THE DON'S INNOCENT BRIDE: The Queen He Never Knew
I pointed a gun at my husband and made him sign our divorce papers.
He thought I was too soft to survive without him, he had no idea of the rebel he created. I was about to become his worst nightmare.
Dante Caruso taught me two things: how to love a monster, and how to become one. When I discovered he murdered my family for power, I carefully planned my exit and transformation into the heiress I was meant to be. I transformed from an innocent bride to his worst nightmare, I spent two years building an empire on the ashes of the girl he thought he knew.
Now I'm back. Not as Bella Russo, the wife he's been desperately searching for. But as a force shaking the underworld, the enemy that is systematically destroying everything he built.
He wants his wife back.
I want him buried.
Now the real question is what will be his decision, when he discovers the enemy that is destroying his empire and the woman he's lost are the same person.
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Chapter 3
BELLA'S POV
I arrived in Sicily early the next morning. It smelled like salt and blood, just like I'd heard about.
This is where it all began. Where I was born. Where my real family died.
I stood at the gates of the Sovereign estate. Or what was left of it. And felt my past pressing against my skin.
Years ago, I was born in this house. And it had died with my parents.
The estate looked like a corpse. You could tell how vibrant and magnificent this place once was. But now the walls were crumbling. Gardens wild and overgrown. Windows shattered.
But the gates still stood. Wrought iron twisted into an elaborate S.
Sovereign.
My name. The thought made my heart skip a beat.
I'm back home. Exactly where I belong.
I pushed through the gates and walked toward the main building. Each step echoing. Several thoughts running through my mind as I looked around.
I needed to find someone. Anyone. I knew they were around here somewhere.
After wandering for an hour, they found me.
Three men. Armed to the teeth. Watching me suspiciously.
The oldest stepped forward. Gun lowered but ready.
"You're trespassing."
"No." I stood straighter.
"I belong here."
Say it. Make them believe it.
The men looked at me like I'd suddenly grown horns.
"My name is Isabella Marie Sovereign. Alessandro Sovereign was my father. This is my family's land."
The men stared at me for a moment. Then burst into laughter.
I'd expected this. I knew they would need proof.
"Alessandro's daughter died with him," the oldest man said.
"Everyone knows that."
"Everyone's wrong." I pulled out the documents from Anthony's basement. The ones I'd carefully arranged.
"Anthony Russo took care of me. I was given to him as a child to keep me safe. Now I'm here to claim what's mine."
The oldest man took the documents. His hands started shaking as he read.
"Dio mio," he whispered.
"The eyes. You have his eyes."
"I have more than his eyes." I stepped closer.
"I have his name. His blood." I looked at each of them.
"And I need soldiers. Are you interested? Or does your loyalty belong somewhere else?"
The men exchanged glances. Some silent communication I didn't understand.
Finally, the oldest knelt.
"Tommaso Ricci, Lady Sovereign. I served your father for twenty years." His voice broke.
"I was there that night. The night we lost everything."
"Then help me take it back."
First mission accomplished.
They brought me to their safehouse. A warehouse on the edge of Palermo. Filled with men who'd been hiding in shadows for fifteen years.
"How many?" I asked Tommaso.
"Forty-three men. Some women. Children of soldiers who died."
"We've been waiting, Lady Sovereign. Fifteen years. Hoping the heir Alessandro mentioned was real."
"We were hunted after Alessandro's death," he paused, "by Don Caruso."
My hands fisted. My jaw clenched.
Of course. Dante again. Always Dante.
"Don Caruso is my ex-husband," I said quietly.
The room went completely silent.
I told them everything. The marriage. The lies. Finding the truth. The divorce at gunpoint.
"I'm here to avenge my family," I concluded.
Tommaso was quiet for a long moment. Then he spoke.
"We had nothing to fight for before. Now we have direction. We will fight for you, Lady Sovereign."
The room erupted. Men shouting their loyalty. Pounding fists on tables.
I felt something shift inside me. Something cold and hard settling into place.
This is real. This is happening.
"We thought Anthony didn't survive," Tommaso said.
"We never heard from him after everything died down."
Hearing Anthony's name brought the pain back. Sharp and fresh.
He knew who I was. Who Dante was. And I ignored his warnings until it was too late.
I remembered Anthony's body in the river. Elena's remains found years later.
How dare Dante. How dare he take everyone I loved.
"Who ordered the hit?" I asked. My voice barely steady.
"Who killed my family?"
Tommaso leaned forward.
"It was blamed on the Vitales. Lorenzo Vitale's son supposedly led the attack. But the real orchestrator was obvious. Someone who benefited when Sovereign territories became available."
"The Carusos controlled the territories after. Right?"
Tommaso nodded.
