2638 Book(s) Related to my brother s best kept secret

In my previous life, I chose the werewolf and gave birth to the Arbiter, only to be burned alive by the younger sister I loved most.
When I was reborn, I knelt before the Oath Stone, handed my marriage pact to her, and watched her gloat in triumph before choosing Sylas, the elf everyone else avoided.
Everyone was waiting to see me make a fool of myself—until the day of the wedding, when he came carrying a gown blessed by the Sacred Tree, lowered his eyes to me, and said, "In this life, I will never fail you."

For five years, my marriage was nothing but a lie, a perfect show Aiden staged for the entire family.
I loved him for more than a decade. And for his lover, he threw our five-year-old daughter, Chloe, into the basement to be fed to his Dobermans.
All because Chloe accidentally shattered an antique crystal cup, a so-called love token between Aiden and his precious Sophia.
I dropped to my knees and begged. He looked at me like I was nothing and said Family rules matter more than blood.
When I carried my daughter’s mutilated body out of that basement, fireworks were exploding on the rooftop above, celebrating his grand confession of love to Sophia.
He froze my accounts. And on the day of Chloe’s funeral, he took her to a concert.
I was holding my daughter’s ashes, trapped, desperate, with nowhere left to go when a message from an unknown number appeared. A car was waiting at the side gate. It was Daniel, my childhood friend.
Only after I disappeared with my daughter’s ashes did Aiden finally realize the truth—that the “sweet, innocent” Sophia was the real killer of his own child.

As the most cold-blooded and ruthless Mafia don, Twain Hall had doted on me like the apple of his eye for ten years.
But on the very day we were discussing our wedding, the ring his subordinate delivered had another woman's name engraved on it—not mine.
I pretended not to notice and turned to Twain.
"Did they bring the wrong ring? Who's Dorothy? I've never heard of her."
Twain's expression didn't change. He pulled me into his arms with that familiar, indulgent look.
"My people weren't careful. Made a fool of themselves."
"I'll have them exchange it right away. Can't keep my queen waiting."
I smiled. But the moment I turned away, my face went cold. I dialed a number.
"Didn't you say you'd pay any price to marry me? Twain Hall betrayed me. I want his head!"

On the day of her marriage, Juliette Swanson's fiance was shot and she was abducted by her abductor and was forcefully married off to her abductor. On this ride, she gets to know that her abductor lives two lives. One as a successful businessman and when it turns dark, he is a mafia don, and into illegal weapons. Juliette's life turns darker as she continues hating her forceful husband who keeps her isolated from everyone but she is confused as she never abused or harmed under Zachary her now-husband. Soon, she finds the truth of her ex-fiance and gets to know that he was also a criminal linked with Zachary's past and her own family played with her and played a major role in her abduction. In this love-hate relation, Juliette gets to see new faces of people whom she thought were her saviors and as she gets closer to her husband she sees more than just his dark side.

“I would never choose you.”
He leaned closer, so close she could feel the warmth of his breath brushing her cheek, could feel the danger that lay beneath the calm.
“You already did, Haven,” he whispered, almost reverently, “The moment you looked at me… and lived. And I will do anything to keep you safe. Including burning down the entire continent.”
..
They say the rains only fall without end when the Dragon King descends from the skies and claims his bride.

Haven despises him for ripping her from everything she’s ever known. She fights him with every breath, every curse, every act of defiance.

Yet the fire between them burns hotter than her hatred, drawing her helplessly toward the very monster she swore to destroy.

When strange powers awaken inside her and haunting visions flood her dreams, Haven learns the devastating truth: she is the lost daughter of the last fae princess — and the prophesied Fae Queen destined to either save or doom the realm.

She is the only fae in over a thousand years to master the forbidden elements beyond earth. With this rare and deadly power awakening, she holds the key to taming the ancient magic threatening to devour the world.

But as dark forces gather and the seal containing catastrophic destruction begins to fracture, Haven faces an impossible choice:

Master the volatile magic that could save the realm… at the risk of it consuming her from within.

Or surrender to the Dragon King she has unwillingly come to love… and watch the world crumble.

One girl. One forbidden prophecy. One love powerful enough to either end everything , or give rise to a new era.

"You don’t even know what you’ve stepped into, Elena."

Alexander Moretti- a name Elena Rossi never wanted to hear anymore- is arrogant and cold. The billionaire who embarrased her in front of an entire gallery. But when he offers her the opportunity of a lifetime—a commission that could change her dwindling career—she has to make a choice. She’ll accept his money, complete the job, and forget he ever existed or that they even crossed paths.

