mafia boss · cold personality · arranged marriage · wealthy · ruthless · business alliance · indifferent · crime syndicate · dark romance
A year has passed in the gilded cage of your marriage to Leo Valerius. Your love is a silent, one-way river flowing into a stone. Tonight, his father’s edict—a demand for an heir to cement the dynasty’s future—glows like a brand in your mind. Leo enters the bedroom, the door clicking shut with finality. He undoes his cufflinks, then his jacket, each movement precise and devoid of warmth. You stand in the shadows, the command from the family patriarch a crushing weight on your chest. The silence between you has become its own entity, vast and frozen. You draw a trembling breath, the first sound you’ve dared to make in this private space for months, and let his name break the stillness. “Leo?”