"Within months of your family's death, Caruso moved in. Claimed the territories were abandoned. That they were maintaining order." He spat.
"Maintaining order by dancing on graves."
I stood. My legs unsteady.
I made the right decision leaving. At least I made one good decision in my life.
"What do you need from us?" Tommaso asked.
"Everything." I turned to face all the men in the room.
"Teach me everything I need to know. I'm a Sovereign by blood. Now I need to become one by skill. I need to take back what was stolen from us."
"And Dante Caruso?"
"I'm going to destroy him." My voice was ice.
"Piece by piece. Everything he built on my family's blood, I'm going to burn to the ground."
The room erupted again. Louder this time. Men pledging loyalty. Swearing vengeance.
I stood there feeling my old life die. And something new rising from the ashes.
Bella Russo is dead. Long live Isabella Sovereign.
That night, I stood on the balcony overlooking Palermo. A city my father once controlled.
My city. My birthright. Stolen by the man I married.
Tommaso appeared beside me.
"Tell me about them," I said.
"My parents."
He sighed. The silence stretched long.
"Tomorrow. Not tonight. You should rest."
He paused.
"It won't be easy, Lady Sovereign. Becoming who you need to be. It requires sacrifice."
"I've already sacrificed everything."
"No." He looked at me with sad eyes.
"Not yet. But you will."
He walked away, leaving me alone. Watching the city sparkle below.
The war has started. And I'm changing.
I just hoped when this was over, when I'd burned down everything Dante built and stood victorious in the ashes, I'd still recognize the woman in the mirror.
But I'm willing to risk it. Even if I die trying.
My phone buzzed again. Dante calling. Again.
I turned it off.
Let him search. Let him worry. Let him wonder what happened to his sweet, obedient Bella.
He wouldn't find her. She didn't exist anymore.
Tomorrow, the real work would begin. Training. Planning. Building an army.
But tonight, I allowed myself one moment. One breath. One last look at the scared girl I used to be.
Then I'll let her go.
And became someone new.
Someone dangerous.
Someone who would make Dante Caruso regret the day he decided to marry Alessandro Sovereign's daughter.
I'm coming for you, Dante. And when I'm done, you'll wish you'd killed me too.
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7.1
"Don't tease me again or else you really want it. There are no safe words in my bed."
He is rumored to know a thousand ways to disarm and pleasure a woman, and I am Olivia, the nymphomaniac.
In a quest for revenge against my childhood bullies, I got locked into an unhappy marriage, with an untamed brother-in-law. Colt Fletcher, the morally-grey, rebel biker is ever excited by danger and prefers life on the edge. And from the moment he laid eyes on me, I became his forbidden want.
I should know better, to steer clear of deadly desires like these but when fate forces us to live under the same roof, share the same boardroom, and every accidental touch burns, my resolve begins to collapse.
But scandals don't stay buried, and my husband is the devil. The price of this betrayal is death. I must choose between my husband who owns my name, and his brother who owns my body.
8.9
They killed her father. Now she's racing straight into the heart of enemy territory.
Mia Chen has one rule, never let them see your face. As the underground racing legend "Ghost Rider," she's untouchable until a rigged race tears off her mask and exposes her identity to the worst possible person. Dax Steele, VP of the Iron Wolves MC, the club that bankrupted her father and drove him to an early grave.
Now she owes $50,000 to men who don't accept apologies, and Dax offers her a deal she can't refuse, race for the Iron Wolves in the inter-club championship, and he'll clear her debt. But working for her enemy means living in his world, sleeping under his roof, and discovering that everything she believed about her father's death might be a lie.
Dax has secrets of his own, evidence that his father was framed, and the real culprit is still out there. He needs Mia's skills on the track and her mechanical genius in the garage. What he doesn't need is the fire she ignites in his blood every time she defies him.
As they dig deeper into the past, attraction sparks into something dangerous. Because in the biker world, loyalty is everything and loving your enemy could get you both killed.
She came for revenge. She stayed for the truth. She'll risk everything for him.
8.0
"I..hate you" I croaked out brokenly, struggling and failing to hold back the tears spilling in waves from my eyes.
"Awwww, is my fat queen crying?" Brandon jested mockingly, laughing as if he had just said something funny.
His friends echoed his laughter, making the tears spill even faster from how embarrassed I was.
Shaking my head, I turned away from his crude handsome face, but was held back by his hands, gripping my hair painfully.
I screamed as he slammed me against the wall, feeling the metallic taste of blood in my mouth.
He grabbed my hair roughly, pressing my face harshly against the wall.
"You don't walk out till I am done with you," he gritted out, pressing his body against mine.
"Please.... Stop, please..." I cried out.
"Do I make myself clear?" Brandon snapped, his other hand gripping my waist tightly.
I could feel his hard hot body against mine, and his nails digging painfully into my waist.
