The Vision She Hid
She pretended not to see. He pretended not to care. Now the whole mafia clan watching them burn.
When Leo Christofides saved a man’s life, she lost everything—her sight, her future as a prima ballerina, and her freedom. For two years, she’s lived in darkness, relying on the man who once promised to be her eyes. But when her vision returned, the first thing she sees is betrayal: her fiancé tangled up with her nurse, wearing the same smile he used to give only to Leo.
Before Leo can escape this nightmare, she’s handed over like a pawn in a blood-soaked stand-off between two gangs. She is sold to an attractive, enigmatic mafia boss with a gun on his hip and secrets in his eyes. His name is Vic, and he introduces her to his clan not as a hostage but as his wife.
Now Leo must play blind in a house full of killers, where power is the only hard currency and trust is a suicide. But she’s not the helpless girl Hermano thinks she is. Leo has a dark secret of her own. She is watching. Waiting. The next move is hers, and it can be deadly.
The Vision She Hid is a dark, seductive thriller dripping in secrets and slow-burn heat, where power struggle meets mafia romance with a blade between its teeth.
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Chapter: 43The drawing room looked like it hadn’t changed since the last Chinese dynasty had vanished—fire cracking in the hearth like a war was starting inside the walls, books stacked with the precision of a death row meal, but in a nice way, all antique first editions. A crystal decanter of scotch was breathing heavy on the sideboard.Elky’s older brother—nicknamed Trigger in the close circle, the silver snake with a voice dipped in honey and homicide—lounged in a high-backed chair. His charcoal wool suit was so well-tailored it looked annoyed to be touching human skin. There was a blue silk handkerchief in the pocket of his jacket and his pale blue eyes looked faded in comparison. He wore black turtleneck, no shirt or tie, and he had a thick tanned neck. His features were heavy and well-punched to the right, especially in the nose area, but still handsome. He had two inches less of height than Elky had. His light hair was short, crew cut which reminded me of Gianni’s, so I didn’t like i
Last Updated: 2025-06-21
Chapter: 42I’ve piled everything I’ve got in a craft paper folder and put it on the table in front of Elky Jennings. Well, almost everything. I kept my parents’ research paper to myself. His folder was concerned with Gianni and the older brother, and Elki didn’t take it well. He lit half of a cigar and threw the match on the floor, where a lot of used matches were already dropped. His voice was bitter:“My brother. Of all people. That’s what I’ve got after eighteen years of keeping this lot afloat. No friends, no loyalty, not even from my family.”I didn’t say anything. He picked my phone up and listened to the recording again and threw it down on the hard surface as if it was too filthy to hold. I was praying it doesn’t break in half.‘Old Gianni, family trusted fixer. One of the plotters, huh? Jesus, he is tough. The guy doesn’t crack easy. And you, rabbit. What you were up to all that time?’‘All what time?’‘All the time these two were plotting, all the time they were twisting the neck of Ri
Last Updated: 2025-06-20
Chapter: 41That morning was dreadful and promised to get worse. The warehouse had the surgical quiet about it. White tile floor. Stainless steel counters. Walls the color of old aspirin. Gianni sat slumped in the center like a middle-aged Narcissus who’d seen his reflection and was restrained from punching it. His wrists were chained to the chair, but he still wore a smug grin on his face. His right eye was turning the color of rotten eggplant, and his lip had gone from split to oozing somewhere between Elky’s second and third question.“No cure for guys like you, is there?’ Elky said wiping Gianni’s blood of his wrist.“I haven’t had my morning coffee. You can’t expect a highest grade of insults,” Gianni hissed.“I’ve put up with a lot of crap from you, Gianni. But I told you to leave my wife out of it. And you should have listened.”“You are not Jesus Christ, Jennings. You can’t tell people what to do.” I shut my eyes and took another sip of something stiff from a glass Jennings had left me
Last Updated: 2025-06-18
