Chapter: CHAPTER 36: Rosalia“Wrong room.” I whirled around at the same moment. They were both unfazed. The taller one's lips extended into a smile. “Are you sure?” he inquired. I followed his tilted chin to the sign above the door.The hairs on the back of my neck rose like spikes at the glowing sign that marked the men's restroom from the women's. I was indeed in the wrong restroom. I gasped, picked up my hand bag, and started past them. I let go of a breath I hadn't realized I was holding as I passed the first man.Just inches from the door, solid fingers clamped around my arm and pulled me back so suddenly my shoulder erupted with pain.My heart lurched fiercely in my chest as I sucked in a breath through my teeth.“Hey,” the second man said mildly, like I’d bumped into him instead of the other way around. “Relax. Just a moment.”Something chilly slid along my spine. My body went alert in a manner I hadn't experienced in years. I took a while to pull away. Rather, I relaxed my arm to test his hold and bu
Última actualización: 2026-02-06
Chapter: CHAPTER 35: RosaliaThe words sounded naive the second they left my mouth. Still, I let his warmth seep into me. His arms stayed stiff by his sides with not even a fraction of movement in response. And as I pulled away, I felt alone again. Everything that had been safe was gone. Hot sweat climbed the back of my neck, and my stomach knotted with anger that had nowhere to go. None of it mattered. This wasn’t about me anymore. It was the cost of my mother’s freedom. “Goodbye, signorina,” he said at last in a distant voice, nodded once, and pressed a few folded dollar bills into my palm like a stranger would.I stood there and watched the car disappear into the moving line of traffic until I couldn’t tell it apart from the others. I didn’t know how long I stayed rooted there, but when I turned back to the terminal, everything that was happening crashed over me like a wave.The wave of air conditioning slapped me across the face as I pushed through the sliding doors. The terminal was bustling with luggage
Última actualización: 2026-02-05
Chapter: CHAPTER 34: Rosalia“Marco!” my mom yelled. “You snake. You jerk. You think because my husband is dead –”“That’s enough, Eleonora,” he cut in, “this behavior is exactly why we’re here.”As two more men hurried in, one of them handed him a plastic file, and he continued to look me down.“Your mother,” he said with a downward-curving mouth as he passed me, “is unwell.”“Grieving –”“She’s unstable.”I stepped into his path before he could reach her. “She’s fine,” I stated. “She’s upset. Anyone would be upset. You can't just storm into our house and decide – what is this, huh?”“Your mother's condition has been deteriorating for months. Public incidents. Emotional instability. Refusal to comply with medical advice,” he replied without hesitation, unpinned the file, and slid a stack of papers free. When he extended them toward me and I didn’t move, he placed them on the couch beside him.A faint smirk stretched his lips.“Escalating paranoia. Attempts to obstruct company operations. I won’t allow it to spir
Última actualización: 2026-02-04
Chapter: CHAPTER 33: RosaliaThere was only pressure and the sensation of being restrained by an unidentified force. My breath became shallow and my limbs refused to respond. I wasn't screaming. The cruelest thing of it has always been that I never resist. Like a blunt object through glass, the sound penetrated the space. In a single quick motion, it crashed into my ears and wrenched me from sleep. My skin was slippery with sweat, as though I had raced miles rather than lay motionless, and I jerked upright, the blankets tangled over my legs. My throat felt scraped and dry that swallowing hurt, and for a second I couldn’t tell if the noise was still part of the dream. After three years, it had become less frequent and duller, but they never really went away. I breathed through my mouth while I sat there. My nightshirt clung awkwardly to my back because the room was too warm. I grounded myself in my sister's bed and dragged my trembling hands down my cheeks. My eyebrows furrowed. Only Matteo could have brought m
Última actualización: 2026-01-10
Chapter: CHAPTER 32: RosaliaThe label wasn’t written on the front like the others, but along the side. I stared at the envelope, hoping stupidly that I had read it wrong. My hand hovered, then closed around the envelope, lifting it slowly from the drawer.This wasn’t recent. The paper was worn, handled more than once. Whatever was inside had been opened, considered, then buried again. I swallowed, suddenly aware of how quiet the room was, and slid my finger beneath the seal.I lowered myself into the chair without realizing my knees had given way. There was no confession here, no apology or attempt to justify what had been done.Dates and names were recorded in the impersonal style of men who demanded submission rather than pardon. My father's name appeared with the De Laurentiis seal and the Cosa Nostra code underneath it years ago, following an almost catastrophic betrayal. Under one condition, an unfeasible option offered as mercy, he had been spared execution.My hands went numb and the envelope slid from my
