Betrayed By Him: Marrying The Mafia Ghost
I had been locked in a freezing cellar for three days, starving and waiting for my husband, Marco, to save me.
Instead, the iron door opened to reveal his mistress holding a toddler with Marco's exact face.
Marco wasn't sterile like he had claimed for years. He just wanted my De Luca family trust funds.
With my husband watching coldly, his mistress and a corrupt doctor pinned me to the concrete floor.
"We're going to carve you up until you're unrecognizable, then throw you in the lake," she laughed.
The most chilling part wasn't the affair. It was the realization that my mother-in-law, the mafia matriarch I had served faithfully for three years, had personally signed my death warrant to save their crumbling empire.
The scalpel sliced deep into my cheek, permanently destroying my face as warm blood poured down my neck.
I had given them everything. I used my family's money to pay off his secret gambling debts and endured endless insults about being a barren wife, only to realize the entire family viewed me as nothing but a pig to be slaughtered for cash.
In the suffocating darkness, I didn't pray for mercy. I swore a blood oath.
I didn't die in that cellar. Saved by a legendary rival boss, I stood outside the Falcone estate three weeks later.
I pushed open the heavy oak doors to my own memorial service, the jagged red scar on my face silencing the hall.
"I'm afraid your plans to inherit my estate will have to be postponed," I smiled at my terrified husband.
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Chapter 4
Isabella POV
I let the silence in the library stretch for a moment longer before turning my attention back to Sofia.
"I apologize for my cousin's... abrupt departure," Sofia murmured, her sharp eyes studying me with a newfound intensity.
I offered a tight, graceful smile. "It's quite alright. However, it reminds me that Angelo and I have pending matters regarding the De Luca asset transfers in our betrothal contract." I paused, letting a shadow of proper concern cross my face. "I need to speak with him immediately, but it would be highly inappropriate for me to enter his private office alone, especially during a memorial. Out of rispetto(respect) for your family's protocol, could you perhaps ask Nonna Caterina to assign two of her trusted ladies to accompany me? Just to serve as witnesses and prevent any... misunderstandings."
Sofia nodded approvingly, clearly appreciating my adherence to tradition. "A wise and respectful request, Isabella. Wait here."
Twenty minutes later, I was walking down the quiet, carpeted corridor of the East Wing, flanked by Sofia and two of Nonna Caterina's most senior housekeepers, Maria and Francesca.
As we approached Angelo's heavy oak door, his Associate, Sal, paled drastically. "Miss De Luca! Ladies!" Sal stammered, his voice unnaturally loud as he stepped in front of the door. "Mr. Moretti is on a highly confidential conference call—"
He didn't need to finish. Through the thick wood, Genevieve Russo's grating, greedy laugh echoed clearly.
"Oh, baby," she purred, her voice muffled but unmistakable. "Once we get our hands on the De Luca shipping routes, the entire Chicago bootlegging operation is ours."
Maria and Francesca exchanged a dark, horrified look. Then came Angelo's arrogant reply.
"Exactly. That scarred bitch is nothing but a stepping stone. Damien thinks he runs everything, but he'll soon find out that with the De Luca wealth behind me, I am the true future of the Moretti family."
The trap snapped shut perfectly.
I let out a choked gasp, my hand flying to my mouth. I forced tears to well in my eyes, staring at the door with a mask of absolute, shattered devastation.
"Isabella..." Sofia whispered, her face pale with shock.
I didn't wait. I turned on my heel and fled down the corridor, a perfectly executed picture of a brokenhearted maiden unable to bear the betrayal. Inside, my blood sang with cold, vicious triumph.
I burst into the main hall, ignoring the stares of the mourners, and threw myself directly into the arms of my grandmother, Nonna Sofia De Luca.
"Nonna!" I cried, my voice trembling loud enough to silence the entire room. "I will not do it! A daughter of De Luca will never marry a traitor who plots to steal our legacy while bedding a whore!"
The hall went dead silent. The string quartet stopped abruptly. Nonna Sofia's eyes turned as cold as a Sicilian winter. She didn't speak, but her lethal gaze locked onto Nonna Caterina Moretti. The unspoken pressure in the room was suffocating.
Maria and Francesca hurried in moments later, looking breathless and grim. Under Nonna Caterina's furious command, they repeated every treasonous word they had heard outside the office.
The matriarch's face turned a mottled red. Angelo's father, Donatello Moretti, dropped to his knees on the marble floor in immediate, terrified submission.
His mother, Donna Eleonora, however, panicked. "It's a lie!" she shrieked, pointing a trembling finger. "That tramp seduced my boy! He didn't mean—"
"Silence, Eleonora!" Nonna Caterina roared, her voice cracking like a whip across the cavernous room. "Your son has stained the Moretti name with his disonore(dishonor)!"
She turned to the heavily armed Soldiers standing by the doors, her eyes blazing with a ruthless, unforgiving light.
"Bring Angelo and that woman to me. Now."
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7.8
Isabella Hart thought her Valentine's Day plan was perfect: propose to her boyfriend, celebrate in the Maldives, and finally start the life she'd dreamed of.
Instead, she walked into his office and found him kissing his assistant who was also her friend.
Heartbreak turned to fury and before she could stop herself, she shoved the engagement ring meant for him onto the finger of a stranger with cold gray eyes.
The stranger looked at her, amused, and said, "I do."
Moments later, her ex called that stranger Boss.
