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 3
"What the hell did you just say?" Ava dropped her fork on the table, eyes wide with a trembling voice.
"You heard me, the company was facing financial problems," Ben said coldly.
"I don't care" She snapped. "I never ate from your money, I begged you - begged you for Mom's treatment but you refused, you should have sold your beloved daughter instead"
A sharp slap shot landed on her face. It was Sara. Her face stung with pain but she hid it in, fighting back the tears - making sure not to give her the desired result.
"Don't mention my daughter in this" Sara warned.
"Your daughter?" Ava chuckled "She is more of a bitch, going about getting in bed with Shane" Ava bellowed.
"Ava, you should stop this, you have no choice" It was the first time in years her dad mentioned her name but he did not mention it how he usually did, she could hear disgust in his tone.
"I do have a choice, you see this, I'm not going to sit here and watch myself being sold out" Ava hissed at him picking up her bag ready to leave the house.
"Take her to her room" Ben instructed and two of his bodyguards came to her holding her on both sides.
"Let go of me, I'm not an item for sale" She struggled but they easily overpowered her, taking her to a room and locking the door.
The room was dark and stuffy and her hands found the light switch, flipping it, bright light flooded the room.
Her heart stopped. It was her childhood room and with it came the memories. The laughter, her mother's smile, her father before he became cold.
She scanned the room, dust clung to the curtains, this place had not been touched for years.
She opened the window and she saw the height of the building, the building was high - dangerously so - but she had to do something, she was not just going to sit there and watch herself being sold.
She opened the wardrobe but could not find anything in there. Her eyes glanced over to the bed and she pulled the bedsheets off tying it around her waist.
Looking out of the window again the building was pretty high but there were pipes that could aid her climbing.
Taking one last glance at the room, she saw a box containing her childhood pictures. Feeling tempted, she walked over to it and opened it, caressing the pictures with her fingers. Tears threatened to fall and then she stood up determined.
Walking over to the window, she looked down placing her legs on one of the pipes as she climbed down, her hands quickly gathered blisters, hands ached but she determinedly climbed down. Looking around she caught sight of her father's guards patrolling the area and she quickly hid.
After making sure the coast was clear she sprinted into the night.
She ran into the night not looking back.
Later that night...
Ava arrived at her apartment, she pushed the door open and quickly packed her necessities in her backpack knowing quite well they would come after her soon.
Martin family house.
"Check the CCTV cameras, she shouldn't have gone far" Ben barked when he discovered Ava had left.
"Sir, we've pulled out the camera feed of her room and here it is, we are still working on the ones on the roadside" His guard said.
Knock knock.
A knock was heard on the door and Ben freezed. Another knock was heard and he signaled his guard to open the door.
Ten men burst through the front door dressed on black and wearing masks.
"Where is the girl?" The leader asked.
"She...She ran away," Ben whispered.
"She did what? How long?" He asked again.
"Not up to an hour," Ben said.
"The boss will get back to you for that" The man warned and they rushed outside the house.
"Find her" He instructed his subordinates and they drove off into the night.
Ava's side...
Her legs burned, lungs screamed but she kept running, the sound of an approaching car made her freeze.
Headlights swept over her.
An SUV skidded to a stop beside her, the back door opened and hands pulled her in. Her head slammed against the roof of the car and she flinched in pain.
Rough hands blindfolded her and the car started again and she could roughly tell the car was entering the city again.
"Where exactly are we taking her to?" One of the men asked, his eyes darting towards the girl slumped beside him.
"Boss mansion" The leader replied.
"What? Boss mansion? Boss had never taken any captured lady there" A man said in surprise.
"Yeah, but that's what I was instructed, to take her there and not to a casino" The leader replied and the car pulled over.
Ava was dragged out the car and pulled into the house, the blindfold was removed from her eyes and the light shot straight into her eyes blinding her eyes for a moment.
As her eyes were still adjusting to the light, she was pulled into a room.
"Here is your room, you will be well taken care of, just don't try escaping because you won't be able to" The leader said and left.
Ava looked around the room which was painted in blue. It had a large bed and seeing the bed she felt sleepy, it has been a long day. Climbing into the bed, she closed her eyes and fell fast asleep.
The next morning, she woke with a yawn, her eyes shot wide open when she discovered she was not in that familiar small room but then the memories of last night came flooding.
The heartless Betrayal from her father, her shot at escape and how she was caught and tears flowed down her eyes again - She had been crying in the past week more than she had in her life.
She gathered strength and walked into the bathroom to freshen up. Walking down the stairs, her eyes fell on the fabulous breakfast laid out on the table and her mouth watered.
She sat down at the dining table and ate to her fill, she picked up the plates and walked into the kitchen where she met a middle aged woman.
"Dear, you are the girl brought here last night right?" The woman asked as she took the plates away from her.
"Yes ma" Ava replied.
"Oh, he has never brought a young girl home," The lady said. Ava had heard this from the men who had brought her in and she was quite curious why she was brought here and not to the...casinos.
"You can call me Aunt Zena, what's your name?" Aunt Zena asked.
"I'm Ava" She replied but her mind was not here, it was somewhere else trying to figure out why she was taken here.
Who was he? And why was she....different.
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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.