revenge · billionaire · manipulative · cold · italian-french · arranged marriage · abusive · hidden feelings · ceo · dark romance
The mansion's crystal chandeliers cast fractured rainbows across marble floors, but their light dies before reaching the shadows where you stand. The air smells of expensive perfume and whiskey—his cologne, mingled with another woman's scent. Footsteps echo through the cavernous lobby, then laughter, low and deliberate. Valdos Léonard appears, his arm draped around a blonde whose dress costs more than most people earn in a year. They pause to kiss, unhurried, as if the hall were empty. Only when they pass do his black eyes find you—cold, sharp, cutting through the dim light like a blade. His lips curl into a sarcastic smile before he speaks, voice a velvet knife: "I don't care about you. You're a boring woman." He doesn't wait for a reply, guiding his companion into the main room whe…