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ss Mafia Don-stitching his gunshot wounds, surviving gang
was forged in blo
e crawled back to the ci
of syndicate money to buy back her ancestral estate. He abandoned me in a bridal boutique for twelve hours-just to go hang a vintage c
the blood pooli
. Alone. I signed the surgical consent forms myself while he d
his knees and clutching my bloodied c
d into a studio on the East Side. Started de
he underworld reduced to a ghost with ruined shoes. He thinks I'l
s w
rophy in my hand and a good man on one knee. And when I catch a gl
is is a story of what happens when a q
pte
n's
ded in my lap
y engagement ring in the lamplight, when my p
ke. Alone. Beautiful in that fragile, f
ady circling like vultures,
jaw. "Your childhood flame just crawled back to
but I was already asking the wrong ma
ckle vibrated through my cheekbone, warm and dismissiv
ond on my finger-the one he'd slid there s
ieved
me fever medicine when we were nothing but two nobodies in a safe house. The man who had
s wounds. Five years of lo
into the silk gown we'd chosen for tonight's
into the living room
t the city lights. Smoke curled from his fingers. The
old slid do
e velvet cushions whe
ce up. Screen
't. But my fingers were already reach
g alert. Confir
illion
a holding titled with the coor
: Reclaiming
ed to cement
illion.
was just a gutter rat with bloody knuckles and nothing to lo
ney-our money, Family money-to buy back t
sn't ve
ion wearing a r
e you lo
ctly behind me. Low. Res
taught me one thing: never flin
d. I placed the phone face-down on the gl
I t
rched my face. Ca
aid. My voice didn't waver. "For to
at me for one
d the room in three strides, pulling me against his chest wit
with you," he murmured into
o his chest and li
rhythm that had lulled me
illion-dollar question
time I buried the
n't be t
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