Heir of Aurelian

Frank stood in the pews of a large cathedral. By his side were his mother and father, who were dressed in their most formal of attire. In the center of the building stood his sister, Maria, who wore a revealing white wedding dress, and the man she had fooled into marrying.

Yes, fooled was the word that Frank had used in his own mind to describe the scenario. Why was that? Because, like most modern women, she had deliberately lied about her past, specifically her previous occupation, and her body count in order to attract a higher value male. The man she was marrying was named Don Ferarri, which instantly made Frank feel as if the man was a douchebag.

However, he was an accomplished dentist in the New York area, and made quite a significant income. He was also decently handsome, and because of that, Maria had done everything she could to hide her scandalous past in order to marry this man.

As far as Frank was concerned, he had no duty to inform this idiot of who his sister really was. Or her past, and though he believed such things mattered in a relationship, the fault was on this fool for not investigating the background of the girl he was going to marry. Still, it ate at his soul, as if he was guilty of a great crime for allowing this man to enter a contractual relationship based on lies, especially when he had so much to lose.

It was Frank’s fourth year in College, and he had been enjoying himself during his university life. He was a bit of a playboy. You could basically say he was the male equivalent of his sister. The difference was he didn’t pretend like he was something else just to hook up with chicks.

Naturally, as a three time NCAA Division One Wrestling Champion, he had many women who were pining after him. One of these girls he had brought to this wedding as his date, simply so that he wouldn’t be the loser who was single at the event. He barely even knew her name, but she was a good lay, and one of his many fuck buddies.

As the Bride and groom exchanged their vows, Frank carefully gazed upon his surroundings, observing each tradition, and each action that was taken. It was truly a beautiful ceremony. It was just a shame that his sister’s relationship with this man was built on lies. He gave her three to five years before she divorced the man and took him for everything he had.

In all honesty, it was a pity that was what marriage had been reduced to in twenty-first century America, but Frank knew it in his heart to be true and vowed never to fall for such a scam. He would be a bachelor until the day he died. He had even made one of his friends promise to put a bullet in his brain if he ever fell for a girl like his sister._.

After Maria and her boy toy sealed the marriage with a kiss, she quickly ran up to her little brother and hugged him. She would not miss this opportunity to tease him about the words he had spoken to her a few years prior. She had never forgotten what he had said.

“And you said I could never get a man to marry me! Well, look at me now, bitch!”

Frank put on a fake smile as he squeezed his sister tightly before whispering in his ear.

“I said you could never get a man to marry you honestly, and I was right. Does this poor sucker even know about the job you had during college?”

Maria’s smile immediately vanished when she heard this. Luckily, her new husband could not see the ugly scowl on her face as she whispered something else into her pesky little brother’s ears.

“No, and you are not going to tell him, or else I will shove my foot up your ass!”

In response to this, Frank merely chuckled, spinning his sister around in a little dance so she was forced to face the man she had married. He whispered something else in his ear as he separated from her.

“Woah there, don’t go threatening me with a good time!”

After saying this, he let go of the woman before pretending like he had actually congratulated her on her wedding.

“I am so happy for you Maria, and Don, you are one lucky man to be marrying my beautiful sister! Isn’t that right, Maria?”

Marco and Sophia had watched their two siblings pretend to be getting along, and knew for certain that they were bickering with each other at that moment. However, they did not dare reveal the ruse. Neither of them were aware of the extent that Maria had lied to her new husband about her past, for if they were, Marco would have had a chat with the man.

Don’s parents interrupted the show before Maria could respond to Frank’s provocations. The two of them congratulated the newly married couple. While this was going on, Frank’s date walked up to him and spoke to him about his sister’s appearance.

“Your sister is really beautiful, isn’t she?”

In response to this, Frank merely scoffed before muttering a quick quip about his sister under his breath.

“You don’t get to be cam whore of the month for being ugly…”

The girl who he had taken as a date on this occasion thought she had heard wrong and looked over it him with confusion on her face.

“I’m sorry what?”

In response to this, Frank feigned ignorance with a deadpan expression on his face.

“What? I didn’t say anything…”

Ultimately, the young woman decided not to question what she thought she heard, and just ignore it. After a bunch of pictures were taken, the guests of the wedding left the Cathedral and proceeded to the venue where the reception was taking place. Frank was quick to order a glass of wine, which the waitress served to him. When she was about to walk off, he grabbed hold of the woman’s sleeve and corrected her errant behavior.

“Oh no, sweetheart, leave the bottle with me. I’m going to need it to get through this night…”

Contrary to the reaction he was expecting, the girl laughed before handing him the entire bottle and responding with a flirtatious smirk.

“I’m here all night if you need me, feel free to ask for more when you run out, handsome!”

Frank’s date immediately glared at him with petty jealousy, which he simply responded to by taking a smug sip of his wine. Eventually, the food was served, which, as one might guess by the nature of the two families’ lineage, was Italian. Frank quickly dug into his meal without a regard for the platitudes that were currently being said by the family. Though he sat at the main table with the rest of the members of his family, he was far from sociable. An aspect that his parents took notice of.

As the night continued, Frank became progressively more intoxicated, eventually blacking out. By the time he woke up, he realized that he was not in his fuck buddy’s apartment, but in someone else’s. Frank quickly looked over to see who was sleeping next to him, only to realize it was the waitress from the night before. He sighed in relief when he realized it was a good-looking chick. In all honesty, he could have done much worse in his drunken state.

He did not know what had happened the night before, but when he gazed over at his phone, there appeared to be a few dozen angry texts from his family members. When he realized this, all he could do was a groan as he laid back in bed and complained about the night before.

“Fucking weddings…”

Evidently, the girl was awake by his side as she turned over to face him while giggling. Apparently, she remembered everything and immediately teased him about the night before.

“Good morning, my dear fiance.”

Frank immediately froze on the spot while the girl pulled out her phone and showed him a recording of his drunk ass spilling his sister’s secrets during the wedding reception. Immediately after he went on about the meaninglessness of modern marriage and even went so far as to propose to the waitress he just met with an hour before with a paper ring that he had fashioned from a napkin. Upon realizing what he had done, and why his family was so angry at him, he grabbed hold of the pillow beneath his head and smothered his face with it, while speaking his innermost thoughts.

“Oh Lord, kill me now…”

—

After that scene, Marcellus awoke from his sleep in a cold sweat. It would appear these memories were not in chronological order as he was sometimes getting dreams from his high school years, and others from his college years. However, he could feel the embarrassment of Frank when he realized he had gotten too drunk and ruined his sister’s wedding.

Although, he had to admit, the christian marriage rites in the modern world were truly a beautiful ceremony. Since he was still pretending to be a Christian in this world, and obviously couldn’t host a Pagan wedding, perhaps he should replicate such beauty for his wedding to Placidia. Ultimately, he fell back to sleep, hoping he wouldn’t have to see such another embarrassing moment of his past life.