Última actualización: 2026-01-08
Chapter: CHAPTER 31: Rosalia“But,” I paused my lips, drawing away, “sometimes life doesn’t ask what you want. It just… redirects you. And no amount of wanting makes the path straighten.”Confusion crept up his face. “Are you saying –”“I’m saying I didn’t come here to hurt you,” I interrupted. My chest tightened suddenly. It felt like an invisible thread pulling hard. I glanced past him, toward the far trees and the open dark. Everything felt wrong. “I thought I was ready for this.”He instinctively leaned closer. “We don’t have to rush anything. I’m not expecting –”“I know,” I rose up. The movement was abrupt and jarring even to me. “And that’s the problem.”He rose too, concern etched plainly across his face. “Rosalia, talk to me. You don’t look –”“I’m sorry,” I cut in, my breath uneven now as I picked up my jacket and purse from behind him. “This is pretty awkward. I don’t know. I’m not sure what I was thinking.” I forced myself to meet his eyes. “You’re a really nice guy, and I really want this. But I ha
Última actualización: 2026-01-08
TWO LIVES - Shattered Illusion
“Are you trying to punish me? I…I don't know how many times I can apologize even if it wasn't my fault that I almost—”
“I never asked you to. You do whatever you want, Niya, and I really don't care. Neither should you bother with what I do.”
“You're hurt. You're hurt, Alex, and you're acting out. Don't worry we could talk this through. This isn't you.” I try to reach him again but he shoots me a deadly glare that pierces through my skin like a dagger.
“Sure it is. You've just never seen me like this. You don't know what I look like when I'm not in love with you,” his brows grow together. “Now we’ve had enough of your drama. You'll find the papers and enjoy the party or use the fucking door.”
He pulls away and my eyes cloud again. My ears and heart find it hard to process what is actually going on. The looks on their faces tell me it is awfully too late—I have already lost everything.
“Niya, careful now,” my grandmother slowly tugs at my arm as if that will somehow make everything better. “We have guests. Don’t cause a scene.”
A scene? I have literally just seen a whole movie, ma.
*************
My name is Niya Kendrick. I’m 25, an author who once believed she had the perfect life. But how quickly can everything I love be stripped away in the blink of an eye? Or worse, what if the life, the family I’ve cherished has always been a blatant lie, a mere fragment of the truth? Now, I’m awake, and reality is far harsher than any dream.
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Chapter: CHAPTER 83: Vanished.Niya crawled to Ma Phil’s side, her knees scraping the floor. Her fingers trembled when she reached out, but the second Ma Phil turned her face toward her, she backed away, her knees hitting the ground with a soft thud, and the cold tile climbed into her bones.What she saw in her eyes wasn’t grief.Or it was. But not only that.Her grandmother’s eyes were red and hollowed with pain. They shone darker like they'd been burned with acid. Hatred and love all at once, and Niya didn’t have to be told who each emotion belonged to.“Don’t get any close!” Ma Phil’s voice cracked through the air like a whip, and Niya swallowed a gasp, recoiling.Ma Phil returned her eyes to May’s lifeless body and held her tighter, rocking her like a baby who’d just fallen asleep. “Oh, baby… oh, baby girl,” she sobbed, over and over.Niya's hands met the floor as she tried to understand what was happening. How this happened and how it could possibly be her fault.Just as if Ma Phil had heard her thoughts, “Fin
Última actualización: 2025-07-14
Chapter: CHAPTER 82: The Murder.Josh had started dating May two weeks after their final exams. “He likes me more,” Maybelle had said with that same syrupy shrug. “Boys don’t like mystery when they can have certainty.”She remembered how Alex barely spoke to May back in high school and how his caretaker only ever saw May when she looked her way. How May would press a possessive hand on her belly, laugh at inside jokes with Alex's caretaker whenever she visited Alex in school. The saddest thing about betrayal is that it never came from your enemies but from the ones who kiss your cheek while carving out your spine. And May had carved her deep so she didn’t even bleed anymore. She was now hollowed.And Raphael wasn’t just complicit. He was willing. And he was worse because he made her feel seen before he vanished behind the same curtain of lies.Niya wasn't going to take the fair and honest road anymore. That road had betrayed and chewed her up, then spat her out with scraped knees and trembling hands. So she was don
