THE DON'S SECRET OBSESSION ( His Bride, Her Prison)

I never wanted any part in this. But I have no choice. With a deep sigh, I force down an invisible lump in my throat, looking up at the priest. I press my fingers tighter into the flower I am holding, hoping it hides how much I am shaking. Dreading the words the priest is about to utter. "Do you, Ariella Cecilia Boone, take Dermos Salvatore to be your lawfully wedded husband?" The priest asks. I blink. I badly want to say it, badly want to scream that I am not Ariella Cecilia Boone. My lips tremble as I force the truth down my throat, "Yes, I do." I murmur, my voice a little over a whisper. ~~~~ Ariel Hannah Boone didn't know what life had in store for her when she woke up on her twin sister's wedding day, only to find out her sister had run away. She went into panic when her mother insisted she take her place because Dermos Salvatore was no man to joke with. Dermos was the most feared Don in the whole of Sicily, one who killed without care. A blood thirsty murderer with no remorse. In an attempt to save her family from his wrath, she takes her sister's place at the wedding. Pain, suffering, and betrayal are all she knows the moment she became his. Secrets begin to unveil as she realises her family isn't what it seems. And when whispers of her sister's disappearance reach her, she finds out the truth. He never wanted Ariella; it had always been her. Ariel has to choose between a love built on lies or betraying her sister and family. She was his bride, and he was her prison, yet he would never let her go.

Chapters

Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

My head snaps back automatically, causing an unexpected shriek to escape my lips as Dermos stands at the door, gun pointing at me.

"Don, it's nothing. I heard screaming, so I came to check on her." Buzz cut lies through his damned teeth as he turns to glare at me, daring me to say otherwise.

Slowly but surely, he lowers his gun before nodding at Carlos, then they walk out together, leaving me stunned, confused, and alone.

What the hell has Ariella gotten me into? Was she being threatened, too? Was that why she ran? Did she find out how crazy these people were?

Suddenly, I don't really blame her anymore. My legs give out as I slump to the floor, pressing my lids as my lips tremble.

I refuse to cry. I can't cry.

No matter how many times I repeat the mantra, soft tears run down my cheeks as I cry for the life I am now in.

Forced into a world I know nothing of, a world filled with danger.

What the hell am I going to do?

The tears don't stop as I cry my heart out, somehow drifting off at the same time.

My eyes flutter open, and the blinding light penetrating the curtains causes me to shut them back.

A sharp groan leaves my throat as I push the heel of my palm on the hard tiles, using it to get myself off the floor.

I can't believe I slept on that hard ground; the ache I feel in my shoulders and back says I really did sleep there.

Stretching, I reach for my phone, turning it on to see it's after ten in the morning. No maid came to wake me up today.

What happened to eating before the day even broke? But who's complaining?

I am so glad for this. Without thinking, I slump on the bed, rolling to get comfortable before drifting off again.

I finally get out of the room after one pm, rushing to the kitchen to get some food.

After eating to my satisfaction, I decided to take a tour.

The whole mansion is so huge, it should have more than twenty rooms here, if not more.

As I wander around the mansion, staring at everything painted in gold and white, I can't help but wonder about the use of a house this big.

There is literally a cinema, gym, swimming pool, different offices, a dance studio, and literally everything in here.

Who even uses the dance studio? Not my business, though.

The guards and maids keep bowing their heads, calling me Mrs Salvatore as I pass by. It's really weird because I know I am not the real Mrs Salvatore.

"Oh my goodness!!" A screech finds its way out of my lips as a body slams into me.

"Mrs Salvatore! I am so sorry. Please forgive me, it wasn't intentional, I wasn't looking. Please don't punish me, please." The maid who bumped into me did not even stop to breathe.

I turn my head to really look at her, she looks so pale with eye bags that look too evident on her skin. Dressed in a short skirt and a tight top that looks like a small move would cause it to rip apart.

But what really gets to me is the way her eyes are full of so much fear.

"It's okay. What is your name?" I ask, unable to help myself.

"Bella, my name is Isabella, but everyone calls me Bella." She stutters, shuffling on her foot.

"Isabella. You can go." I say, turning to leave.

Her eyes widened as a gasp tears through her lips like that's the last thing she expected me to say. Bella's reaction causes a crease to form between my eyebrows.

What exactly has she been going through here? What exactly do people go through here?

I shake my head, not wanting to think about it, hoping that Ariella had nothing to do with it.

Without a last glance, I turn and head to the backyard I saw before I got bumped into.

I fail at the task. All the while, as I wandered, I couldn't stop thinking about her. There is just something I couldn't pinpoint, and it left me feeling disturbed.

After a while, I decided to ask Dermos to make her my personal maid.