But forgetting Alexander Moretti is quite impossible. His presence alone is suffocating, his eyes filled with something she can’t decipher—something capable of causing her harm. The closer she gets, the more she realizes he has a secret. And then, she finds the photograph.

One picture.
One lie.

Elena's world crumbles when she fins out that her family’s tragic accident wasn’t an accident at all. The Morettis had a hand in it. And now, Vincent Carter—a man with a vendetta—is using her as a pawn in a deadly game.

"Run, Elena."

But it’s too late.

She’s trapped between the man who might have destroyed her life and the one willing to kill to protect her.

“You take us so well, don't you?" Kade says, slamming his cock into my mouth as Lucien thrusts into my pussy at a savage, maddening pace. “Our sweet, little destruction."

They say the moon never forgets a sin, and on the night Nyra was born, it remembered them all.

Marked by the goddess and hunted by every clan, Nyra carries a power that could either save the wolves… or end them. The Lunar Crystal, the goddess’s shattered heart, can break the curse that’s slowly destroying their kind , but only if awakened by her blood.

Now the light wolves want her captured, the royals want her dead, and four dangerous rogues want to protect her, even if it means defying the laws of the moon itself.

As enemies close in and forbidden bonds ignite, Lyra must choose between surrendering her power… or embracing the darkness rising within her.

Because under the bleeding moon, love can be just as deadly as fate.

Liam Rodrigues is a ruthless cold hearted Mafia & Billionaire. He is illegitimate first child of his father. Although, her stepmom has accepted him and dotted him like her own born. But he strongly doubts it. He never let anyone be near to him. Except his half brothers, who are more real and loyal to him.

Roselyn is an orphan, was adopted by a rich family. She was adopted as a toy for the spoiled brat, Isha Pinto. She wanted to chase her dreams and wanted to build school and college for orphan children

Will this billionaire businessman and mafia get her love? Will jr marry her or will force her to marry him? Will he ever get her soul? - To know, read this book))

They laughed warmly. Abruptly, the door swung open. A troop of five men around their twenties came in view. They were in black formal suits. Only one attracted her sight. She sucked in her breath, her heart raced, her body trembled. She grasped the bed sheet in her hands. She felt tightness in my chest, her belly ache and dizziness. Last night's memory was standing in front of her in the beautiful shape of him, reality. He took her virginity. She could feel her body on fire.
His white shirt was hugging his muscular body, not bulky but regnant. Three buttons of his shirt were unfastened, showing his tattoos on chest and toned body. There was a light wary smile on his face, showing him some kind of Goddess. There were four people behind him, charging their guns at them. She was terrified of him.
Was he here for her? What would he do to her? Why didn't he forget last night and let her also forget this mistake.

NOTE:: PLEASE READ MAFIA EMPEROR (Book One)
.
.
I leaned back in my chair with a heavy sigh and glanced up at the moon in the sky. It was full and shining brightly in the clear sky. I glanced down at the display. It was midnight. The new day began. He didn't remember this day nor he come. I stared at the cake with tearful eyes, "It must be something important." I told myself and pushed on my feet. Unhappiness drowned me.

There are too many ways of taking revenge on a woman. But he chose marriage. In the past three years, he acted like a ruthless husband, treating her coldly, and even more worse, humiliating her. Even when she was pregnant, he tried to force her to give it up, to retire from film field, to expel her from her country.

In my past life, when the apocalypse broke out, I braved the pressure and opened the fortress gates to take in my mother-in-law and brother-in-law, who had nowhere else to go.
They shoved my wife and me straight into a horde of zombies.
My wife and I were reborn seven days before the apocalypse. I turned my head and saw the same fear and coldness surging in her eyes as mine:
"This time, don't open the door."
"Never." I smiled coldly.
Not only would I keep the door shut—I would watch with my own eyes as those bloodsucking ingrates, who had drained me dry in my past life, were slowly devoured by hunger and despair right outside the gate.

At a lavish dinner, a billionaire with a net worth of four billion embraced my ex-wife and slapped five thousand yuan in my face: "Kneel down, kiss her shoes, and then get out of here."
The entire audience of celebrities burst into laughter, while the ex-wife's eyes were filled with the pleasure of revenge.
Without even lifting my eyelids, I dialed a number in front of everyone: "I'm going to bankrupt one person. Execution level: nuclear bomb."
They laughed at me for pretending to be crazy.
Three minutes later, the entire nation was in an uproar. Four billion dollars in assets were frozen, the FBI broke down the door, and the once arrogant tycoon collapsed to the ground like a dog.
I endured for three years, just to save her grandfather's life. Since she's in such a hurry to break the contract, I don't need to pretend anymore.
This is not just a story about divorce; it's a countdown to the gods regaining control of the Book of Life and Death on Earth.

