The Dinner Table

*Knock* *Knock*

"Yeah?" Adriana answered the knock as she struggled to fit into the tight white dress the help had dropped in her room. It had been barely two hours since the brothers found her and she had already been given explicit orders to get dressed as quickly as possible so as not to delay the wedding.

"That dress is at least a size smaller than you. You're very petite but that dress is still very tight on you" Betty noted as soon as she entered the room.

Adriana gave her a quizzical look as she was expecting even more bitchy behavior from the teenager.

"What do you want?"Adriana asked. She was determined not to trust anyone bearing the last name Friedman and everyone who worked for them.

"Chill out, we're going to be sister-in-laws in a few hours so I figured we shouldn't necessarily be enemies" Betty spoke coyly with a half smile on her terribly beautiful face.

"How old are you again?" Adriana asked just to be sure.

"I'm sixteen in a few weeks and Brother Jeremy told me you're twenty one, is that right?"

"Yeah, never in my wildest dreams did I expect to be getting married at twenty one"

Betty plumped down onto her bed and rolled over to lie on her belly so she could watch Adriana get prepared.

"You know we could have had the best fashion designers in the country come dress you up"

"I'm very sure I can put on a white dress by myself. Besides, I'm not really into all that fashion crap" Adriana grunted as she tried to sit without bursting the seams of her dress.

"How? You're a girl, which girl doesn't like make-up?" Betty asked in bewilderment.

"Well I guess if you grew up living in the same room as your parents and two brothers and Barry having enough to eat twice a day, you probably won't have the time to learn how to apply make-up or dress nicely" Adriana sighed as she put on some perfume.

"Well since we're going to be living together for the foreseeable future, I guess the least I can do is help you"

"What?" Adriana asked in surprise as Betty pushed her chair to the mirror and began to mess with her face with strange looking cosmetic products.

"Can I ask you something Adriana?" Betty asked in a low murmur, "And please be quiet, they're watching the room twenty-four seven from the security cameras and there are two guards stationed outside your door"

"What? Are you serious?" She whispered back in surprise.

"Yeah they set up the cameras before they brought you back home. You're getting married to Brother Hayden but I've never seen you before and this morning he was talking about him going to jail and how Brother Jeremy should have locked you in yesterday night" Betty asked as she brushed Adriana's dark straight hair.

Adriana wasn't about to tell a fifteen year old that her brother had murdered her ex boyfriend in cold blood and her other brother was trying to force her to marry him so she lied.

"I'm sure your brother must have been joking about the jail stuff but I ran away because I was having cold feet about the wedding" Adriana's eye twitched slightly as it always did when she lied and she had to close it so as not to give away her tell.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I'll explain everything to you later but for now, I have a wedding to attend" Adriana admired Betty's work on her face in the mirror for a minute.

"Thank you for the help Betty" She smiled at the teenager as she left the room. Adriana waited until she could no longer hear Betty's retreating footsteps before quietly slipping a long sharp hair pin into the inside of her long hair, she wasn't going to stay in enemy territory without a potential weapon...

***

"Hunter, I still think this is a mistake. How do you think Leila will react when she hears this?" Hayden asked his brother with a frown as they all sat waiting in the dining room with the family lawyer, a short stocky older gentleman with white hair and a receding hairline.

"That's your problem Hayden. You can get rid of her or convince her to stay on as the side fling" Hunter's voice had relapsed to the bored tone as he played around with his phone.

"Yeah Hayden I wanted to ask you" Jeremy suddenly remembered something and sat up in his seat, "Will you be sleeping with Adriana?"

"What the hell man. Why the fuck are you asking me that?" Hayden asked in surprise, "You know we don't really know anything about her, she lived in the Southside in prime mafia territory. She could have been a call girl or a stripper, she dated that Cody guy who was also in the Mafia. She could have millions of STDS so I'm definitely not sleeping with her"

"Besides why would you sleep with her when you've got Leila Donovan at your side?" Jeremy smirked at his brother and Hayden frowned back but frowned deeper when he noticed Hunter smothering a mischievous smile.

"What is it Hunter?" He asked cautiously.

"Nothing much, I'm just thinking of that funny phrase they always say"

"Which phrase?" Jeremy asked in confusion but Hayden had already deciphered the situation.

"Fuck. She's behind me isn't she?" He sighed as Hunter nodded and got off his seat to hold a seat out for her.

"Thank you Hunter, I can call you Hunter right?" Adriana spoke softly as she settled into her seat.

"Yes of course, we're about to be inlaws so there's no need for formalities" Hunter smiled and Adriana took a long look around the table. Jeremy kept on avoiding her gaze but Hayden only frowned deeper when her eyes mer with his.

"I'm STD free but I'm not opposed to going to the hospital for tests, and I apologize for being born in the Southside and not a fancy home in the Upstate, and I'm sorry if my ex boyfriend was a member of the Mafia but if my memory serves he wasn't the one who shot someone else three times in the chest" Adriana apologized with words dripping with sarcasm as she frowned deeply back at Hayden until he was forced to look away.

"Ahem" Jeremy faked a cough to clear the uncomfortable atmosphere in the room and gave the lawyer a pleading stare to get on with his job.

"I understand you feel somewhat insulted by Mr. Hayden's words but you will get nowhere with trying to bite back. You already agreed to the wedding so you'll have to take some things as they come" the lawyer cut into the conversation smoothly.

"Agreed? To what? You stupid bastard I was threatened into agreeing to this and you fucking know it" She cursed at him and was about to get into a yelling fit when a hand slammed into the table violently.

"Silence!" Hunter yelled over the voices of everyone in the room and the room went grave silent immediately. Adriana finally understood the darkness she always saw in his eyes as he glared at each of them from across the table but she refused to avoid his gaze.

"Well then now that we're all calmed down, why don't we get this done with already"