THE DON'S MISSING PIECE
Cassandra Hayes is a nineteen-year-old college student balancing school, a part-time job at a flower shop, and caring for her aging grandmother. Her life is ordinary, predictable, and painfully small until a routine delivery goes disastrously wrong.
Sent to the Gold Coast with an arrangement of white orchids, Cassandra arrives at the wrong address and stumbles upon the aftermath of a violent confrontation. Bullet holes riddle the walls. Furniture lies shattered. And a deep, dangerous voice demands to know who's there.
She flees. She thinks she's safe. But the black SUV waiting outside her apartment tells a different story.
Dante Moretti is twenty-eight, cold, calculating man and the head of an empire built on both legal and illegal foundations. When a delivery girl witnesses something she shouldn't, he should eliminate the threat. Instead, he's drawn to her in ways he doesn't understand.
Then he sees the necklace she wears, a pendant that belonged to her mother, a woman he helped twenty years ago. A woman who died hiding evidence that could destroy powerful men.
Cassandra is no longer invisible. Enemies who killed her mother now want her dead. To protect her, Dante makes a shocking decision, he claims she's his fiancée.
What begins as protection becomes entanglement. Cassandra is thrust into a world of luxury, danger, and family secrets. Dante's parents despise her. His aunt torments her. And the truth about her parents' past threatens to tear everything apart.
As the fake engagement blurs into something real, Cassandra must decide if she can trust the man who's both her protector and her captor. And Dante must confront the one thing he's never allowed himself to feel. Love.
Because in Dante world, love is not safe. And Cassandra might be the missing piece that destroys him or finally sets him free.
Read
Chapter: The SearchCassandra didn't sleep.She lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, her fingers wrapped around the pendant at her throat. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw the apartment. The overturned furniture. The bullet holes. The voice.Who's there?She'd told her grandmother everything except the man. Something held her back. Some instinct she couldn't explain.The morning light crept through the curtains, pale and gray. Cassandra finally sat up, her body aching with exhaustion. She dragged herself to the bathroom, splashing cold water on her face. Her reflection stared back—dark circles, pale skin, haunted eyes.You're fine, she told herself. You got out. No one saw you. You're fine.She didn't believe it.---The kitchen smelled like coffee and toast.Evelyn stood at the stove, her movements slow and deliberate. Her hands trembled as she reached for the kettle. Cassandra watched her grandmother wince, watched her bite her lip against the pain."Gran, sit down. I'll do that.""I'm fine." Eve
Last Updated: 2026-08-08
Chapter: A Fight In The MorningDante didn't sleep.He'd returned to the mansion at two in the morning, the silence of the house pressing down on him. His footsteps echoed off the marble floors as he climbed the stairs, each step heavier than the last.He'd showered. Changed. Sat in the dark of his room, staring at nothing.Now the sun was rising, pale gray light filtering through the floor-to-ceiling windows. Dante stood at the window, his coffee untouched on the desk behind him. His eyes were fixed on the city below, but his mind was elsewhere.Who told them?The question gnawed at him. His parents knew about the apartment. About the scene. About everything.He'd made sure no one saw him. Made sure the clean-up was fast, silent, invisible. His men were loyal. Trusted.So how?Then the door to his room bursted open.Dante didn't turn around. He knew who it was before the voice even spoke."What were you thinking?"Vincent Moretti stormed into the room, his face purple with rage. His father was sixty-two, silver-ha
Last Updated: 2026-07-09
Chapter: The Man In The ShadowsThe cat was the first thing Cassandra noticed.It was a stray, a scruffy orange tom that usually slept on the neighbor's porch. But tonight, it was crouched beneath the hydrangea bush by her window, its fur bristled, its yellow eyes fixed on something across the street.She followed its gaze.But something was different this time.Then a car pulled up. Black. Sleek. Identical.Cassandra's heart stopped.That must be him, he followed me.She pressed herself against the wall, her back flat against the cold plaster. Her breathing was too loud, too fast. She couldn't hear anything over the pounding in her ears.The cat hissed and darted away into the darkness.It knows, Cassandra thought. Even the cat knows they're dangerous.She peeked through the gap in the curtain again. The car was dark and menacing. The engine hummed, a low growl that seemed to vibrate through the walls.What is he waiting for?Cassandra's grandmother was in the bedroom. Evelyn had taken her medicine and gone to slee
Last Updated: 2026-07-09
Chapter: Not AgainA knock on the front door which made Cassandra jump on the bed.Her heart slammed against her ribs. She spun around, her breath catching in her throat."Cassandra?" Her grandmother's voice came from the kitchen. "Can you get that?"She couldn't move, she just sat on the bed."Cassandra?""I…" She swallowed hard. "Yeah. Yeah, I'll get it."She crossed the living room slowly, her hand trembling as it reached for the doorknob. She pulled it open, bracing herself for the worst.It was Mrs. Delaney from two doors down.The elderly woman stood on the doorstep, her gray hair in curlers, her housedress wrinkled. She clutched her purse like a shield, her eyes darting nervously."Cassandra, dear." Mrs. Delaney's voice was tight. "Is your grandmother home?""She's in the kitchen. Is everything okay?""I need to speak with her. Urgently."Mrs. Delaney pushed past Cassandra without waiting for an invitation. The woman's hands were shaking. Her face was pale, her lips pressed into a thin line.Cass
Last Updated: 2026-07-09
Chapter: The Wrong DeliveryThe afternoon sun had begun its slow descent when Cassandra finally stepped off the bus.Her economics test still on her mind, but it was over now. Done. She could breathe.She adjusted her backpack and pulled out her phone, checking the time. Two-forty. She had twenty minutes before her shift at Bloom & Petal started. Just enough time to grab a coffee and..Her phone buzzed.A text from Patty: Rush delivery. Gold Coast. Address attached. Need you to take it before your shift.Cassandra groaned. So much for coffee.She opened the address. 1240 North Michigan Avenue. The Gold Coast. Of course. The rich people always wanted their deliveries at the most inconvenient times.On my way, she texted back then, tucked her phone into her pocket and headed towards the store.****Bloom & Petal was a small storefront wedged between a dry cleaner and a coffee shop. The windows were filled with colorful displayed roses, lilies, hydrangeas all arranged with the kind of care that came from decades
Last Updated: 2026-07-09
Chapter: What A DayThe alarm clock screamed at 6:47 AM.Cassandra's hand shot out from beneath the covers, slapping blindly at the snooze button. Her fingers found plastic, pressed down hard. Silence.She groaned, rolling onto her back. The ceiling stared back at her, cracked paint, water stains from last winter's leak, the faint outline of a spider web in the corner.Monday, she thought. I hate you already.Her body felt heavy, her limbs weighted down by exhaustion. She'd been up until midnight studying for her economics test, the formulas swimming in her head like confused fish. And before that, she'd spent two hours rubbing cream into her grandmother's arthritic hands, watching her wince with every gentle touch.Cassandra swung her legs over the side of the bed,the floor was cold against her bare feet. She shivered.Time to move.****The bathroom mirror reflected a girl who looked exactly how she felt, tired. Dark circles beneath her eyes. Hair a mess, tangled from sleep. A small pimple forming on h
Last Updated: 2026-07-09
LOGIN
