Blood and Roses.
Ava Martin thought she had already lost everything when her mother - the only family who truly loved her - died suddenly. But heartbreak doesn't come alone. Within days, she catches her fiancé in bed with her stepsister and is forced to confront betrayal that shatters the last pieces of her trust.
Before she can recover, Ava is summoned by the father who abandoned her years ago. What awaits is not reconciliation but another cruel twist - her family has sold her to pay off their debts.
Her buyer? Alessandro Moretti.
To the world, Alessandro is the powerful CEO of Moretti Holdings, a man whose empire commands respect. In the shadows, he is whispered about as a ruthless mafia don - cold, merciless, and untouchable. Love has no place in his world of blood and loyalty.
But when the feared mafia godmother takes an unusual liking to Ava, Alessandro is pressured into marrying her. What begins as a transaction quickly spirals into a dangerous game of fire and ice. Ava's defiance sparks something Alessandro thought was long dead, while his dark world threatens to consume her completely.
Can the fiery strength in Ava's heart melt the walls Alessandro has built around his, or will their bond be drowned in betrayal, blood, and roses?
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Chapter 2
Ava pushed open the door of her apartment and walked into the kitchen placing the bag of groceries on the kitchen cabinet.
Taking out the last pack of noodles, she placed it on the pot of boiling water.
"Ava, don't eat noodles, it's junk" She heard that kind and cheerful voice buried deep in her memories and a tear dropped into the pot. Cleaning her eyes with the back of her hand, she concentrated on cooking. After cooking, she served the noodles onto a plate and headed to the only couch in the house to eat.
The next morning, she was woken up by the ringing of her phone. Grunting, she picked up the phone and peered at the caller ID.
Dad. It read.
"Hello" She spoke into the phone once she picked up the call.
"You have to..."She heard his cold voice.
"Can you atleast ask about my well being, Mother is dead" Ava cut in.
"Oh" Came the off handed reply. "Sorry for your loss" He said his tone not giving off any emotions.
"Anyway, come home for dinner" He continued like her death meant nothing to him.
"In three days, I need to prepare for her funeral," Ava said, stressed.
"Will you be there?" She asked softly quietly hoping for a positive reply.
"No" Her hope was short-lived as he ruthlessly hung up the phone.
She dropped the phone on the table and hurried into the bathroom to prepare for work.
Ava heard the door of the motel push open - heels clicking on the floor announcing Janet entry.
Taking a deep breath, she continued cleaning the table.
"Why were you not at work yesterday?" Janet asked, nose puffed up with hands on her waist.
"I'm sorry" Ava muttered, she knew better than to explain.
"An apology won't do, your salary has been cut" Janet said.
"But..."Ava was saying.
"No but, do you know how hectic yesterday was?" Janet asked and just then a customer walked in and Ava had to attend to him.
"Ma, can I take a day off tomorrow?" Ava requested.
"Why?" Janet asked, arrogant as usual.
"For my mother's funeral" Ava whispered, the words cutting through her numb heart.
"Huh? Your mother is dead? Okay take tomorrow off but make sure to make it up" Janet instructed, her head held high as she walked out.
Ava sniffed as she packed up her things rushing to catch the next bus.
Ava dressed in black dropped the white lily on the grave of her mother.
"Goodbye mother, I will always miss you" She muttered. Looking around, there was practically no one with her, just a few of her mother's neighbors, heaving a sigh, she turned around walking out of the funeral home.
Her phone rang in her bag and she picked it up, the name flashing on the phone.
Dad.
"Hello," She said.
"I'm just reminding you that you are to come home for dinner today" His voice came through.
"I did not forget" She said, her voice cold and hung up.
Why was she needed suddenly? She will find out anyway.
She arrived at her apartment and took a shower, her heart already numb. She walked down the street and found herself in the park where she met Lora and her mother.
She looked round the park but no one was around so she sat on a bench just staring.
Her hand found her necklace and she tugged at it.
It was her Eighteen years birthday when her mother gifted her the necklace. Her eyes stung with unshed tears as memories of her mother came flooding in. She was now alone - in the whole world.
She stood up and flagged down a taxi giving him the address. Arriving at their family house, she raised her hand to knock on the door.
The door creaked open and her step mother appeared, Sara Martin.
