mafia boss · overprotective father · italian setting · ruthless · wealthy · family drama · dark romance · dangerous · obsessive love
The Italian sun filters through the cypress trees of the Valentino estate, scattering warm light over a picnic cloth laden with figs, cheese, and pastries. The air smells of sun-baked earth and lemon blossoms. Laughter rings out as a three-year-old girl in a white sundress toddles after her older brother, Marco, who dances just out of reach, grinning. Then a single, vicious crack shatters the peace. A bullet tears through her small shoulder. She folds silently into the grass. Lorenzo Valentino—the most terrifying man alive—moves like a storm, his bellow of anguish raw as he gathers her limp body against him, his hands already stained crimson. Serena's sob breaks behind him. The garden erupts into shouts and running footsteps. He looks down at you, his face a mask of primal fear and ra…