Taken By The Mafia Lord

"It's quite funny but I think my first love was a redhead," Marcel said and Arianna gave him a funny look.

"You think, or are you sure you're not making up stories about me?" She arched a brow at him.

"No, I'm telling the truth. It's just that it's been years since the encounter and I can't exactly remember what she looks like," Marcel explained to her that he wasn't making up any story. This was real.

"Fine, let me hear the rest of it," Arianna decided to give him a chance. Moreover, why would Marcel create such a fake experience? It was not like him - his pride wouldn't let him.

"So the story goes like this..." Marcel began, "I kind of ran away from home after my mother died because it became increasingly hard to live with my father, you get the point." He didn't go into details. But at that time, he couldn't stare his father in the face anymore, not after his betrayal.

Arianna knew there was more to the story, however like Marcel said earlier, he didn't want to talk about his mother. So she didn't try to manipulate or push him into telling her more.

"I was just a young boy, I think I was ten or going to eleven at that time. What was a clueless young boy doing in a city he had no idea about? I only knew I wanted to get away from my father and anywhere was fine by me. However, I wasn't prepared for how cruel the world was to orphans. I got lost, not that I knew the way in the first place, I didn't make any plans for my future, all I took was satisfaction in the fact that Daniel would be worried sick with worry, he just lost his heir.

"I got beaten by bullies and robbed, although I stood my ground, however, they were numerous and I was nothing but a lone wolf. In summary, I slept in the streets and pretty much lived like a beggar until I saw her. The small bold, brave girl was looking for her dog when she found me with him and outrightly flirted with me. Now that I think about it, it's kind of cute," Marcel chuckled at the memory without noticing the way Arianna suddenly stiffened.

He went on to say, "She took me in. There was this empty house down her street, she kept me hidden there and brought me food and toys to keep me company. Whenever I smelled, she would sneak me into their house to have a bath with her strawberry-scented soap. It was quite a sweet experience with her, no wonder she's my first love, "

He sighed, "You could almost say that she was treating me like a -"

"Stray," Arianna said the first name that came to her mind.

"Exactly, you got it!" Marcel conformed to it, "That's what she called me. She said I was like a stray dog that had run away from his…."

Marcel paused.

It hit him.

How did Arianna know that?

He froze while Arianna sat up robotically, her brows furrowed in a frown. What was going on here? Both of them didn't say anything, just lost in their thoughts.

But that was until the haze that had covered Marcel's memories was lifted and the memories of his first love with her adorable missing teeth and smile somehow merged with the face of the current Arianna sitting right in front of him.

"My God," Marcel breathed as he focused hard and recovered the other missing fragments of his memories.

"My name is Arianna, what about you?" Her childish voice echoed in his head and Marcel swore under his breath. She had been right under his nose all this while and he failed to recognize her. Goodness, gracious, fate must be fucking with him!

However, unlike Marcel who finally connected the dots, Arianna was finding it a bit difficult to comprehend what was happening. She had been much younger when she chased Marcel as a child, hence the memory was almost lost.

"I don't understand…" Arianna shook her head in confusion, "How did you get those memories? I never told you -"

"I'm Stray and you are my first love, Arianna," Marcel figured it out.

"What?"

Marcel cupped her face, looking as if he just won the jackpot with his expression,

"Don't you remember, Arianna, you promised to marry me if I agreed to be your boyfriend in the end?" He reminded her.

And she did remember, the color draining from her face,

"Oh my God, slap me," Arianna muttered, the shock apparent on her face, "This is unbelievable."

"Yes, it is," Marcel admitted out of happiness, pulling Arianna to his chest and hugging her tight, "I cannot believe that I got to see you again."

However, to his greatest surprise, Arianna pushed him away with a scowl, pointing an accusing at him,

"You left."

"What?"

"You promised me that you would be there the next day, but then you left. Do you know how many times I went by our secret place waiting and hoping that you would somehow pop out of the blues and tell me that it was all a joke and you never left? I haunted that house like a ghost for months, Marcel! You didn't even say goodbye?!"

Arianna remembered at once how much betrayal she had felt at that time. She thought she made a friend - or a boyfriend.

"Because I couldn't," Marcel retorted, "I never meant to leave you in the first place, Arianna, not without a proper goodbye. But then, Daniel found me and he took him away without a second thought. I was just a child then and I couldn't do anything. I couldn't fight back." He confessed the truth to her.

Arianna swallowed down the emotions clogging her throat. Although it felt stupid but that experience hurt her as a child and she had always thought she did something bad and he left her all alone - her first boyfriend broke her heart. Who knew he was the same as her current boyfriend Marcel? This must be a sick joke from the universe. She still found it hard to believe.

"However, that was in the past, Arianna, we are in the present and you are with me now. And no one, not even my father would separate us again," Marcel promised her, his voice deep with emotion.

He lowered his head and sought her lips and Arianna opened up to him without hesitation. Marcel kissed her gently as if to make up for the heartbreak he caused her as a kid. But then the passion ignited and he was kissing her hard and brutally, as if staking his claim on her and she returned it with the same fervor, moaning into his mouth.

If Arianna wanted him to be her Stray, he would be, gladly, however, no one was separating the both of them again. Not for the second time.