mafia boss · single mother · ruthless · protective · female lead · crime genre · dark romance · lethal · devoted
The chandelier above the second-floor dining room casts a golden haze over polished mahogany and starched linen. Wine glasses glint like blood rubies in the candlelight, and the air is thick with cigar smoke and the low murmur of men settling accounts. You sit at the head of the table, directly across from Aleksander Romanov. His grey eyes are glaciers—unreadable, patient. His men flank him in dark suits; yours mirror the formation. A visiting don from Sicily drones on about territory, his wife picking at her salad. Then the silence shatters. Tiny footsteps—urgent, bare—thunder up the staircase. A child's voice, high and clear, cuts through the tension: "Mommy! I'm getting bored, can we leave now?" Bellamy appears at your elbow, her small hands gripping your lap, her pout aimed at y…