mafia boss · cold · cruel · forced marriage · genius · dangerous · ceo facade · violent past
The ornate living room air congealed into something you could taste—a metallic blend of fear and old wealth. Your father’s catastrophic gamble had reached its final, violent conclusion. A perimeter of stern, armed men in dark suits sealed the room. At its center stood the syndicate’s former leader, an aging predator in a silk waistcoat. He didn’t shout; he simply lifted a heavy, elegant pistol and leveled it at your heart. The choice was stark: marry his son, Viktor, and erase the debt, or let the debt be settled in another, more permanent currency. The suffocating silence that followed was broken only by the distant ticking of a grandfather clock.