Última actualización: 2025-07-12
Chapter: CHAPTER 81: Broken deal.Was it that obvious to him and everyone? Had they all witnessed it before she did, that she'd fallen for a lie? That as they watched, her little heart, sweet and foolish, had been hanging in the open?Was that the reason why Silas never stopped staring at her? If he really knew, why didn't it tell her? Her thoughts were dragging through gravel like a body, and her eyes were glassy.Silas was never on her side. He'd watched Raphael fool her. After being duped once and twice, Niya was no longer even sure what she wanted.Death or paradise? Did it even matter. Both sounded like an escape from the pain clawing at her ribs.It was her own damn fault. She should’ve known better that men like Raphael didn’t fall for girls like her.The ache shot through her. May was carrying Alex’s child. That much she’d known. And yet she was sleeping with Raphael? What kind of twisted, soul-rotting circus had she walked into?Was it permitted? She was aware that it was a contract marriage, but she didn't
Última actualización: 2025-07-11
Chapter: CHAPTER 80: The betrayal.Her brows pinched as she dragged her thumb across the screen. The lock screen was open with no passcode, just messages stacked one beneath the other.It wasn't her intention to open the phone or even read on, but the picture before her had made the quiet night around her went silent, while a million drums beat noisily inside her head. She wanted to be sure she saw it right the first time. ~ ‘I miss the way your lips taste after wine. Next time, don’t wait for me to undress you.’The messages were new, only from tonight. It looked like the conversation went far beyond this, and whatever came before had been wiped clean carefully. All but these last few confessed desires left behind, like the sender hadn’t expected someone else to see. Or maybe they wanted to be caught. The photo icon beside the name was blank. She tapped on it anyway, praying it would lie to her. But no, it opened to the default contact page. The number was plain and simple, without any frills or initials.But it w
Última actualización: 2025-07-10
Chapter: CHAPTER 79: Wanted.Niya couldn’t make sense of her feelings. It felt like she had liked Alex for a long time – maybe she’d even loved him. When she first woke up, she remembered they were married. That they were in love. But the accident had happened barely two weeks after the contract agreement… if that. Which meant it would’ve been impossible for Alex to have loved her back in that short time.Or maybe it was just her foolish imagination playing tricks on her.Thinking that Alexander McKenzie would ever like her – let alone love her – was insane.She shook her head, her jaw setting. No more Alex. Let him stay caught up in whatever shallow world he’d carved for himself. She didn’t care anymore, especially when her body was still marked by Raphael’s touch. She was going to give herself to Raphael and show him the parts of her she had been bottling up for years.At the kitchen sink, she downed a glass of cold water, letting it cool the heat running down her thighs. What could she give him in return?Woul
Última actualización: 2025-07-09
Chapter: CHAPTER 78: Unholy devotion.Even before her lashes fluttered apart, Niya felt the dull ache blooming deep between her legs, a reminder of what she’d begged for hours ago. As she moved, every muscle in her body ached and every nerve lit like candle wax.Her eyes peeled open slowly to a room dimly washed in pre-dawn blue. She didn’t need to turn fully to know he was still there. His slow, warm breath skimmed the side of her neck, earning soft heat over her skin.He was sprawled around her, and carved in moonlight. His chestnut hair had come loose, falling over his damp forehead in feathered strands. His thick, dark lashes were motionless, fanned across his cheeks. A faint mustache framed the curve of his full, cupid’s bow mouth which was still slightly parted and looked too swollen to be innocent. A faded beard darkened the hollows of his cheeks and sculpted his chiseled jawline, and beneath it all, his face held a calmness that wasn’t sleep. It was something else. Something untouched.Niya couldn’t look away. His
Última actualización: 2025-07-09
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