Luciano Moretti, the stranger, was no ordinary man. He was the quiet, ruthless king of New York's underworld, the man people whispered about but never dared to name aloud.
What began as a viral mistake became a dangerous entanglement of power, lies, and a love too forbidden to survive the truth.
9.1
When is the worst time to tell someone he's going to be a father?
Probably the day of the wedding...
When he is getting married to someone else.
Well, that is exactly what I did.
But my hands were tied.
Literally.
Matvey Groza is a dangerous man.
And nine months ago, he strolled into my shop looking for a custom suit.
But when I accidentally walked in on him in the changing room,
*I* was the one that ended up needing a new set of clothes.
It was a one-time mistake.
After that... good riddance.
But the pregnancy test I took a month later had other plans.
I kept it a secret from everyone.
Or so I thought.
But when Matvey's enemies learned that I was pregnant with his child,
they kidnapped me and held me hostage.
Until I broke free and ran as fast as I could.
And I had no one else to turn to but the devil himself.
What better time for me to enter the church...
... than as the pastor says, "Speak now or forever hold your peace"?
8.0
"IS IT TRUE?" Grayson's voice thundered through the room.
"Yes!" Tessa said softly. "Yes it is!"
"So you've been cheating on me, haven't you?" He spat.
Her hands trembled. "No, I swear, it's not like that."
He grabbed her arm, his grip bruising her wrist as she squealed in pain.
"Then whose baby are you carrying, huh?" His voice was ice cold.
Tessa shivered, tears blurring her vision.
"I don't know."
**********
Pregnant with the powerful Roman Blackwood's child, while engaged to his unstable stepbrother - Tessa Quinn becomes the key to a ruthless inheritance war where love has no place.
As secrets unravel and danger closes in, Tessa must protect her unborn child while trapped between love, vengeance, and men who want to own her fate.
8.0
I posted a photo of baby shoes to celebrate my pregnancy. Two hours later, my husband was holding jumper cables.
Kaeden, the Mafia Capo who swore to protect me, stood under the buzzing fluorescent lights of the basement.
He didn't look like the man who brought me vanilla lattes. He looked like a monster.
His "fragile" childhood friend, Clemmie, had convinced him that my innocent post was a signal to our enemies.
"Discipline," Kaeden muttered, refusing to look at my weeping face. "She needs to learn the cost of her voice."
He ordered low voltage—just enough to scare me.
But the moment he walked out the door, unable to watch, Clemmie smiled.
"He's not coming back for you," she whispered.
She cranked the dial all the way to the right.
She didn't just want to teach me a lesson. She wanted to stop my heart so she could harvest it for herself.
And my husband had already signed the release forms.
But they made one mistake. They left the cleanup to Alois, the family's most ruthless Enforcer.
He didn't bury me. He saved me.
Now, while Kaeden cries over a fake grave, consumed by guilt, I am watching from the shadows.
Daria Burris died in that chair.
The woman who survived is coming for blood.
7.8
⚠️ DARK ROMANCE CONTENT WARNING
This is a very dark mafia romance intended for mature readers (18+).
It contains a morally gray anti-hero, obsession, possessiveness, emotional manipulation, explicit sexual content, and disturbing adult scenes.
If you crave danger, obsession, and morally complicated passion, this dark romance will grip you-but reader discretion is strongly advised.
Convinced that Rosa had drugged him to crawl into his bed, Italian Don Luciano Mancini took her supposed betrayal as a blow to his pride. He served her divorce papers without hearing a single explanation-and exiled her not only from his home, but from the country itself.
Years later, Rosa returned with a secret.
Their son was dying.
Diagnosed with high-risk acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the boy needed a stem-cell transplant from a biological sibling to survive. And to make that possible, Rosa had to conceive again-with the one man who despised her.
Her ex-husband.
Luciano Mancini.
But Rosa refused to reveal the real reason for her return.
Getting pregnant by a devil was never going to be easy-especially when that devil hated her. She hadn't stolen his seed before... but this time, she was ready to commit the sin if it meant saving her child.
Seeing his ex-wife again-no longer innocent, no longer obedient-awakened something Luciano had never felt for any woman. He wanted her and...
he wanted to own her this time.
But Rosa was already slipping beyond his grasp.
Because Dr. DeLuca, the man treating her son, was in love with her. He was willing to accept her in any condition-even if she carried her ex-husband's child once more.
When life finally offered Rosa safety, love, and a future free from cruelty...
why would she ever return to the Italian Don?
Except Luciano Mancini isn't going to let her go.
No one takes what belongs to him.
9.2
On my wedding day, my father sold me to the Chicago Outfit to pay his debts. I was supposed to marry Alex Moreno, the heir to the city's most powerful crime family. But he couldn't even be bothered to show up.
As I stood alone at the altar, humiliated, my best friend delivered the final blow. Alex hadn't just stood me up; he had run off to California with his mistress.
The whispers in the cathedral turned me into a joke. I was damaged goods, the rejected bride. His family knew the whole time and let me take the public fall, offering me his cousins as pathetic replacements-a brute who hated me or a coward who couldn't protect me.
The humiliation burned away my fear, leaving only cold rage. My life was already over, so I decided to set the whole game on fire myself. The marriage pact only said a Carlson had to marry a Moreno; it never said which one.
With nothing left to lose, I looked past the pathetic boys they offered.
I chose the one man they never expected.
I chose his father, the Don himself.