Married for seven years, I lived my life like an absolute joke.
For the sake of my brother, my wife personally uprooted the roses I had so painstakingly cultivated. To please her uncle, my daughter pointed at my nose and called me a "bad daddy."
The entire family even held a vote to force me to donate my bone marrow. My wife, Elena, raised her hand without a second thought: "You'll just lose a little bone marrow. Liam will die without you."
In that moment, my heart died.
The surgery was a success.
As the anesthesia wore off, Elena was holding my hand tightly. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her voice trembled with remorse: "Aaron, I was a jerk before. As long as you were willing to save Liam, I will love only you for the rest of my life."
She thought I would be as pathetically grateful as a dog, begging for her affection and humbly forgiving her.
But I merely frowned in disgust and pulled my hand back as if shaking off garbage.
In the dead silence, I looked at this tearful woman before me and asked, politely yet confused:
"Excuse me, ma'am... who are you?"

On the execution platform, my noble and beautiful wife used her dagger to carve open my chest.
My nominal adopted son pressed a red-hot iron into my skin, branding me with the "F"-class mark of the lowest outcast, draining my transcendent bloodline dry.
"The Storm Kingdom has no use for a cripple with zero beast-spirit affinity. You belong rotting in the abyss!"
They cut the chains and kicked me into the Black Abyss—a place from which no one returns—then turned to carve up my throne.
They thought I was as good as dead.
They had no idea that the deepest darkness of that abyss harbored the most terrifying ancient demon in existence.
Two weeks later, as they raised their glasses to toast the new king's coronation, I kicked down the castle gates, wielding the ember-fire of annihilation and a tide of ten thousand beasts.
Looking down at the woman who once stood so high above me, now groveling in the mud and begging for mercy, I tossed the bloodstained broken blade onto the hem of her dress:
"Remember this forever—it was you who took a nobody you crushed beneath your feet and turned him into a king you'll kneel before and never win back. Now, hand over your lives."

The global freeze descended, and the apocalypse arrived right on cue. I seized all the critical supplies and evacuated first, leaving "the perfect base" behind for the two traitors who backstabbed me. They thought it was heaven, but little did they know that the entire fortress was a precision trap constructed of deception, scarcity, and despair. As the outdoor temperature plummeted to minus eighty degrees, I sat by the window, roasting venison and watching them through high-definition infrared, coldly observing as they lost their humanity in the desperate fight for a single bowl of sawdust.

At fifteen, my parents died on their way of volunteer teaching in underprivileged areas. I was adopted by the Miller family’s Don, Vincent and was brought up by himself. For ten years, he hauled me out of the mud, gave me a home, gave me favor no one else got and taught me what a “family” was supposed to mean.
On my eighteenth birthday, I climbed onto his bed and kissed him.
He called me disgusting with a face like ice. Later, he brought Isabella home, forced me to be her bridesmaid, and made me go with her to pick out wedding dresses and jewelry.
One shove from her was all it took for him to lock me in a pitch-black confinement room and he even had the light removed.
That was when I finally understood: everything I had could be taken back from me at any moment.

In my previous life, my wife was addicted to black market gambling on football, which caused us to lose everything.
To make matters worse, a zombie horde then broke out.
We had no shelter and were quickly torn apart by a horde of frenzied zombies.
After being reborn, she planned to run off with all the money, then dump me and elope with her lover.
What she didn't know was that I had awakened the ability to read minds and knew all her plans.

One year ago, a two year old child, Oskar, went missing from an apartment in Stockholm. His troubled mother is now held in a psychiatric hospital, found guilty of his murder by the court of public opinion. Former detective, Alex is haunted by the case. When a British family moves into the apartment and their toddler, Alfie, starts speaking with an 'imaginary friend', dad Fergus becomes increasingly terrified that he is losing his grip on sanity. He and Alex team up to investigate and are led into a labyrinth of lies and corruption. All the while, whatever is in the apartment has its sights on Alfie...

