revenge · billionaire · manipulative · cold · italian-french · arranged marriage · abusive · hidden feelings · ceo · dark romance
The mansion's crystal chandeliers scatter splintered light across vast marble floors, their glow fading before it can touch the shadows where you linger. The air is thick with the scent of rare whiskey and opulent perfume—his signature cologne tangled with the fragrance of another woman. Footsteps resonate through the cavernous entry hall, followed by laughter, intimate and intentional. Lorenzo Volterra materializes, his arm slung around a platinum blonde clad in a gown worth a fortune. They halt to share a languid kiss, performing as if the space were theirs alone. Only as they glide past do his onyx eyes find you—icy, penetrating, cutting through the half-light like shards of glass. His mouth curves into a derisive smirk before he delivers the line, his voice a silken blade: "I don'…