My Arranged Marriage to a Mobster: The Arranged Marriage Chronicles, #5

By Heidi K. Smith

When Michael and his parents move into a new neighborhood after his father had gotten into some rather serious trouble he finds himself dealing with the fact that his parents are having a bunch of parties where they were claiming that it was to make a few new friends. Michael would later find out that there was more to the things that his parents had been telling him, especially when it came to the neighbors that they had throughout that entire time. Michael would eventually meet a girl that he could find himself falling in love with and unfortunately he had lost every change that he had to be with her because his parents had made it possible for him to be in an arranged marriage with the daughter of one of their neighbors. Will Michael find the happiness he deserves or will he be caught in a nightmare for the rest of his life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Heidi K. Smith
• Release date: Feb 24, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215429068

Heidi K. Smith

Heidi K. Smith is a young girl who has been writing several different books over the past few years. She has mainly been writing a series known as The Arranged Marriage Chronicles. When Heidi is not writing she spends her time reading, watching a variety of television shows, and spending time with her family and friends. Her best friend and sister has helped her in many cases by coming up with the cover for each of these books. Heidi currently resides with her dog Treasure in the city of Rome, New York.

Book preview

Chapter 1: The Bet 

Ihad been spending time with my small group of friends while we had been trying to figure out the different ways that we could eventually celebrate what was going to be my sixteenth birthday. This had been something that had been happening ever since the day that I had met each of my friends. On this particular day each of my friends had insisted that I meet them in the park that had been close to the school that we had been attending. I knew that this was literally the one place where my friends and I could always meet whenever there had been a few different things that we had felt that we would have to discuss during the time that we were preparing to celebrate the birthday of one of the girls that had been part of the small group that we were in. At this particular time I knew that we were all trying to figure out exactly how we could celebrate my birthday, especially since I was one of the first ones in our group that would be old enough to possibly get my permit and license after we had finished celebrating my birthday. Any other time that I would be spending my time with my friends I would never exactly have to worry about the fact that my parents would be calling me and telling me that I would have to return to the house where we were living unless there was something rather serious taking place that they had honestly felt that I should know about throughout that entire time. On this particular day, however, it had seemed that things were definitely going to be different.

My friends and I had been sitting at one of the picnic tables at the park so that we could talk about the different ideas that we could eventually use when we were preparing to celebrate my sixteenth birthday, when the unexpected had seemed to be happening. That afternoon I had never expected either of my parents to be home. They had always been the kind of people that were spending their free time with our neighbors giving me the chance to spend my time with my friends and my grandparents depending on the things that were happening throughout that entire time. On this particular day, I had found out that my parents had ended up with certain things happening and it had eventually caused them to call me despite the fact that they knew that I would be spending my free time out of school with a few of my closest and dearest friends. I knew that whatever the reason was for my parents to take the time to call me, that it was definitely something that they had felt was extremely important. Either way, it turned out that my parents were insisting that I come home instead of spending my time talking to my friends about the way that we had wanted to celebrate one of the biggest days of my entire life. After explaining everything to my friends about the reason that I had ended up having to return home, I had walked from the school back to the house where my parents and I had been living. The one thing that I had not been expecting throughout that entire time was that my parents would not be the only people that would be waiting for me the minute that I had gotten home. Even though I knew that my parents had been spending their time with Marcas and Kathryn during the time that Michael had been spending his time with me and a few of my other friends, it had seemed that Michael and his parents were going to be waiting for me after everything that had taken place over the last few years.

The minute that I had walked through the front door the first thing that I had seen was Michael and his parents sitting on the couch that was in the living room, while my parents were in the kitchen looking as if they were trying to figure out exactly how they were going to explain the different things that had been happening throughout that entire time. After certain things had seemed to be happening my parents had found themselves in a situation that had caused them to start thinking about everything that they had done that was bound to ruin any plans that I might have been making with each of the friends that I was spending my time with over the years. Marcas had known that my parents had never told me about the things that they had done every time that they had gone to one of the parties that Marcas and Kathryn had been having since they had moved into the house that they were currently living in. They both knew that sooner or later my parents would have to admit everything and now that they were sitting there waiting for me to come home it was obvious that everything was going to be coming out whether my parents had wanted it to happen or not during that time. Marcas had made it seem that he was being rather understanding during the time that my parents had approached him to ask for his help after they had realized that they had not only gambled away the money that they would have used in order to pay for the bills and the groceries that we would have needed during that time, but they had also gambled away the house that we were living in and that would have made things very difficult for my parents since it would mean telling my grandparents everything about the things that they had been doing and the reason that they no longer had a house where we could have been living during the time that I was spending my time with my friends and with my grandparents. This was definitely something that my parents did not want to be doing regardless of what the reason was throughout that entire time. Marcas had been willing to help my parents out to a certain degree, but there were certain things that Marcas had told my parents he had wanted happening long before he had agreed to let them have their money back and the house that we had lived in throughout the entire time that I had been growing up.