Liam O’Grady is a powerful loan shark and realtor, a man mixed in crime and an underground fighter, a King. He owns all the main gambling dens in the city and in the areas around and does not hesitate to use muscle or kill his opponents.
Between them, his half-brother Finn St Just and he run the city of Hunter’s Folly, with the strength of their muscle and money power.
The brothers are Dominants and they enjoy subjugating the women they take. And they have the habit of sharing a woman.
But the jaded Liam knows that something is missing. He has turned thirty and he feels cynical, bored.
Like a breath of fresh air, innocent young Bianca Cruz turns up at their doorstep, asking for help. The nineteen-year-old is trying to get her family free of the clutches of the evil Dean Nelson, who was also responsible for the death of her father.
Liam agrees to help her, for he is intrigued by the young woman who is untouched and other-worldly, an innocent who appeals to his jaded self. It is like a jest to him, this chance to bed a girl who is totally inexperienced in the ways of his world. A virgin at that!
He along with his brother proposes a deal with the desperate young woman. They will help her; they will even restore her father’s beloved bakery and hand it over to her.
But the price is this:
She will be their willing submissive for a year.
*
Does she cave in and accept their terms?
And what will happen during this year to the girl who has no experience of men?
Worse, what will happen to her at the end of the year?
For Bianca is a sensitive young girl.
And the men who will own her are experienced , hard-hearted and callous men who do not care for the women they bed…

Twenty-four-year-old Sangavi Carter, highly ambitious and hard-working gets a job in a prestigious bank as the secretary of the CEO. What she did not know is that the CEO is a womanizer and he sets his eyes on this hot-headed secretary. Playing with fire as Sangavi dismisses Mr. Caleb Theller's hot approaches and concentrates on her job. But with Theller's continuous approaches she finally gives in and what started with lust ignites romance between the two and love comes in.

It is the continuation of Irresistible Invitations. Here, Juliette had an accident and people think she died, but she was actually abducted by Zachary's enemy and again someone from Juliette's family has plotted the plan to separate her from Zachary. It is all about Zachary fighting all odds, searching for Juliette.

Not your average rebel princess, Rasha’s purple and carries two swords while fighting for all ten kingdoms. Rasha enjoys the independence that comes with being a professional courier with a perfect record in the Bolaji kingdoms, that is until she's tasked to deliver a mysterious package from the tenth king to the prince of the first kingdom. When the package is accidentally opened her hidden royal past could be exposed, and she might lose her precious freedom for good. Worse than that the troublesome package could ruin her entire life. If you want to escape into a young adult fantasy adventure on a faraway world, you’ll love this one. Buy The Courier’s Code and immerse yourself in the Bolaji kingdoms today!

Vienna Alvis finds herself in an ambiguous situation when all of a sudden her father wants her to marry his best friend's son. Though single her whole life she thought she should at least give it a shot and then she decides to meet her high class would be on the terrace of a stranded building only to find him trying to end his life.

Keith Devlin stood on the edge of the building wanting to end his life. Tears streamed down his eyes and he wiped it away angrily pushing his glasses up when a feminine voice shrieked from behind him. He turned around and saw a woman running towards him to where he was standing but he had already made up his mind. And the next moment he chose to let the gravity work on him as he jumped off the building.

The journey of Ace Knights, son of rich billionaire businessman, Mr. Xavier Knights as he swims through life's difficulties to his destination of being an astronaut while being bewitched by a certain nowhere in sight, a woman named Veronica Sullivan.

Ace Knights grew up submerged in his books and in search of knowledge and all his life he had thought that he was going to remain like that, pillared to his reach his only dream and that was to become an astronaut. But never in his life, had he thought that once, transferred to the London School of Science, he would meet a girl who would captivate his attention to the point where he finds himself deviated from his life goal. But even though he wanted to put her away from him he couldn't. And finally when he thought he could no longer pursue his dreams he was proven wrong, by the same girl as her feelings were not mutual and she unlike him went further to pursue her ambitions leaving him behind.

When the apocalypse came, I became one of the military's failed experiments—defective, useless, a waste of space who only knew how to fix machines.
My so-called brother Kane used the camp leader access I got for him to trade away the comms gear I nearly died to secure for a bottle of whiskey. He drained my bone marrow dry to keep me in the dark, then dumped me out in the wasteland to die.
After that, he pinned every bit of luxury and waste on me—
while my little sister didn't even have the medicine she needed to stay alive.
That night, dragging my crippled body behind me, I reached into the substation.
Kane, do you remember what kind of genes were in those five hundred milliliters of bone marrow?

