Eight-year-old Athena Dimitriou has never known safety. Raised by a mother who loved her but resented her, and a man who hid his violence behind closed doors, she learned early how to stay small, quiet, and invisible. Until the night everything shattered. When her mother is found dead and her stepfather vanishes, DNA results reveal an impossible truth-Athena is the illegitimate daughter of one of America's most powerful Mafia dons. Whisked away to New York, she finds herself in a palace of cold steel and burning loyalty, under the protection of five ruthless brothers who rule a criminal empire. She was born in silence. They raise her in steel. But beneath the violence lies something unexpected-soft hands, warm arms, a family that will kill for her, die for her... and teach her, at last, how to live. Book 1

Xavier Moretti. A 28 year old don of the Italian-American mafia. He's a cold, ruthless, emotionless devil who doesn't care about anyone or anything. So when he kidnaps the wrong woman? he has to fight to earn her trust and protect her from the dangerous world he brought her in to. Charlotte Rose Meadows. Your average 19 year old girl. She's innocent, kind, and full of life. Everything Xavier isn't. When she's wrongfully kidnapped by the mafia, she has to learn how to trust people again and adapt to her new dangerous lifestyle. ---------------------------------------- ''You know Eliza, you have such a pretty little face. It would be such a shame to see it scarred, wouldn't it?'' he says as he drags the bloody knife along my cheek. Wait... Eliza? He thinks my name is Eliza? 'What are the chances you happen to just walk into my club on a random Saturday night?' His club... MY FAKE ID! ''E-Eliza?'' I mumble and he tilts his head slightly ''My name...i-its Charlotte'' ---------------------------------------- #1 ON FICTION 05/11/25 #10 ON PLOTTWIST 23/10/25 #13 ON DARKROMANCE 24/10/25 #7 ON MAFIA 25/10/25 #3 ON JEALOUSY 26/10/25 #5 ON POSSESSIVE 25/10/25 #1 ON ITALIANMAFIA 28/10/25 #11 ON LOVE 18/11/25 #1 ON MAFIABOSS 04/11/25

She was never meant to be his bride. Yet fate exchanged her heart for his fury. When Elara Cross is forced to marry Adrian Vale, the man once promised to her late sister, she becomes nothing more than an exchange bride-a substitute pawn in a business deal sealed with tragedy. To Adrian, she is a ghost wearing the face of the woman he loved. To her family, she is disposable, an illegitimate daughter raised in cruelty and handed over like property. But Elara's quiet endurance unsettles Adrian more than defiance ever could. Behind her hollow eyes and malnourished frame lies a survivor who has known only pain, and Adrian's vow to make her life hell begins to fracture under the weight of her scars. As the secrets of their pasts unravel-and as the ghost of Adrian's lost love lingers between them-hatred twists into obsession, cruelty into protection, and an unwanted marriage into something neither of them expected: a story written not by fate, but by choice.