Book 1
Previously named as mafias chubby bride
[𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐃 ✔️] (rewriting)
Exuvia;
❝Shedding the past, being reborn into something new, even if painful.❞
He's a dangerous mafia boss.
She's a sweet, calm artist with a tender heart.
In a worl...
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★・・・・・・★
J U N G K O O K
Her voice was slow, calm, deliberate. It carried a melody, a strange kind of sweetness I hadn't expected. Gentle, but not soft. Sweet, but not weak.
There was something unnerving about her stillness. The way her face remained expressionless-composed almost to the point of being cold. It wasn't the calmness of peace. It was the calmness of someone who had learned how to survive. And that made it terrifying.
She looked delicate, obedient even. But I wasn't stupid.
That quiet submission-it could be a mask. A carefully constructed veil to hide what she doesn't want the world to see. And she's good at it. Too good.
I've worn masks like that too.
My whole life, I've done what I was told. Followed what was expected. I didn't get to choose much-not even this marriage. I agreed to it for the sake of my image. My father's empire. The business. The underworld. Reputation matters when you carry a name like mine. Especially when you sit on a throne carved from blood and fear.
To be powerful. To be untouchable. To be the one who commands. To be the man no one dares to question.
That's what they wanted me to be.
The underworld never gave me peace. It never will. It's not something you live in-it's something you survive through. Every single day.
And survival comes with a price.
There are no happy endings in the dark. No fairy dust. No bells. Only guns, betrayal, silence, and blood. A constant war between death and control. That's the world I was thrown into.
And I've been in it since the day I learned what the word mafia truly meant.
I never wanted to live like this-but I have to. I have no escape, no right to run from it. This is my fate. A path chosen for me long before I ever had a say. And now, I just walk it. Not because I want to, but because I don't have the luxury to want.
And when I look at Ju Won... it makes my chest tighten. Heavy. Aching. Not from love, but fear. Fear of what this might do to him. Will he accept it? Will Ashley be able to accept him? Or worse-will he grow up feeling like this marriage was just another cage, another cold deal he never asked to be part of?
He's already been abandoned once. Left behind by a mother who chose other men, other lives. And even if she's gone, the scar she left still lingers in his silence, in the way he clings to me when the nights get too quiet. He doesn't laugh like other kids. He doesn't trust easily. He's just three, and already too guarded.