To annul the engagement, the aloof heiress of a wealthy family spent three years planning thirteen accidents to try and kill me.
Car accident, falling object, poisoning... I survived covered in blood, only to be met with her disgusted question: "How come you're still alive?"
She let her scheming childhood sweetheart crush my father's ashes, and even personally drained my last remaining blood to save me, all for her sweetheart's self-inflicted injury.
She thought I would be like a dog, clinging to her side forever without any boundaries.
Until that day, I calmly handed over the annulment agreement, clutching the diagnosis of late-stage brain cancer, and completely disappeared from her world.
Later, when she finally found out the truth, she searched the world frantically, only to find my emaciated, cold corpse.
That arrogant and haughty young lady has completely collapsed.
She personally sent her childhood sweetheart to hell, knelt before my body wearing a veil, and desperately raised a gun:
“Ivan, walk slowly on your way to the underworld... I’m giving my life for you.”

For the sake of her family, she accepts to tutor Alpha's . She also becomes a part of the Werewolf academy. Her life was normal.......
     Until, she comes face-to-face with Alphas's king, Dastien. She couldn't rein the tug. She feels at her heart in his presence and his absence, she couldn't take him off of her mind. She couldn't comprehend, why was this happening to her?      Emma knows the shifters' world is full of danger. She isn't made for it.  
    Dastien is the strongest werewolf, the Alpha, the king of Alphas, wants to keep his human mate safe.  He is in doubt. Should he accept the mating with a human girl, the true love bond that is created somewhere in heaven or should he choose someone from packs, a strong werewolf girl? He is aware of her emotions, love that he sees in her eyes, though Emma is unaware of her feelings and mating bond. 
   Soon, he must make a choice: Choose her knowing the danger lying ahead or lose Emma to let her live a normal life.

They laughed warmly. Abruptly, the door swung open. A troop of five men around their twenties came in view. They were in black formal suits. Only one attracted her sight. She sucked in her breath, her heart raced, her body trembled. She grasped the bed sheet in her hands. She felt tightness in my chest, her belly ache and dizziness. Last night's memory was standing in front of her in the beautiful shape of him, reality. He took her virginity. She could feel her body on fire. His white shirt was hugging his muscular body, not bulky but regnant. Three buttons of his shirt were unfastened, showing his tattoos on chest and toned body. There was a light wary smile on his face, showing him some kind of Goddess. There were four people behind him, charging their guns at them. She was terrified of him. Was he here for her? What would he do to her? Why didn't he forget last night and let her also forget this mistake. . Liam Rodrigues is a ruthless cold hearted Mafia & Billionaire. He is the illegitimate first child of his father. Although, her stepmom has accepted him and dotted him like her own born. But he strongly doubts it. He never let anyone be near to him. Except his half brothers, who are more real and loyal to him.Roselyn is an orphan, was adopted by a rich family. She was adopted as a toy for the spoiled brat, Isha Pinto. She wanted to chase her dreams and wanted to build school and colleges for orphan children.

Harry Rey is a hardhearted, unpitying and cruel personality when it's about his family. He fully enjoys his life. On his business trip, he sees the dazzlingly beautiful girl when his brother pulls over the car at a red light signal. Unfortunately, Both brothers have the same feelings for her. Harry never felt love before. Her one look was enough to give him a kick.
On other hand, Jackson Rey is less cruel and handsome than his brother. He is the future mafia boss. He didn't want his brother to lay his eyes on her as Harry dates a new girl every day.
Love is an adorable, slim girl. Who is a tutor and loves her family. After her father's death, she fulfilled all the responsibilities. Her life turns east to West when she witnesses a scandal.

To know who will marry her? Continue reading......

I'm an ancient vampire prince who's been playing human boyfriend to a demon hunter.
Big mistake.
She's completely unhinged—GPS tracking, 24/7 surveillance, the works.
When she threatens to dump me unless I surrender all my secrets, I do the unthinkable:
I actually say yes.
Too bad she doesn't know her "helpless" boyfriend has been the one keeping her alive all this time.

