Page 18 of The First Seal
"Okay, we’re going to just jump right into this. To my malen'kaya zhemchuzhina (little gem), Ember, I leave all of my possessions, including but not limited to the Mansion, the rentals in downtown Seattle, Chertanov Casino and Hotel in the outskirts of Seattle, the beach house in South Carolina, all of my money. If you would like you can set up a trust fund or an allowance for your sister. You can talk to Aspen about doing that. But that is all up to you because you are my sole inheritor.”
"My dear Ember, you will now be taking my role as the Don. However, I have three requirements. First, you must marry within two years of my death.
Secondly, Onyx, Ezra, Blaze, and Aspen will stay with you as your bodyguards until you marry. They know the ins and outs of how everything is run, having worked for me for many years.
And lastly, if you are not married by the end of the second year of my death, the role of Don will be given to Damien Orlov. If he has died by that time, his oldest son will be given the role."
Then the screen just goes black.
"What the actual fuck." I yell."Why should I have to marry to remain The Don? That can't be right! Is it?" I ask Ezra.
"Well your father came up with this rule after you and your sister were born because he never had a son. Normally, the oldest son would take over like it has been throughout the generations with your family. But since Ryker never had any sons he decided to make this rule so that you would carry on the family name and the Mafia would stay in the Chertanov family name." Ezra explains to me.
I scoff. "Of course, the old man would be fucking me over from the grave. It's my birthright to inherit the family business. He just had to give one last fuck you."
"Well looks like I'm going to have to find someone to marry me within the next two years because I be damned if I let this fat fuck become the Don. He would cause wars with other families and run everything into the ground, especially the Casino and Hotel!" I scream at everyone. “YOU!” I glared at Damien “You forced my father to add you as the next Don, you’ve always had your hands manipulating my father in every faucet that is MY RIGHT to inherit! Didn’t you!” I growled.
"Emb…" Damien Orlov was about to say something out of his fat ass mouth when the doorbell goes off.
"Looks like you were just saved by the bell." Onyx says, making me chuckle.
I walk towards the front door just as my butler, Artemis, is closing it behind him holding a package.
"This is for you, Miss Ember." Artemis says, handing me the small brown box.
"Thanks Arty." I say, taking the box from him.
Arty walks away as I sit the small box on the table in the foyer, and all four men gather around me, but Orlov has disappeared. Maybe he left. I really don't care, I'm just glad he's gone.
Opening the lid to the box, I place it on the table. Once I removed the paper on top, anger boiled in my veins and my heart rate skyrocketed. What I see inside puts me on edge. There, on top of some pink tissue paper is a cell phone, a note and a baggy with some brown string in it. When I pick up the baggy and take a closer look, it isn't string at all; it's hair. The same color hair as Iris. Now in a panic, I pick up the cell phone and turn it over quickly, and there, staring me right in the face, is my sister's cell phone case. The one she got for Christmas, it has a cherry blossom tree on it with flowers floating down the case. My stomach drops as dread coils deep within me. I spot a folded piece of worn paper.
"No, no, no." I breathe out, shaking my head back and forth. Picking up the note and opening it, I read it to myself. TWICE. Making sure I read it correctly as I feel the color drain from my face.
Chapter twelve
Onyx
The shock and disappointment on Ember's face when she heard her father say that she has to get married to keep her position as Don will be forever etched in my mind. If her father were alive, I would have killed him myself. Why would anyone say that? She is more than capable of running the mafia without being married. That was a stupid rule. What if she never wanted to get married.
She looks like she is ready to kill, and I understand that because she just found out that her sister has been kidnapped.
"Do you know who it is, Little Siren?" I ask her. Taking caution not to get too close to her and get punched.
"To be honest, I have no fucking clue who it could be or what they want." The look of defeat written all over her gorgeous face makes me want to kill the motherfucker for kidnapping Iris and making my Little Siren look like this.
She keeps staring at the note, like a name or picture of the kidnapper is going to just magically appear.
"Like your father said, we will be here with you, helping anyway we can." Aspen says and puts his hand on her shoulder. Before I can say or do anything. She whips her body towards him and swings. Knocking him right in the nose, I can hear the bones crunch under her fist, causing his nose to bleed immediately.
"Don't fucking touch me unless you wanna get hurt!" She yells at Aspen and then glares at the rest of us.
"I need some space to process all this shit." She snaps as she walks upstairs.
"I'll start trying to figure out who up here would do this. Aspen and Ezra you can go ask Ozzy if he has heard anything about kidnapping a mortal down there." Blaze says as he walks out the front door. Ezra and Aspen disappear into a portal, leaving me standing in the middle of the foyer all alone.
"Hey, what about me, you cunts? I guess I get the fun job of keeping an eye on Ember." I say to myself, rubbing my hands together, trying to figure out what mischief I can get into while my Little Siren is processing all this shit.
I decide to go into the office and use Ezra's laptop to try to access her sister's phone to see where she was last and see if her camera picked up her kidnapper.