.

“What?” Her brows furrowed and she slowly picked the paper with suspicion. There were just three words written on it but when she read it again, her eyes grew wide in understanding.

“HANG IN THERE .”

No way, it can’t be....

Arianna sprinted to the door to go investigate who had left her the note but the guards had locked her in as usual.

Damn it!