Book 1 of the Painted Lies duet lost /lɒst/ adjective; unable to find one's way or not knowing one's whereabouts Liliana and her twin - Isabella - were both kidnapped from their family ( the Italian mafia ) at 3 years old by the Russian mafia as revenge and put into foster care in Spain. Their family never found them and eventually gave up looking. Liliana and her twin couldn't be more different. Liliana is cold, distant. everyone and everything knows not to mess with her, her one weakness? Her twin sister Isabella is the most vulnerable, bubbly person you could imagine and the only one that Liliana would drop anything and everything for although isabella doesn't know it. They were put into foster care at 3 years old and had been lucky enough to have been kept together in the system. But one day Liliana disappeared for 2years when she was 12 and came back completely different. Cold. Ruthless. Dangerous. And the most feared assassin in the underworld, but 'diabla' identity is kept secret from everyone except for her allies in other mafias and her best friends. But no secret can last forever can it? Not unless you take it to the grave.

( previously known as | owned by him | ) He is a psychopath... "Vihaan Singhania" Living deep inside a hidden mansion, buried within the dark forest, far away from the city and the rest of the world. A man who despises human touch, who carries scars of a childhood drenched in trauma... Yet, beneath that darkness, he always craved for her existence. She is a 19-year-old girl living a peaceful college life... "Kiara Rathore" A girl who secretly devours dark romance books, dreaming for her forbidden fantasies to someday breathe into reality. Two different worlds. One cruel obsession. A tale where darkness meets desire. Rest to be continued...

「 "𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐮𝐭𝐞 𝐛𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐚 𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫'𝐬 𝐞𝐲𝐞"」 ── My feet slammed into the grass, lungs on fire. Blood slicked my hands. I didn't look back. I knew he was there. ❝ Run, baby, run. Run for your fucking life,❞ he growled. ❝ When I catch you, I'll fuck you.❞ ── 𝓐𝓮𝓻𝓲 𝓥𝓪𝓵𝓮: I bake bread. I keep my head down. I don't speak. Silence is safer than begging. I learned that with blood in my mouth and my stepbrother's words crawling under my skin. He trades me like a cigarette-lit, used, passed on. People forget me. They walk past and look through. But not him. Aaron Deveraux. Leader of The Reapers. He saw me. It started with roses-anonymous. Then came the late-night shadows outside the bakery. Now, I feel him before I even hear his voice. I try to run. But he likes it when I run. ── 𝓐𝓪𝓻𝓸𝓷 𝓓𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓻𝓪𝓾𝔁: He smells like flour and fear. And I want both. I call him Little Ghost because he floats through this rotten city like he's not part of it. Mute. Soft. Fragile like glass. I'm gonna crack him open. First time I saw him, I wanted to fuck the sound out of him. Second time, I wanted to ruin his mouth. Now? I just want to keep him shaking. I'm not in love. I'm obsessed. He bakes bread and I break fucking bones. We were never meant to touch. So I'll drag him into my world until he breaks in mine. ──

「"𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐨𝐫, 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐛𝐨𝐲 𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐲𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫"」 ── ❝ 'You like being hunted, don't you, little thing?' he said. 'You like knowing you drag the fucking monster out of me just by breathing.' ❞ ── Cyril Roosevelt doesn't belong at L'Académie Sainte-Marie-a prestigious Parisian university for the rich and powerful. He's poor. Shy. Soft. The scholarship student that nobody takes seriously. But someone is watching him. He starts getting gifts. Blood red roses with no sender. Handwritten letters calling him his little mouse. Messages from an unknown number that seem to know exactly where he is. Exactly what he's wearing. Exactly how fast his heart is beating. And then there's Deimos King. The mafia prince everyone fears. The monster Cyril can't outrun. But what scares Cyril most isn't Deimos's reputation. It's the way Deimos looks at him. Like he owns him. Like he's been waiting for him. The walls close in when Cyril receives an invitation to a secluded mansion. Masked faces, and a Halloween party that feels more like a trap. 𝐎𝐛𝐬𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 has a name. And it's coming for him.

*𝙏𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙧𝙪𝙡𝙚𝙧 𝙤𝙛 𝙙𝙖𝙧𝙠𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙧𝙖𝙜𝙞𝙡𝙚 𝙨𝙤𝙪𝙡 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙙𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙝𝙞𝙢.* Book 1 of ᴄʜᴀɪɴᴇᴅ ᴄʜᴏɪᴄᴇs. A Royal Romance story. "Every curve of you is made to fit into my hands. My hands and my hands only." He lowered his mouth to her shoulder again, trailed moist lips to the nape of her neck. "Don't worry, My Angel," he whispered. "I'm made for your hands, too." ✧ Nikolai Ivanovich Petrov isn't just the youngest son of the Russian royal family-he's a mafia lord, a storm in human form. With the looks of a Greek God, he's a dangerous blend of beauty and power. His empire stretches across continents, built on fear, loyalty, and blood. Power is his addiction, and he's willing to do anything to claim it. To solidify his control, he needs one thing: a marriage. Not for love. Not for desire. But as a strategic weapon. And Radhika Bhardwaj, the naive daughter of a broken family, is the perfect pawn. Radhika was never meant for this world. A girl who once dreamed of freedom, now trapped in a marriage that serves nothing but Nikolai's ambitions. She didn't choose him. She didn't even get a say. Nikolai didn't care for her innocence or her life. For him, she was just another piece in his game. But in her, Nikolai sees something no one else has ever dared to show him: vulnerability, and a spark of light that might set fire to his world. Two worlds crash. Two souls collide. He doesn't care if she hates him. But he will own her anyway. "I hate you," she said. "I hate you too, baby," he replied. A man whose control over everything is absolute, can a single woman change the rules, or will she be crushed under his weight?