LOGINAlyssa Hart is out of options. Drowning in medical debt, with her mother’s life hanging in the balance, she’s desperate for a solution. When an unexpected email offers her an interview at the mysterious Valentino Enterprises, she doesn’t hesitate. But what she walks into isn’t a job opportunity... it’s a marriage contract. The powerful and feared Valentino Crime family needs a wife for their heir, Stephano Valentino. Cold, ruthless, and utterly uninterested in love, Stephano has discarded every woman his parents have introduced him to. They don’t expect Alyssa to be any different. The deal is simple: marry Stephano, bear his heir, and in two years, she’ll be free, with enough money to ensure her mother’s survival. There’s only one rule: this is not a real marriage. Stephano can do as he pleases, but Alyssa is bound to him alone. She should hate him. He gives her every reason to. But the longer she stays, the more she begins to see through the cracks in his armour. Beneath his icy exterior is something broken, something she can’t help but want to fix. And Stephano, who swore he would never care, finds himself drawn to the woman he was never meant to love. But in their world, love is a weakness, and breaking the rules always comes with a price...
View MoreA L Y S S AMy heart races as the number echoes in my mind, making it almost impossible to focus on anything else. I try to picture that amount in practical terms, hospital bills, treatment plans, debt erased, but it feels abstract, almost unreal, as though it belongs to someone with a different name.“In addition,” he goes on, and that's when I bring my attention back to the present, watching as Mr Whitmore continues to read the document in his hands, “a final settlement payment of five hundred thousand dollars will be granted upon completion of the two-year term...” He lets out, and my heart drops a second time as I swallow quietly. 500,000 dollars. Just like that.I should feel relieved hearing that. Security, or some sort of stability. Instead, I feel strangely detached, like I am listening to a deal being discussed about someone else’s future. It makes me think about what would happen to me, and the child I'm supposed to have...Will I be able to stay with him? Will I be able to
A L Y S S AWe finally reach the Valentino estate, and the sight of it feels even more overwhelming today, given what is to take place.Once the car parks at the front of the house, the driver steps out and opens my car door for me, and I have to admit, that's still something I'm not yet used to. I smooth my hands down the front of my white dress before stepping out of the car, conscious of every movement, of the way the fabric falls around my legs, of the fact that this is the closest I have ever come to looking like a bride. That's when I notice the same woman who greeted me the last time standing waiting near the entrance, dressed smartly in a formal dark grey dress, her expression polite as she watches me approach her."Welcome back, Ms Hart." She greets me just as I slow down my steps as soon as I reach her. That's when I notice that she's not the only one standing by the doors. There seem to be two men standing at either side, both of them dressed in black with an earpiece in ea
A L Y S S AThe next morning...I barely slept last night. I lie in my bed staring at the ceiling, replaying every word Stephano said to me, every look he gave me, the way he stood there, so certain of himself and so sure that I am temporary. I turn onto my side, then onto my back again, pulling the blanket up and then pushing it away, my mind refusing to quiet down. It is not just what he says that keeps me awake; it is how easily he says it, as if reducing me costs him nothing at all. By the time morning light begins to slip through the curtains, I feel more drained than rested, but there is no space to indulge that exhaustion today.Carmen sits across from me at my small kitchen table, her mug of coffee cradled between both hands as she listens to me recount last night in a voice that sounds unfamiliar even to my own ears. The breakfast she insisted on making sits in front of me, eggs and toast that would normally make me grateful, but I keep pushing the food around my plate instea
A L Y S S A“If I were you, I would speak to me with more humility.”He lets out without raising his voice, or stepping into my space aggressively... The restraint he shows makes his warning feel more threatening, as if he assumes I will understand my place without him having to spell it out. He stands a few feet away from me in the centre of the room, his hands resting casually in his pockets and jacket falling perfectly along his frame. His posture is relaxed, leading me to believe he has never once doubted his authority in this house. The same authority I will soon have to answer to if I am to marry him.His head tilts slightly as he watches me, not in an angry way, not even particularly annoyed, just as if he's expecting something of me, or waiting for me to correct myself.For a moment, I consider doing exactly that. Apologising would be easy, right? All of this will be so easy if I followed through with everything he says... or else the opportunity to save my mother's life will
A L Y S S AMy heart thunders as the words register in my mind...I will marry her...Stephano has agreed to marry me... just like that...I watch as Mrs Valentino releases a breath she has clearly been holding, her shoulders relaxing slightly, while her husband nods once, satisfied, both of them gl
A L Y S S AI stand there like a deer caught in the headlights as the word replays in my mind.Bride.The word feels foreign, almost absurd, yet attached to me in a room like this, standing in front of a man who looks at me like a problem to be solved rather than a person. I feel small under Stepha
A L Y S S AThe guards at the entrance take a curious look at me before they finally open the doors, allowing me passage. Inside, the space steals my breath, marble floors gleaming beneath towering ceilings, a sweeping staircase rising upward, light spilling from a chandelier so large it looks like
A L Y S S AI have never stared at myself in a mirror this long, not even on mornings when exhaustion made its home on my face, or nights when I have cried hard enough to scare myself, because this time feels different... way different...The bathroom is small, barely wide enough to stretch my arms
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