"Yes," I whispered, "please let me go."
He pressed harder against my body, his hands on my waist tightening.
I could feel his hot breath against my neck, and despite my situation, my body was shamelessly reacting to him.
Loud snickers alerted us to the fact we were not alone.
Brandon released my hair, leaning away from my body, before pushing me forward.
I stumbled, nearly falling to my feet.
"Now run you fat bitch," he yelled, before laughing with his friends.
I hightailed it out of there, crying my eyes out.
Being fat wasn't a problem, her mother always told her, never failing to remind her how beautiful she was.
But for Christy Morris, being fat was a curse.
Especially since college and her arch enemy Brandon made it so.
Forced to babysit her bully and enemy baby sister, Christy's life takes an unexpected turn.
For the worst or better, was still what she was yet to find out.
Find out Christy and Brandon's story in this thrilling novel filled with...
Romance.
Unexpected twist.
And dare I say....
Love.
8.8
She married the devil. Then she divorced him. Now she carries his child.
All Isabella Lorenzo wanted was to protect her family, and she thought marrying the ruthless and feared Luca Moretti... heir to the Moretti crime empire would be enough, but she was wrong. Instead of protection, her father was brutally executed and her heart left shattered in a million pieces.
Two years later, she has managed to move on from the past and rebuild her life in the shadows. Every feeling of emotion was buried in her past, but they soon reignite after a reckless night with a masked stranger... a stranger that happens to be Luca Moretti.
Now she's pregnant, and Luca will do anything to get her back.
But forgiveness is not something that exists in her heart anymore... will she be able to fully heal, or will her urge for revenge burn everything down?
7.4
As a princess who could not wield magic, Princess Daphne's only value to her kingdom was her arranged marriage. The task was simple, but when Daphne was kidnapped and brought to the cold mountains of Vramid, she realized that she was in over her head.
She had heard of these cursed mountains before― rocky terrain, freezing temperatures, and the land was ruled by a man feared by many within the continent.
King Atticus Heinvres, the blood-thirsty ruler of the North.
Even though she had never met him before, tales were spread of King Atticus's ruthlessness. Some said he was a monster, others claimed he was the devil himself, but whatever the story was, everyone knew of the man who had powers beyond anyone's imagination. He could topple armies and crumble nations with just one wave of his hand, aided by what others rumored to be a cursed obsidian ring.
No one outside of Vramid had ever met the fearsome king before. Not until Daphne.
However, upon meeting the formidable man, Daphne found out that the king might not really be the monster others had claimed him to be.
In fact, what was hidden under that obsidian shield could just be a diamond in the rough.
―
[Excerpt]
"Now... where should I put you both?" he asked casually, not expecting a reply. "It's regretful that I only have one chandelier."
"Underneath my bed? No, no, too dirty. My dust bunnies don't deserve this," Atticus mused to himself. "The mantlepiece? How about the vanity table? I suppose if I lop off one of your heads I could mount it over... Wife, which head do you want to stare at while you do your hair?"
"Atticus!" Daphne screamed. "I don't want any heads! Let them go."
"Fair enough." Atticus shrugged, and flicked his fingers.
There were two identical cracks as both necks snapped at once.
Daphne gasped, horrified. This man, her husband, had just killed two men with a flick of his finger, as though he was snuffing out candles.
"I told you to let them go!" Daphne cried out.
"Yes, I let them go," Atticus said. Then, his eyes darkened. "To receive divine judgment from the heavens."
8.9
Six years ago, I was given to New York's most ruthless mafia Don as collateral to pay off my father's gambling debt.
After one terrifying, pitch-black night with him, his grandfather framed me for treason and threw me out onto the freezing streets.
They threw me away, not knowing I was pregnant with his triplets.
Now, I only came back to his city to get his signature on our divorce papers so my children and I could disappear to Europe.
But his men ambushed us at the airport and dragged us to his underground interrogation room.
Damien threw a DNA consent form on the steel desk, staring at my fierce five-year-old son with dark reverence.
"Sign the paper. Or I will personally forge him into the sharpest weapon this family has ever seen."
I was trembling with absolute terror.
He believed the lies that I had sold his family's secrets and abandoned his firstborn heir for money.
I didn't understand why this monster wouldn't just let me go, but I couldn't let him drag my innocent babies into his violent hell.
Just as I tearfully picked up the pen to surrender, the room plunged into darkness, and a digital threat hijacked his monitors.
My other five-year-old son had hacked the Don's network, starting a 60-second countdown to wipe out all his billions.
Damien was forced to yield, but when the steel doors opened, his severely traumatized, silent six-year-old heir walked in—and immediately curled into my arms.
Damien stared at us in shock, then slowly tore my divorce papers into pieces.
"The deal is off."