My wife is the city's renowned "Community Angel." She donates every single cent of her high salary to the poor, all to buy herself a saintly reputation.
Meanwhile, as her husband, I spend my days rolling beneath cars in a factory, covered in grease, juggling four credit cards just to keep our large family afloat.
My parents-in-law survive on the expensive, imported life-saving meds I pay for, yet they constantly mock me for being a powerless nobody;
My own children attend private schools on my dime, only to look at me with disgust and call me an embarrassment;
And my wife? Dressed in her high-end couture, she looks down at me and condescendingly urges, "For the sake of the poor children, why don't you get another part-time job and just endure it a little longer?"
Looking at this den of parasites sucking the life out of me, a sudden, overwhelming wave of disgust washed over me.
I didn't argue. I silently put away my overdue bills, packed my bags, and completely vanished from this twisted household.
Later, at the highly anticipated Annual Charity Gala, in front of the entire city, I presented her with an ultimate "gift"—

In my last life, my parents favored my younger brother. They promised him to the angel who would remain on the surface, and shoved me to an abyssal demon.
When the apocalypse came, the angel burned through her divine power and fell. I took my family in out of kindness, and they repaid me with a bowl of poisoned soup.
When I opened my eyes again, our whole family had reincarnated.
This time, my parents couldn’t wait to push my brother into the demon’s arms, dreaming of living off him inside the abyssal lair.
I watched them sign the shadow contract like they were grabbing a priceless treasure, then took the rejected holy-light angel without hesitation.
They had no idea the Abyss’s shelter is paid for in flesh and blood.
But an angel’s loyalty can raise an iron divine kingdom that never falls, even in this world-ending flood.

We’ve been married for five years. Then, she got pregnant with someone else's child.
In front of everyone, she said: "Ethan doesn't want this baby. You've always wanted one, right? Fine, take it and raise it."
In that moment, I finally understood: she wasn’t incapable of loving someone—she simply never saw me as a human being.
I took off my wedding ring, left it on the tray, and bought a one-way ticket to the North. My family said I wouldn't survive in the frozen North; she said that without her, I was nothing.
Three years later, she tracked me down using the GPS hidden inside that ring. She pushed open the door to my attic room, finding only a note I’d left: "Don't look for me. We're square."

In my past life, I personally dug up two alien meteorites, handing the blue one that granted "Frost Mastery" to my childhood friend, Mike. He repaid me by sealing me inside an ice wall, cursing me to "die like a piece of trash" in the minus 70-degree blizzard.
When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the initial blast site.
This time, I didn't even spare him a glance; I stuffed both meteorites into my pocket.
I transformed a missile silo into a doomsday bunker, brought my parents inside, and stockpiled ten years' worth of supplies.
When Mike arrived with a gang of thugs to smash my door down, I stood in the warm command center, watching half his face rot with frostbite on the monitor.
I didn't open the door.
This time, I am sending back the despair of my past life tenfold.

After I retired, I was willing to do the dirtiest work at a small auto repair shop—just to give my sick daughter an ordinary childhood.
I endured my mother’s insults, my eldest brother’s wage cuts, my younger brother’s extortion.
But they actually joined forces to steal my daughter’s life-saving money for gambling, then sold me into an illegal mine to pay off their debts.
When the iron chain locked around my wrist, when my daughter cried in despair, the killing intent that had slept in my blood for three years finally woke up completely.
They had no idea I was once the iron-blooded God of War—commander of a million troops, the name that made enemy nations tremble.

At the Morello family’s Christmas dinner, I stood beside Vincent, waiting for him to announce our engagement.
Instead, in the very next second, he walked in holding a little boy and claimed him as his son.
And the woman he said he was going to marry? Scarlett Morello. The one he had always introduced as his “sister.”
The whole room erupted in applause. I stood there frozen, like a nail hammered into the floor.
Later, in his study, he took my hand and said, “Scarlett is dying. Late-stage breast cancer. She only has six months left. After she’s gone, I’ll marry you.”
But there was no guilt in his eyes. No love, either.
Then he told me to go to his villa that afternoon, to take care of the woman who was supposedly “dying.”
I opened the photo he sent me. Scarlett was lying in a hospital bed, pale-faced, an IV in the back of her hand.
A professional tennis player who had been playing in an exhibition match three weeks ago, and who had dropped three grand at Louis Vuitton on Fifth Avenue just five days ago.
But sure. She was “dying.”
At three in the morning, I was curled up by the front door of my apartment, crying so long I lost track of time.
Then my phone lit up. A text from an unknown number:
[Elena, I’m downstairs. When we were kids, you told me that once I controlled the docks on the East Coast, you’d marry me. The docks are mine now. Does that promise still stand?]
I pulled back the curtain and there he was. Ethan Vitale, my first love, leaning against the door of a black Cadillac, lifting a hand in a lazy wave.
Three years ago, when he left New York, he was only a Capo.
Now, he was the Don of the Vitale family.
He didn’t rush me. Didn’t pressure me to come downstairs.
He came for one reason only, to let me know he was back.
I wiped away my tears and texted back:
[It still stands.]
Because I wanted to see for myself just how long that woman could keep up her act.