"Oh, you are here, come in" She said with a smile that sent chills down Ava's spine.
Ava walked in not casting a second look at her and sat on the couch.
"I will go get your father" She said and left the sitting room.
Ava's eyes caught a picture of Clara hanging in a spot her childhood pictures once occupied but they were gone now - probably unaccounted for.
She could remember the night vividly the night her father returned with Sara and Clara, Clara who was two years older than her. She could remember how Sara's family forced her mother to sign a divorce so that their daughter would have an official status.
She remembered how her mother fought hard for her to get hold of Ava in court, she remembered...
"Aunt Kate, bring in the food" Her thoughts were cut off by this irritating voice. She looked up to see Ben Martin walking towards her.
"Ava, join us in the dining table" Sara said and Ava stood up, her eyes locked on Clara who acted like nothing was wrong even offering a fake smile.
"AVA" She heard her name being called. Turning around she saw Aunt Kate staring at her wide eyed.
"Aunt Kate" She called and hugged her tightly, making Clara roll her eyes.
"Child, I've missed you" Aunt Kate said. " Where's your mom?" she asked.
"She...she is dead" Ava stuttered.
"What?" Aunt Kate shrieked.
"We're hungry here" Clara grumbled and Aunt Kate quickly returned to serving the food.
Ava sat beside Clara, the food felt tasteless in her mouth even though Aunt Kate was known for her tasty food.
The silence slowly turned awkward with only the clicks of cutleries heard.
"Ava.." Her father started and she felt her heart tighten, she knew it was not a good thing but she had no other choice than to hear it out.
"You will be taken by Alessandro Moretti as payment for the debt I hold him, you were used as a collateral" He said voice devoid of emotions.
"What?" Ava shouted, her mouth hung open and eyes wide open.
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7.8
Helen was finally brought back to the luxurious Gallagher estate as their long-lost blood relative.
But her new family didn't welcome her; they looked at her with undisguised disgust.
The matriarch mocked her stench of poverty, while her step-sister Candice treated her like a feral animal. The patriarch, Fredy—who had built his empire by betraying Helen's mother—tried to break her spirit. He blackmailed Helen into attending a high-society gala by threatening to cut off her grandmother's medical funds.
At the gala, Candice squeezed into a diamond-encrusted gown, desperate to seduce the guest of honor, Damian Montgomery. Damian was the most powerful man in New York, and he was currently tearing the city apart looking for a mysterious woman named Jane.
Overhearing this, a sick, greedy smile spread across Candice's face. She planned to impersonate Jane to claim Damian's wealth and completely crush Helen under her heel.
"Hide in the corner tonight. Don't you dare try to speak to anyone important!"
They all thought Helen was just a helpless, uncultured country girl they could easily manipulate and step on to secure their stolen legacy.
What they didn't know was that Helen was the real Jane. She was the lethal shadow who had saved Damian in the woods, shattered his grip, and robbed his highly guarded vault just the night before.
Helen calmly adjusted her simple black dress and stepped into the ballroom, ready to tear their stolen world apart.
8.0
I was the perfect Mafia wife, my dowry the foundation of my husband's ambition. I paid for his Yale degree, his tailored suits, and the very mansion he called his own. My reward? He paraded his mistress into my bedroom and declared her his second wife, expecting me to silently finance their affair.
They thought they had broken a merchant's daughter. They forgot I was raised by wolves.
Armed with a blood chit—a life debt owed to my family by the most feared man in Chicago—I walked into the lion's den. I went to Damien 'The Wraith' Falcone, the Dark Don who rules the Outfit with an iron fist, to demand a simple annulment.
But the King of Chicago isn't interested in simple transactions. He saw the steel beneath my silk, the vendetta burning in my eyes. He granted me my freedom, but at a price: my allegiance. Now, I'm a pawn in his lethal game of thrones, caught between a treacherous husband I swore to destroy and a ruthless Don who looks at me with a terrifying, possessive hunger.
In a city built on loyalty and betrayal, I'm about to teach them all that a queen's wrath is the deadliest weapon of all.
7.4
I was the wife of Damien Valenti, the most ruthless mafia Don in Chicago.
But to cement his power and marry a rival family's daughter, he exiled me to the slums without a single dime.
"Stay not as my wife, Izzy, but as my whore."
That was his final ultimatum before dumping me out of his black SUV like trash.
