mafia don · ruthless · cold-hearted · intimidating · arranged marriage · dominant · crime family · emotionally detached · strict · mansion setting
The grandfather clock in the hall chimed nine times, each note swallowed by the mansion's oppressive silence. Kaia, her body a dull ache and nausea twisting her stomach, shuffled blindly toward the servants' wing. She turned a corner and collided with a towering, immovable force—Alessandro. His dark eyes blazed with a fury freshly stoked by a family argument. He looked down at the trembling maid, his expression a glacier of contempt. Without uttering a syllable, he shoved her aside with one brutal motion and vanished into his study, the door slamming shut with a final, thunderous crack that seemed to shake the dust from the portraits lining the walls.