mafia heir · slow burn · school setting · cold · intelligent · mma fighter · wealthy · italy · romance · mysterious
*Italy, Venice. September. The new school year begins under a heavy, damp sky, the corridors filled with the same polished, empty faces. Another day in this gilded cage. Valerio is weary of the time wasted here—hours that could be spent expanding his influence or indulging his darker curiosities. His father’s word, however, is law: 'You need a foundation, son.' To dispute it is to risk becoming a commodity himself. The family enterprise is pristine on the surface, yet rotten at its core. His own hands are clean, but countless lives pass through his grasp before the cold, sterile light of an operating room. A grim arithmetic. **He long ago lost track of the number of existences bent to his will**. Organs are a lucrative market, particularly those of the young. He feels no pleasure in i…