Chapter: 40The next morning I’ve received an official invitation for tea. It was printed on expensive stock paper, monogrammed and signed. It came from Gianni, of all people. It was an offer I couldn’t refuse, so I’d packed up my nerves in bullet proof armor and gave instructions to Marta in case somebody succeeds in shooting me down. The striking thing about Gianni’s quarters was the stuffy smell of old regrets. The regrets were dried out and packed into antique Chinese jars, the kind you don’t dust because they worth more than a house. Gianni’s salon was all plush and polish, a tribute to a guy who hadn’t a real book in twenty years but displayed them by the yard out of vanity.The curtains were drawn, soft velvet suffocating what little honesty the sunlight might have brought with it. A small table waited in the center like a trap sprung too slowly. Silver service were glinting under a Tiffany lamp and two chinoiserie cups nested side by side like doomed lovers in a cosy murder mystery.Giann
Last Updated: 2025-06-17
Chapter: 39I was sitting in the middle of my bed in cream silk pyjamas, thinking about my day-dreaming in a ballroom. I was dizzy after the ballet practice, and it made me sleepy. After two hours of sleep I still didn’t feel very well, but I didn’t feel as sick as a stray dog anymore. My head was there again, and it felt roomier than usual and a tiny bit hotter. My tongue was dry and had desert sand sprinkled on it and my throat was numb. It was a grey afternoon with a lot of fog, not warm but heavy with humid air. I jumped off the bed, my bare foot felt OK. I didn’t overstretched it during ballet practice. So I had to kick the corner of the bedside table with it. It hurt.I cursed sharp furniture corners and was pouring cold water over my foot when there was a gentle tap on my door. It opened a little wider by someone’s unsure hand. Marta stood behind it, in a light brown linen apron, with a starched white headpiece on top of her head. She was very neat and smelled of washing powder all the w
Last Updated: 2025-06-16
Chapter: 38So far I’ve made only four mistakes. The first was sniffing around the south wing, even for my father’s sake. The second was still sniffing around after I’d seen Gianni rummaging through the dead capo’s pockets. The third was letting Gianni see I’ve noticed what he was up to. But drinking from a random bottle of water I picked up in the ballroom was the worst.It felt funny the minute I walked in; as if someone was watching me behind the mirror. Then there was that sudden moment of hallucination-like vision when I had seen her behind the glass. She also had a bottle of water in her hand, exactly like mine.My legs felt weak, and I sat on the floor for a few moments, with the empty bottle in my hand, gathering my strength from the shock of seeing Celeste. I don’t remember when Alexander arrived. His face began to get wobbly, watery, and vague. As if my sight had the worst day ever. A concerned smile appeared under Alexander’s newly grown mustache as he was kneeling next to me.I reache
Last Updated: 2025-06-14
The Secret Whisperer
Leila, a young Austrian aristocrat and student in Classics, is drawn into a world of conspiracy and danger when her aunt is involved in a suspicious car accident. Leila travels to her aunt’s chalet to take care of her husky, but soon discovers a body in the drawing room. Terrified, she runs out and bumps into Dick, a nosy English banker who becomes entangled in the mystery.
When they return to the drawing room, the body has disappeared. Leila takes the husky for a walk and discovers that the body has been moved to a house recently purchased by another branch of her family. She finds a notebook with encrypted entries in the drawing room and uses her linguistic skills to decode them. She discovers the initials, address, and phone number of someone involved in the plot.
Leila calls the number and is warned against getting involved. Undeterred, she discovers a bizarre research center where a conference on German mystical past is taking place.She suspects that there is a bizarre cult operating underground. Leila learns about their plan to topple every democracy in Europe. The cult is after an artifact that may be hidden in her aunt’s chalet.
However, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Leila discovers that the aristocratic cult members are pawns in a larger game. They are unknowingly being manipulated to cause disruption in the European banking system using an AI virus.The chaos will cause turmoil in the Euro zone.
As Leila and her aunt race against time to stop the virus from being unleashed, they uncover an even more shocking truth: Leila’s own family members are part of the conspiracy. With betrayal and danger at every turn, Leila must use all of her wit to outsmart the cult.
