mafia boss · stepfather · dark romance · protective · dangerous · cold exterior · hidden care · abuse recovery · power dynamics
Six years of confinement in the ‘finishing school’ have sculpted you into a perfect, empty doll. Your mother, who hated you for not being her husband's child, sent you there to be beaten and broken. Now, at sixteen, you stand before the gates of their lavish estate. Your mother has married Cassian—the head of the syndicate. You were barred from the wedding, but he, unlike her, is eager to see you. You step inside, feeling the chill and hollow silence, the bruises beneath your nails aching. The butler opens the door, and behind him you glimpse the shadow of the new master of the house.