That is, if he would agree to such.

"And what might the almighty Mrs Salvatore be doing here?" That sharp, vile voice causes me to halt my steps.

I raise my head only to meet the cold brown eyes of Luciana, her arms folded under her boobs as she glares hard at me, not caring to hide how much she hates me.

"Oh, my bad. I was just taking a tour." I murmur, moving to the side to bypass her, but what I see has me nearly tumbling to the floor.

Girls. Lots of them, dressed in little to nothing. Just wearing panties with no bras to cover up, they line up in front of a different house, different from the mansion.

This one stood two storeys tall as the girls moved about, strutting about in revealing outfits.

"What in God's name is happening here?" I blurt out, letting my palm slap over my mouth to force the bile rising up my throat back down.

"Oh, you can't take a little beauty, can you?" Luciana taunts, smacking her bloody red lips at me.

The sound resonates in my ears, irritating me to no end. I can't help the bitterness I feel towards her deepen.

"What do you mean by that?" I snap, turning to glare at her.

I can't look at those girls anymore. That's a serious invasion of privacy.

"Oh, don't act like you don't know Dermos has a whore house that I run. Me, not you, it's a job meant for Donna, but he knows you aren't fit for such." She snarls, the venom in her voice spiking.

I shake my head, refusing to believe her. Ariella knew about all this? Is that why she left?

The more I find out, the harder it is to believe. It can't be.

" You will never be good enough for anythi–" She is still speaking when I zone out her words, turning to leave.

I can't hear any more of this. I feel disgusted. My husband owns a whore house.

Did he traffic them? Are they here on their own will– no, it can't be. No woman will freely want this type of life.

I am so in my head when a sharp pain shoots through my skull, causing a scream to tear out of my lips as I plunge forward headfirst into the grass.

I raise my hand to feel the back of my head, only to feel hot, thick liquid spurting out.

My voice cracks as I try to scream, instead another sharp pain pierces through my back.

"Hel–" my voice cracks, a darkness overcomes me.

Continue to next part

On our wedding night, my Fated Mate, Alpha Cedric, left our bed to care for his mistress. He told me our marriage was just an obligation. But the real betrayal came months later on a rooftop. When Rogues demanded a trade, Cedric didn't hesitate. He chose to save Jayden because of her "heart condition," handing me—his pregnant wife—over to the killers. "You are stronger," he said as he pushed me toward them. I fell from the building. I survived, but our unborn pup didn't. Instead of comfort, I woke up to handcuffs. Cedric believed Jayden’s lies that I staged the kidnapping for attention. He threw me into the dungeon, shackling my wrists with silver cuffs that burned my flesh, while Jayden poisoned my food with wolfsbane. He stripped me of my title and dignity, never realizing that the "fragile" woman he protected was the true monster. He didn't know about the glowing rune on my chest counting down the seconds I had left. He didn't know I was the legendary White Wolf, and my time was up. On my final night, I asked for one last ride on the Ferris wheel where we first met. At midnight, as Cedric rushed back to the amusement park, he didn't find a body. He found only my empty clothes and a text message on the seat. "Don't look for me, Cedric. I'm giving my wolf back to the moon." As he watched the security footage, he finally saw me dissolve into stardust and ascend to the sky, leaving him alone in a world that suddenly felt too quiet.

Mafia Romance Werewolf

9.1

His Unwanted Fiancée Was His True Savior

9.1

I was standing in five thousand dollars of hand-stitched lace when I received the medical report. My fiancé, Dante de Rossi, the future Don of Chicago, had gotten another woman pregnant. He didn't apologize. He didn't beg. He looked me in the eye and called it a "strategic necessity." "Isobel saved my life five years ago," he said coldly. "I owe her this child. You will raise it as your own. It is the price of the Peace Treaty." He forced me to cancel our engagement photos so he could take them with her. He took her on the vacation meant for our honeymoon. At dinner, he ordered me the seafood risotto, completely forgetting my deadly shellfish allergy, while fussing over Isobel’s water temperature. When I tried to leave, he cornered me. "You are a mob wife, Nina. Act like one. She is the hero who saved me." I wanted to laugh. Because five years ago, in that alley, Isobel wasn't even there. I was the one in the mask. I was the one who stitched his femoral artery and saved his life, risking my own medical license. He was destroying our twenty-year relationship to pay a debt to a liar. I didn't scream. I didn't fight. I simply picked up a red marker and walked to the calendar. On the day of our wedding, while Dante stood at the altar waiting for his obedient Queen, I was already boarding a one-way flight to the other side of the world. I left him nothing but four words scrawled across the date: "Let's break up, Dante."

