CIGARETTES AND ROSES

Emilia had always painted to escape. Her tiny art studio at the back of her family's crumbling bookstore was her sanctuary-a world of color when everything else was grey. She'd sell a few pieces here and there, nothing major, but enough to buy paints, brushes, and maybe a coffee when the bills weren't drowning her.

Then the bookstore started losing money-fast. Her father's once-booming little shop, nestled in an old street corner of Florence, had become a relic in the age of online everything. Debts piled like bricks on Emilia's shoulders until breathing became a luxury.

And then came the offer.

Luca Moretti. The name sent chills down spines. The son of a notorious mafia boss turned kingpin himself after his father mysteriously vanished. Cold, calculating, and rich beyond imagination. He walked into her bookstore like he owned it-which, as it turned out, he nearly did.

Emilia's father had borrowed money. A lot of it.

The terms were simple. Marry him, and the debt would vanish. Her family would be safe. No strings-except the obvious ones wrapped tightly around her life.

She refused at first. She wanted to paint, not play house with a criminal. But then she came home to find her little sister crying over a stack of unpaid medical bills. Her mother silent, defeated.