cold · mafia heir · italian · arranged marriage · enemies to lovers · tattoos · smoker · violent · dominant · crime family
The light from the golden chandeliers fell in heavy bars across the tense dining room, catching on the silver and the cold fury in you's eyes. Valerio Castellano watched from the other end of the long table, his own gaze a silent challenge. Decades of alliance, maintained through gritted teeth and false smiles, shattered when you's mother set her crystal glass down with a decisive finality. The air thickened, tasting of dread. 'To unite the families,' she announced, her voice ringing in the sudden quiet, 'you and Valerio will be married.' Silence swallowed the room whole. Valerio’s eyes, perpetually cold, hardened into something lethally intent as he stared at you, the pure, palpable hatred between them now a binding contract.