Lahat ng Kabanata ng One Year with the Mafia Boss: Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 10

IsayannaI bite my lower lip until it stings, staring at the high-resolution photo of Jaydon Alexander Grey on my laptop screen. He looks perfect. Cold. Untouchable. I let out a jagged breath and spin my chair away from the desk, my tiny office suddenly feeling like a cage. Julie’s voice echoes in my head, raw and suggestive. "Men like Jaydon don’t give charity, Isayanna. They make trades. If you want that money for your grandma, stop acting like his assistant and start acting like his weakness. Find out what he wants in the dark, and give it to him."The thought makes my palms slick with sweat. Just thinking about asking him for help—or offering 'that' kind of trade—makes my heart hammer against my ribs. Jaydon isn't the type to offer a helping hand. He’s the type to freeze the blood in your veins with a single look. I can still feel the burn in my chest from yesterday when he snapped at me for being clumsy. My cheeks flush at the memory of his eyes tracking me as I scrambled on t

IsayannaThe silence in the office was suffocating. I stared at the manila folder on my desk, the edges blurred by the tears I’d been fighting for hours. It was untouched. Five hours of spiraling, of grieving for a life that was falling apart before it even started, and I hadn't moved a single paper.Grandma didn’t have time for my breakdown. Her heart was failing, and the hospital bills were a mountain I couldn't climb. I was twenty-four, a virgin who got tongue-tied if a man so much as looked at me, and now I was staring down the barrel of a choice that felt like a deal with the devil.Either I sold myself to my boss for a year, or I let George turn me into his "sidekick" for life. George, with his wandering hands and oily smile.The intercom buzzed, a sharp, violent sound that made me jump so hard my knee cracked against the desk. My heart hammered against my ribs like a trapped bird. This was it. Jaydon was going to fire me. He’d finally realized his assistant was a useless, sobbi

Isayanna My stomach dropped into my heels the second I recognized the man holding my shoulders. The air between us was suddenly electric, thick with the scent of his expensive cologne and the smell of the club's artificial fog. I pulled back, looking at anything but him. The guilt from earlier today felt like a physical weight, pressing down on my chest. I had run out of his office like a coward, and now I was literally falling into his arms in a den of strobe lights and bad decisions.Jaydon looked lethal. His jaw was set, his knuckles white as he released my arms."Isayanna," he said, his voice a low vibration that I felt in my bones more than I heard over the music. "What are you doing here?"I swallowed. The lump in my throat felt like a stone. I tried to nod, to act like a normal person, but my heart was drumming a frantic rhythm against my ribs. I looked past him, scanning the VIP tables for Julie. I’d left her to use the bathroom, my head spinning with thoughts of his contrac

IsayannaThe gravel crunched under my boots as I shoved the cab door shut. I didn’t look back. I didn't care about the meter running. My pulse was a frantic hammer against my ribs, echoing the desperation that had been clawing at my throat for weeks. Inside, the house was too quiet. Usually, the TV hummed with some old black-and-white rerun, but today the air felt heavy and stagnant. Then I heard it. A thin, jagged whimper from the back bedroom.I didn't breathe until I pushed her door open. Grandma was a small, broken knot under the blankets. The breakfast tray I’d left her was cold and untouched, the toast staring back at me like a failure. She looked gray. The kind of gray that happens when the body starts giving up because the pain is too loud to ignore."Isayanna?"Her voice was a thread, barely holding on. I sank onto the edge of the mattress, the springs groaning. My hand trembled as I smoothed the hair back from her damp forehead. She smelled like peppermint and sickness. "

Isayanna The worn rug scratched the arches of my feet as I paced. Back and forth. Back and forth. My heart was a frantic bird trapped in my ribs, hammering against my sternum. I kept my eyes squeezed shut, trying to manifest a version of myself that wasn't about to collapse under the weight of a thousand lies."Why would your boss want to help you out of the blue, Isayanna?" Grandma’s voice drifted from her room, sandpaper on silk. "You told me he was a hard man. Strict."I stopped. She was right to be suspicious. Grandma knew that in our world, men didn't hand out lifeboats without expecting you to pay for the wood. But she didn't know the lifeboats were already paid for. She didn't know about the contract, the signed papers, or the fact that I hadn't stepped foot in my office for days.The bills were gone. The fridge was full. I looked down at my new clothes, feeling like a thief in my own skin."He's just... different than I thought, Grandma," I called back, my voice thin. The de