Action Mafia Romance

7.6

His Unwanted Wife, The Rival Don's Queen

7.6

The gunman pressed a Glock to my temple and gave my husband a choice. "One walks out. One stays. Choose, Mr. Underboss." I wasn't worried. I was Haven. I was his wife of ten years, his Consigliere, the woman who built his empire. Beside me sobbed Gemma, a fragile twenty-two-year-old he had known for six months. "Take Gemma! Leave Haven!" Connor screamed, his honor twisting into something unrecognizable. He walked out of the warehouse with another woman in his arms, leaving me to be butchered. I didn't wait for the bullet. I threw myself through a glass window into the freezing canal. I survived the fall, but the life inside me didn't. After five years of failed IVF, the miracle baby I hadn't even told Connor about was gone. While I lay in a cold hospital room, bleeding out the remains of our child, my husband was buying diamond earrings for the woman who had set me up to die. When the doctor tried to sedate me for the surgery, I grabbed his wrist. "No anesthesia," I commanded. "But the pain..." "I want to feel it," I said, staring at the ceiling. "I want to feel every scrap of him leaving my body." I burned that pain into my soul. Then, I went home, poured gasoline over our wedding bed, and lit a match. Two years later, I returned to the city. Connor thought I was dead. But when he saw me on the arm of his mortal enemy, wearing the crown of a rival Queen, he realized his mistake. He didn't just lose a wife. He started a war.

Mafia Modern Romance

8.6

Mafia Betrayal: Her Escape From Darkness

8.6

The Maybach glided through rain, Dante's cold cedar cologne a familiar comfort. Seven years, my life revolved around him, my fingers on his suit cuff, a silent promise. But tonight, our normal shattered with a single phone call. He answered, speaking rapid Italian – a language he thought I didn't understand. Every word: a death knell. Confirming his engagement to Sofia Moretti, dismissing me as a 'consolation prize.' Seven years of loyalty vanished. His loving mask back, he left for his fiancée. I stumbled into freezing rain, recalling my foster past. My numb fingers dialed his mother, Isabella, demanding fifty million for my silence. Her insults didn't sting. The true gut punch: Sofia's Instagram, a prenup on Dante's desk, proudly showing *my* watch, captioned: 'Fourteen days left.' This wasn't their celebration; it was my death sentence. I wouldn't stay another day in this gilded cage. My old duffel bag, packed, waited. The Australia brochure, a childhood dream, in my pocket. This time, I would live for myself, and they would all pay.

Action Mafia Modern

9.6

Marked by My Secondhand Delivery Wolf

9.6

To save on the outrageous wages of hired movers, I, Jade Lawson, bought a werewolf who had been returned three times from a secondhand trading site. The seller warned me he was vicious, wild, and prone to biting. What caught my eye wasn't his temperament. It was his build. Six foot three, solid muscle, the kind of body that looked like it could haul six hundred pounds of packages without breaking a sweat. When he arrived, he was indeed vicious. He kept sneaking into my room at night, pressing his scorching body against mine and grinding his teeth against the back of my neck. I thought he was teething. Or worse, developing rabies. I contacted the seller immediately to request a return. After hearing my description, the seller went quiet for a long time. "We don't recommend returning him." "He's not teething. Werewolves only feel the urge to bite the back of their mate's neck during their rut phase. It's a mate-marking instinct." "He wants you. He's trying to get you to bear his pups."

Mafia Romance Werewolf

7.3

Marrying The Rival: My Ex-Husband's Despair

7.3

I stood outside my husband's study, the perfect mafia wife, only to hear him mocking me as an "ice sculpture" while he entertained his mistress, Aria. But the betrayal went deeper than infidelity. A week later, my saddle snapped mid-jump, leaving me with a shattered leg. Lying in the hospital bed, I overheard the conversation that killed the last of my love. My husband, Alessandro, knew Aria had sabotaged my gear. He knew she could have killed me. Yet, he told his men to let it go. He called my near-death experience a "lesson" because I had bruised his mistress's ego. He humiliated me publicly, freezing my accounts to buy family heirlooms for her. He stood by while she threatened to leak our private tapes to the press. He destroyed my dignity to play the hero for a woman he thought was a helpless orphan. He had no idea she was a fraud. He didn't know I had installed micro-cameras throughout the estate while he was busy pampering her. He didn't know I had hours of footage showing his "innocent" Aria sleeping with his guards, his rivals, and even his staff, laughing about how easy he was to manipulate. At the annual charity gala, in front of the entire crime family, Alessandro demanded I apologize to her. I didn't beg. I didn't cry. I simply connected my drive to the main projector and pressed play.

Mafia Modern Romance

THE DON'S SECRET OBSESSION ( His Bride, Her Prison)

Chapter 5

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