"Woah, slow down. What?" I heard him say and I furrowed my eyebrows, looking up. "Ma.." He trailed off and I already knew it was his mother. "That has nothing to do with you." He said and I sat up because I could hear him getting angry. "What's wrong?" I asked him and he put his phone on speaker. "I can't believe you got that little.." She trailed off, too angry to even get her words out. "..whore pregnant, Sage." "And then the little slut gets an abortion, I hope she knows that she will rot in hell." She said and my heart dropped. He hung up the phone on her before she could say anything else. "Baby." He looked at me as I bit my lip, standing to my feet. "Olive." He stood to his feet as well. I quickly walked to the bathroom and closed the door behind me before Sage could catch me. I broke down crying as he stood on the other side of the door. "Babygirl, I love you." "I love you too." I told him, breathing heavily. "Don't cry, love. Nothing she says matters, she's just mad because I love you so much and there's nothing she can say to change that." "Open the door for me please?" I wiped my face before I slowly opened the door for him. "I'm done with her." He said, shaking his head. He pulled me to him, wrapping his arms around my waist as he shoved his head into my neck. "Until she can learn to respect you as my lady, she's out of our life."

"Hello, Sincere. How are you feeling today?" "Same as everyday, can't sleep, can't eat.." I trailed off, looking down at Sinclair who had a perfect mixture of both V and I. "That's not good." She said and I shrugged. "None of this is." I said and she nodded understandingly. "Have faith." She said, placing her hand on my shoulder and I nodded. I tried hard to keep the tears in because I had to be strong for everybody. The family was really going through it and I just wanted her back in my arms. V had my heart and if I lost her for good, I'd never look for love again. The doctor walked out as I sat there quietly and Clair looked over my face while she made spit bubbles. I bit my bottom lip, holding back tears as I looked at V laying there with tubes in her. Not able to hold on any longer, I broke down. "Baybeh, I need you..." I trailed off, shaking my head. "I need you so bad, I can't do this shit. I can't do life with you." I explained, looking down at the floor. "We need you, ma." My voice cracked, looking over to Sinclair who was still looking up at me. "Our baybeh girl is so beautiful, ma. I want you to see her, I want you to see her grow up. I want you to be here with us.." I trailed off, collecting my words. I wiped my face as more tears poured down and I shook my head, sighing deeply. "Wake up, baybeh." I spoke, breaking down as I bit my bottom lip.

" I am my brothers' keeper"

Revenge. I'm familiar with it. You have to be when you're the firstborn son of a notorious mafia leader. Death and vengeance have been the very foundations of my life. So who in their fucking mind would be stupid enough to cross me? My brother and I have been wrongfully convicted of a crime we didn't commit. We know who is behind this. We bid our time behind bars, planned and prepared for the day we got out. Now we're free and hungry for redemption. I know what must be done. I know whose blood will be spilled. But before I go after him, I'll go after his daughter. I never said I play fair. *Book one in the Marino Brothers Duet. Rated 18+ due to explicit language, sex, and violence.*

❝ 𝘊𝘈𝘚𝘏, 𝘙𝘜𝘓𝘌𝘚, 𝘌𝘝𝘌𝘙𝘠𝘛𝘏𝘐𝘕𝘎, 𝘈𝘙𝘖𝘜𝘕𝘋, 𝘔𝘌 𝘊.𝘙.𝘌.𝘈.𝘔. 𝘎𝘌𝘛 𝘛𝘏𝘌 𝘔𝘖𝘕𝘌𝘠 𝘋𝘖𝘓𝘓𝘈𝘙, 𝘋𝘖𝘓𝘓𝘈𝘙 𝘉𝘐𝘓𝘓 𝘠'𝘈𝘓𝘓 ❞

"Montana, come here." He nodded his head toward the door, leaving out of the room. Staying silent as Ms. Carol looked at me, I kissed the back of Josiah's hand before leaving out of the room. As I walked out, Messiah stood there looking at me in disgust while I closed the door. "What are you doing that shit for?" "Huh?" I said since I had nothing else to say, just trying to stall time to get my words together. "Why are you stripping, Monty?" Sighing, I decided that I wasn't going to lie like I'd originally planned to do after listening to Chocolate's stupid advice. "Money." I spoke simply and he scoffed as I looked down. "Why not just ask Josiah for money instead doing hoe shit?" "First of all, It's not doing hoe shit. I don't have sex with anyone. I just dance. And I don't want to ask him for any money. It's not his job to take care of me." "So stripping..." He trailed off with a laugh. "..stripping was the last resort? Instead of putting your pride aside?" Saying nothing, I just looked at him with pleading eyes. "Please don't tell him, Messiah." I could already tell by the look on his face that he was going to tell him. "I ain't gon' tell him.." Thank God. I thought. "..you are." "What?!" I shrieked. "No. I'm not." "You are." He spoke in a demanding tone. "Please. You know how he is." I expressed "And you know how he is too but you made that bed." "Messiah, he's going to kill me." I begged. "I know." He shook his head, walking away from me. "Better figure it out. You got until the end of the day to tell him or I will." He mumbled before walking back into the room.

𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚍 𝚘𝚞𝚝...

𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐚𝐦 𝐢 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐢 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐲𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟? - 𝐢𝐭'𝐬 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐎'𝐬 𝐮𝐩 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐡𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐝, 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐦𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐎 ' 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤. 𝗲𝘀𝘁: 𝗳𝗲𝗯.𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟭 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗱: 𝗷𝘂𝗹𝘆.𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟭

You the one I wanna be next to Hope you don't mind when I text you

The cold man fell in love with the kind girl because he knew that she deserved the world and that he wanted to be the one who gave it to her. ♡ Alette Faye was a sweet girl. She was exceptionally kind and had an air of simplicity. Between her part-time job at the bakery, her classes, her time spent tending to her flowers and walking in the fields, she didn't get the opportunity to experience much. Her past created fears in her that she seemingly couldn't overcome, and then she met him. For when she meets him, she should have run away in fear, but she stayed. She stayed and she opened her big heart for a man who found his heart, just for her. ♡ This story is a little cliché, a lot unedited, and super simple.