Even though this was honestly the last thing that my parents had wanted to agree to, it was something that they knew would have to be done if they were ever going to be able to keep the place where we had been living throughout the entire time that they were attending these parties and gambling with the other people that were attending the parties that Marcas and Kathryn had been having since the day that they had moved into the neighborhood. Kathryn had known that Marcas would be the one that would make the decisions about the things that would eventually be happening around the time that Michael and I would be preparing to turn sixteen years old.

My parents had known that Michael and I were close to the same age and that he had been spending time with me and my friends ever since the day that he had moved into the house across the street from where my parents and I had been living throughout that entire time. I did not know why, but something had told me that Michael had already known about the plans that his parents had made right from the moment that all of these parties had been taking place including the night that my parents had ended up discussing many of these things with Marcas and Kathryn long before my friends and I had started making plans for celebrating my sixteenth birthday. I would find out later that my friends and I would not be celebrating my sixteenth birthday in the way that we had hoped we would be doing before I had received that phone call from my parents asking me to come home. That day it had turned out that Marcas had insisted that a meeting be held so that I could find out that I would no longer have a choice when it came to who I would eventually find myself falling in love with and someday end up married to when the time was right. My parents knew right from the very beginning that there were certain things that they should have given some thought to and that had included staying out of the different things that would have remained my choice if they had not gotten addicted to the gambling that they had been doing throughout the entire time that they were attending the parties that Michael and his parents had been having for the longest time. I knew that even my grandparents would find this rather hard to believe once I had called them and explained about everything that had been happening and the things that my parents had done long before I had realized how serious their gambling problems had actually been and the real reason that they had stayed quiet about the fact that they had agreed to this arranged marriage when I had been younger.

Throughout the entire time that Michael and his parents had been sitting in the living room I could tell that they were waiting for that moment when my parents would decide that they were going to tell me everything about the reason that they had agreed to all of the things that they did all those years earlier. Marcas had seemed to realize that my parents had never said anything about the things that had taken place which had included the fact that he had made this deal with my parents knowing that it was something that would end up being rather upsetting to me once I had honestly learned the truth about the secrets that they had been hiding from me for a number of different reasons. Reasons that my parents had obviously used because they had felt that it was something that would keep me safe until something had happened that would make it obvious that I would need to know regardless of how these things were happening throughout that entire time. Eventually my parents had walked into the living room, after taking a couple of minutes to think about how everything was going to sound the minute that they had made every attempt to tell me about what the reason was for these things to end up taking place. During that entire time Michael was watching me as if he was not entirely sure about what my reaction was going to be the minute the truth had finally come out about the parties and everything that had eventually started from the moment that they had moved into the neighborhood. I did not know why, but something had told me that Michael had not exactly been happy about any of these things despite the fact that he had been attending these parties that his parents had been having and watching everything that his parents had been doing right from the very beginning. He had known that there would be certain things happening that would cause several issues once I had learned about the things that my parents had done without giving a single thought to the things that I would not like for whatever reason, especially after the truth had come out about everything that had been happening throughout the entire time that my parents had been attending each of the parties that Marcas and Kathryn had eventually found themselves planning during the time that they had been searching for the person that would become a big part of their son’s life.

When my parents had finally told me about the things that they had agreed to, especially when it came to the arranged marriage that Marcas and Kathryn had wanted around the time that they had learned that my parents had been so desperate to get their house and money back, it was more than a little obvious that this was something that I was rather upset about right from the moment that I had honestly learned the truth. Right from the moment that I had learned about everything that my parents had done it was obvious that I was more upset than they had honestly realized throughout that entire time. That afternoon when I had left my closest friends sitting at the park trying to decide exactly what we were going to do in order to celebrate my birthday, I had promised that I would call them as soon as I found out what had caused the things that my parents had seemed to see as being rather important. I knew that the minute my closest friends had learned about these things it was definitely going to be something where they were going to be in complete shock. As far as my friends were concerned there was absolutely no way that anybody would ever think that putting their daughter in an arranged marriage was something that would be considered a good thing, especially once they had learned that this was the main reason that Marcas and Kathryn had been having these parties and that they were the ones that were determined to make sure that my parents had agreed to all of these things before they had found themselves in a situation that they had honestly never been expecting throughout the time that they were attending all of these parties and gambling away the things that had never really belonged to them throughout that entire time. Either way, I knew that I would have to figure out the best way to explain all of these things to my friends and hope that in some way they were going to understand the reason that the birthday plans would have to be put on hold until after I had figured out a way to put a stop to everything that my parents had done during the time that I was growing up. No matter what happened the first thing that I knew for certain was that I wanted to be somewhere where I could get away from Michael and his parents. The last thing that I had wanted to deal with was talking to Marcas and Kathryn about an arrangement that should have never taken place, regardless of how hold I was during that time and regardless of whether it was something that my parents had seemed to realize I would never approve of the minute that I had learned that my parents had accepted everything that Marcas and Kathryn had talked to them about when my parents had started to panic the minute that they had realized that they had gambled away the house as well as the money that would have paid all of the bills that had accumulated for that particular time. It was slowly starting to occur to my parents that they had definitely made the biggest mistake of their entire lives when they had started attending these parties and gambling in the way that they had been doing throughout the entire time that I was growing up. Now they were definitely going to have to face the consequences whether they had liked it or