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CHAPTER NINE: The Work

Penulis: AISHA CORNER
last update Tanggal publikasi: 2026-07-18 22:54:23

She was at his study door at six exactly, dressed plainly like he'd asked, hair still damp from the bath she'd let the staff run for her that morning.

He was already at his desk, jacket off, sleeves rolled, three phones lined up next to a laptop like weapons he hadn't decided which one to use yet.

"Sit," he said, not looking up.

She sat. She'd learned by now that arguing about the small things wasted energy she needed for the bigger ones.

"The Castellanos," he said, still not looking at her, "r
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  • The Mafia King’s Forced Bride   CHAPTER TEN: Castellano's Table

    The dress arrived Thursday afternoon, exactly as promised, deep red silk with nothing extra to it, the kind of simple that cost more than complicated ever could. Ivy stood in front of the mirror Friday evening and barely recognised the woman looking back.Nero was waiting by the car when she came down, and something in his expression shifted the moment he saw her. Just briefly. Gone before she could name it, replaced by the same careful stillness he wore like a second skin."You'll do," he said."High praise.""From me, yes." He opened the car door himself, which surprised her. "Remember what we discussed.""Smile, stay quiet, don't encourage Antonio." She slid into the seat. "I remember."The Castellano estate sat on the river, older money than Nero's, quieter about it in a way that felt somehow more dangerous. Marco Castellano met them at the door himself, a broad, silver haired man with a handshake too firm to be friendly."Nero." He clapped him on the shoulder like old friends who

  • The Mafia King’s Forced Bride   CHAPTER NINE: The Work

    She was at his study door at six exactly, dressed plainly like he'd asked, hair still damp from the bath she'd let the staff run for her that morning.He was already at his desk, jacket off, sleeves rolled, three phones lined up next to a laptop like weapons he hadn't decided which one to use yet."Sit," he said, not looking up.She sat. She'd learned by now that arguing about the small things wasted energy she needed for the bigger ones."The Castellanos," he said, still not looking at her, "run the east docks. We've had an arrangement with them for six years. Profitable for both sides, mostly quiet.""I don't know who that is.""You don't need to. You need to know that Marco Castellano is hosting a dinner Friday night, and he expects me to bring someone.""Bring someone.""A woman on my arm. It's tradition among people like us. A man without a woman looks unstable. Unstable men get tested." He finally looked up. "I intend to look very stable on Friday."Something cold settled in her

  • The Mafia King’s Forced Bride   CHAPTER EIGHT: Too Close

    "Who's Daniel."It wasn't a question. It came out flat, almost bored, but she'd learned enough about him in four days to know bored was never what it looked like."Nobody you need to worry about.""I wasn't worried." He stepped further into the room, rain still darkening the shoulders of his shirt. "I was curious. You told him not to call again.""You were listening.""I was standing in a doorway. You were loud enough for the whole corridor." He tilted his head slightly, studying her the way he always did, like he was reading something written just under her skin. "Boyfriend?""Was.""Was.""He gave me an ultimatum. I gave him an answer." She pulled her knees up tighter, chin lifted, refusing to let the shake in her hands show in her voice. "Not that it's your business.""Everything in this house is my business.""I'm not part of the house. I'm collateral, remember? You made that very clear."Something shifted behind his eyes. He crossed the room slowly, unhurried the way he always mo

  • The Mafia King’s Forced Bride   CHAPTER SEVEN: Daniel

    Ivy saw it from the window before she meant to.Down in the courtyard, an older man was on his knees in the gravel, hands raised, mouth moving fast enough that she could tell he was begging even through glass. Nero stood over him, jacket still buttoned, completely unbothered by the rain starting to fall.He hit him.Open palm, hard enough to snap the man's head sideways, and the sound of it must have carried because two of the guards standing nearby didn't even flinch. Like this was Tuesday. Like this happened often enough that nobody bothered reacting anymore.The man kept begging. Nero said something short, cold, and hit him again.Ivy's stomach turned over.She should have looked away. She couldn't. She stood frozen at the glass, hand pressed flat against her own mouth, watching a man twice Nero's age crumple in the mud while Nero stood over him like it cost him nothing at all.Then his head started to turn. Toward the house. Toward her window.She yanked the curtain shut so fast t

  • The Mafia King’s Forced Bride   CHAPTER SIX: Nineteen

    Ivy didn't see him for three days.She tried, the first morning, catching one of the housemaids in the corridor and asking, as steady as she could manage, to speak with him. The woman's face went carefully blank."He's not receiving visitors.""I'm not a visitor. I live here.""He's not receiving anyone," the woman said again, gentler this time, like she pitied Ivy a little for not understanding the difference. "Not today."Not today turned into not tomorrow, and not tomorrow turned into a silence so complete it started to feel like its own kind of punishment. Meals still came. Her room stayed unlocked, oddly, the door he'd claimed control of on the first night now left open like an invitation she was too afraid to take. Nobody explained anything. Nobody so much as mentioned the slap.That silence frightened her more than shouting would have.By the second night she'd stopped sleeping properly, replaying the crack of her own palm against his jaw, the stillness that had followed it, th

  • The Mafia King’s Forced Bride   CHAPTER FIVE: The Slap

    Nero didn't sleep.He'd tried, for about an hour, lying in the dark replaying a conversation he should have forgotten by now. A dog assuming every hand is there to feed it. The words wouldn't leave him alone, circling until he gave up and called down for company instead, the way he always did when his own head became somewhere he didn't want to be.Sabrina arrived within the hour, familiar, easy, exactly as uncomplicated as he needed tonight. She didn't argue with him. She didn't call him anything he hadn't asked to be called. It was simple, and it worked, and by the time the sky outside his window had started going grey at the edges, he still hadn't managed to stop thinking about a girl two floors away who'd looked at him like he was something she'd scraped off her shoe.He told himself that meant nothing. He kept telling himself that until the sun was properly up and Sabrina was still there, laughing softly against his shoulder, and neither fact had managed to convince him of anythi

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