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Chapter: 26Christina’s eyes went dark, like someone had just switched off the chandelier in a grand ballroom. “My father had an old mask in his collection,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. “It’s still somewhere in the attic. He used to tell me this wild story about Nazis organizing a secret expedition to find it. He was pleased to have it, of course. You’re telling me it’s a fake?”Dick Jones gave her a look that could’ve cut through stone. “Not quite. Your piece is a replica—at least three hundred years old, according to Yellen. What bothers me is Yellen came here looking for it and ended up dead. Yet the attic didn’t look disturbed. The mask was still there. That’s what makes my skin itch.”A faint cloud of hesitation swept over Christina’s face, and her eyes misted like fogged glass. “Oh my God. That poor man. I can’t stop thinking about him.”Dick didn’t bother softening his words. “I wouldn’t if I were you. It’s likely Yellen came here to kill you. Somebody else intervened. I’ve
Last Updated: 2025-03-24
Chapter: 25Nosy Dick—or rather, Agent Richard Jones—sat at Christina’s Black Forest table, stripping off his black leather gloves like he was settling in for afternoon tea. Snow dripped off his blue puffer coat in mournful little puddles. Wolfie eyed him suspiciously from her spot by the fire, giving the occasional low grumble just to make sure Dick knew where he stood on the guest list.Leila folded her arms and leaned against the 18th century cast iron stove, casually holding the rifle. “You scared the light out of us, Mr Jones. Sneaking around in the dark is a great way to get shot, you know. Or mauled. Wolfie’s pretty territorial about her lounge space.”Dick gave her a weary smirk, not bothering to even glance at the unnerved husky. “You’d be amazed how often I get shot at. Mostly by people more competent than you.” He pulled a neat silver flask from his coat pocket and took a swig, pulling his face as if the whisky had punched him in the throat. “Honestly, I didn’t think I’d have to break
Last Updated: 2025-03-23
Chapter: 24The snow was still falling when Leila pulled the threadbare quilt tighter around her shoulders and glanced over at the notebook lying open on the low table. It looked innocent enough, the cracked leather and yellowed pages giving it the vibe of something that ought to be filled with long-forgotten recipes or notes on which fertilizer worked best for dahlias. But inside she found something else —a mess of Gothic architecture sketches, topographical diagrams and hastily written notes that looked like the fevered scribbling of a medieval cartographer gone mad.“That’s remarkable. Where did you find it?” Christina asked with a notch of suspicion.“Here, in the chalet, in that hidden place I’ve told you about. Wolfie and I were saving the owl that managed to get in through the broken attic window.”Christina leaned closer to the lantern’s dim light, tracing the hasty ink sketch with her finger. The combination of drawings, faint script and crude shapes made the page look like a treasure ma
Last Updated: 2025-03-23
Chapter: 23Leila pulled up to Christina’s hideaway, the car’s headlights slicing through the frostbitten gloom. The house sat hunched against the snow, a dark silhouette of pine and cold secrets. She’d driven fast—too fast for the icy roads—but when your aunt called with that tone, you didn’t stop to admire the scenery. Inside, the room was a furnace. The black iron stove glowed like it was working overtime, and the wood stacked high in the corner promised it wasn’t getting a break anytime soon. Christina was in her usual spot, a blanket over her knees, looking like the queen of a tiny, crumbling empire. Her eyes, though, were sharp and on point, pinning Leila like a hawk spotting prey. “Lock the door,” Christina said. No hello, no pleasantries. Leila did as she was told, the click of the deadbolt echoing louder than it should. “What’s going on?” she asked, pulling off her gloves. She kept her tone light, but her gut was doing flips. Christina didn’t answer right away. Instead, she pulled
Last Updated: 2025-01-30
Chapter: 22That afternoon Leila was waiting for him in wane, as Tom got distracted. His boss decided to pay an unexpected visit. The winter sun had just dipped below the horizon, casting a soft glow through the tinted windows of Tom’s high-tech office when Mikhail Grossman decided to darken the door. The man loomed like a storm cloud in an Armani suit, his scowl deep enough to hide a weapon. “Evening, Mikhail,” Tom said with the ease of a man greeting an old friend rather than a mafia boss who snaps necks like breadsticks. He wondered whether Mikhail Grossman heard the news about Vlad. Tom leaned back in his chair, a smirk playing on his lips. “To what do I owe the pleasure?” “Cut the pleasantries, Tomas,” Grossman growled. His voice was a low rumble, the kind that preceded an earthquake. “You know why I’m here. Your work. The Green Dragon virus—you’re going to hand it over. Now.” Tom chuckled and tapped his fingers on the scratched surface of his desk, where beneath lay layers of encrypted
Last Updated: 2025-01-29
Chapter: 21A tiny, no larger than a pack of cigarettes, combat drone silently fell off the roof two floors above the office where Vlad Voronin was glued to the computer screen. It smoothly descended to his window, peeked out stealthily from behind the wall and froze in the upper left corner. The cameras adjusted the focus to Vlad’s stand-alone laptop. The camera was filming the program commands running in a fast line on a black background.The owner of the computer had no idea about all that. He was busy with the guest. Smiling snottily, Voronin pulled the flash drive out of the laptop and put it inside a small brown envelope.‘That’s perfect,’ he patted his guest on the shoulder.‘I have to return it,’ the guest muttered nervously stretching out his hand. ‘My share, as agreed?’‘Don’t worry,’ Voronin frowned. ‘Assume that you don’t owe us anything anymore. '‘Fine. You have to give me a receipt. For the records.’‘OK,OK. You’ve become too suspicious, Ash,’ Vlad pulled out a four-fold piece of p
Last Updated: 2025-01-29
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