Terrified of losing me, my five-year-old son, Angelo, secretly hid in the car to follow me.
Two days later, in a squalid Indiana motel, Angelo caught severe pneumonia.
I had no money and no doctor. In sheer desperation, I sliced my own wrist with broken glass, pressing my bleeding arm to his pale lips, begging him to drink and live.
But my little boy died in my arms.
Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, Damien was sipping vintage champagne with his new bride, casually dismissing the life of his own flesh and blood.
The grief turned me into a monster. I spent twenty years clawing my way through the underworld to destroy his empire, only to die with a bullet in my chest.
I gave him my absolute devotion, yet he traded our family for political power without a single ounce of hesitation.
Opening my eyes again, I was back in that hellish neon-lit motel room.
Angelo was burning with fever and fighting for air, but he was still breathing.
This time, I wasn't the naive girl who loved Damien Valenti. I was a woman holding two decades of their darkest secrets, and my vendetta had just begun.
9.5
For seven years, I was his eyes. But the moment he regained his sight, he decided to marry someone else.
Seven years of devotion couldn't buy his heart.
I gave him back his dignity. Now that he was restored as the Godfather of the New York Mafia, he laughed with others, degrading me to the status of a mere "mistress."
He thought I didn't understand Italian, but I heard him loud and clear: he was going to marry his first love.
He arrogantly believed I would always love him, willing to stay in his penthouse like a caged bird.
But he was wrong. I boarded a one-way flight to Australia.
Dante, I don't want you anymore.
By the time he returned home, he would have lost me forever.
But a sore loser refuses to concede. Even if he had to burn the world to the ground, he would search for me and beg for my forgiveness.
7.2
The heavy steel door of the industrial meat locker slammed shut, sealing me in at four degrees below zero.
Ten minutes ago, I was the woman Dante Moretti promised to burn the world for.
Now, I was the rat accused of poisoning his heir.
Dante didn’t just lock me in. He looked at me with eyes devoid of warmth and said, "Evidence says otherwise."
He chose the lie of his arranged wife, Sofia, over my truth.
For months, I endured the price of loving the Underboss.
I watched him marry Sofia in a grand ceremony to secure a family alliance.
I let him force me onto a table to drain my blood to save her life when she was injured.
I took twenty lashes from his family’s enforcers, all while he stood by and watched, claiming it was necessary to "protect" me.
He told me to wait. He told me the marriage was a sham.
But when I finally escaped and he came chasing after me, revealing that Sofia was a fraud and he wanted me back, I didn't feel relief.
I felt nothing.
Even after he threw his body over mine to save me from a collapsing building, taking a jagged shard of timber through his chest, I couldn't forgive him.
In the hospital, his mother handed me his journal.
It was filled with entries about his undying love for me, written on the very same days he allowed me to be tortured.
"Tell him the debt is paid," I told his mother as I handed the book back.
"He saved my life. I saved his child. We are even."
I turned my back on the ICU and walked out into the rain.
Dante Moretti might have been willing to die for me, but he never knew how to live for me.
7.0
My debt-ridden uncle sold me to the Romero mafia family to save his own skin.
I was forced to marry Emiliano Romero, a man known to the underworld as "The Ghost"—a rumored monster who supposedly tore his last two caretakers apart.
My aunt and cousin delighted in my misery. My cousin came at me with a razor, leaving a nasty bruise on my face, while my aunt bleached my hair to make me look like a cheap, disposable doll.
When the Romeros arrived, they didn't even pretend to want a daughter-in-law.
"The Family needs a nobody whose death won't start a police report."
They just wanted a clueless victim to sign a pre-nup and die quietly. They shoved me down a sterile hallway and locked me inside a fortified, padded cell with a man wrapped in heavy chains.
They all thought they were sacrificing a helpless, terrified lamb to a madman. They laughed at my tears, completely convinced I was just gutter trash waiting to be slaughtered.
But they had no idea I was a highly trained undercover operative.
Listening to their arrogant whispers, the pieces finally clicked. Emiliano wasn't a deranged killer—he was a prisoner being drugged and framed by his own blood.
I drained my uncle's bank account to buy a neurotoxin antidote, dropped my pathetic, trembling disguise, and stepped calmly into the monster's cage.
I wasn't here to be their victim. I was here to save him.