𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒 𝐅𝐀𝐋𝐋

They warned that love would hurt.
But no one spoke of the tempest that could strike before the heart even dared to love.

𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐀 𝐃'𝐀𝐌𝐁𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐈𝐎 wants one thing: to finish college, get a stable job, and take her grandmother far from a city that never felt like home. She's quiet, self-contained and allergic to trouble. No friends, no dates, no mess. So when a man with half-smiles, probably a bunch of criminal records, and nearly a decade older than her walks into her life, she tells herself it's nothing. It isn't supposed to be.

𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐎 𝐕𝐈𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐄's life is simple ━ at least, as simple as it gets when it's built on bloodshed and mayhem. Catelina was supposed to be a distraction, a passing kindness in a life too used to cruelty. Soon to rise as an underboss of the Outfit, he's long made peace with the loneliness, violence and silence that comes with power. Until her.

He didn't expect Catelina to become the only constant that matters. But constants don't last long in a world tainted with sin.

And even the stars are doomed to fall.
So what hope does something as fragile as love have?

ᡕᠵデᡁ᠊╾━

𝐜𝐰: kinda angsty, mentions of rape and parental trauma (check the introduction for triggers)
𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐬: age gap (20 h & 29 H), dislike/frenemies-to-lovers, forced proximity