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Author: Sharon
last update publish date: 2026-06-25 02:57:25

Alexander

I woke up in a hospital bed.

The room looked painfully familiar, down to the dull white walls, the steady beeping of the machines, and the clean antiseptic scent that always made me feel more exposed than healed. For a moment, I did not move. I only stared at the ceiling and let the fact of my own survival settle in.

I had survived again.

I turned my head slowly, and the sight beside me hit harder than the pain in my body.

Elara was sitting in the chair beside my bed. Her finge
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  • Contracted to My Fiance’s Mafia Don   55

    ElaraThe gala was Alexander's idea, and I had pushed back against it harder than I had pushed back against almost anything since we got married."You need to be seen," he had told me over breakfast three days before the event, calm and certain in the way he was about most things. "Not as my wife, specifically. As yourself. As someone who built her own business and her own name before any of this happened.""I'm not ready for that kind of room," I had said. "I don't know these people, I don't know their rules, and I genuinely don't know how to walk into a room full of people who have known each other for twenty years and act as if I belong there.""You do belong there. That's the entire point.""Alexander—""You're a queen, Elara. It's past time you started carrying yourself like one."So there I was, three nights later, in a gown that had cost more than three months of my old apartment's rent, diamonds around my throat that Alexander had placed there himself that morning, and his han

  • Contracted to My Fiance’s Mafia Don   54

    Alexander Francesca was trouble. She had always been trouble, long before Isabella, long before the empire became what it was now, long before I had enough power to mistake danger for control. She was the kind of woman who liked information, liked leverage, liked knowing exactly where to place herself so that other people would have to answer to her. I had learned that about her early, and I had spent years believing I had put enough distance between us to keep her where she belonged. I was wrong. Elara sat on the edge of the bed with her arms crossed, her expression hard and alert. The moment we got upstairs, she had gone quiet in the way that told me she was thinking fast and deciding whether to trust me or fight me. I could not blame her for either reaction. “Tell me what is going on,” she said. I stayed standing for a moment, then exhaled and sat beside her. “Francesca and I were involved before Isabella,” I said. “She was part of my life before the empire was clean enough

  • Contracted to My Fiance’s Mafia Don   53

    Elara The mansion felt different when we came back. It was still large, still polished, still guarded at every entrance, but the atmosphere had changed. The staff had been reduced, and the hallways felt less crowded because of it. Alexander said it was for security. I knew there was more to it than that. He was pulling back in ways he had never done before, cutting away anything that could become another risk, another threat, another point of control that might be used against us. He was changing. For me. For us. I walked slowly through the corridor with one hand resting over my stomach, and as I moved, I kept thinking about the baby. About what kind of life this child would have. About whether this house, with its cameras and guards and locked doors, was where I wanted my child to grow up. I did not know the answer yet. I only knew the question had become impossible to ignore. Then a voice cut across the quiet. “Mrs. Thorne.” I stopped and turned. A woman stood in the do

  • Contracted to My Fiance’s Mafia Don   52

    Alexander Recovery was slow, and I hated every part of it. I hated the weakness in my body. I hated needing help for things I had always done without thinking. I hated the way Elara had to steady me when I got out of bed, the way she had to pass me a glass of water, the way my own hands shook when I tried to move too fast. I had spent most of my adult life controlling everything around me, and now I could not even control the speed at which my body healed. Elara never complained. She came every day and took the strain out of the room before I could let it settle in my head. She held my hand when I got frustrated. She read to me when I was too restless to sit in silence. She talked to me about her business, about the new swimwear designs she had sketched, about colors and fabrics and launch dates and the future she was building for herself. For us. For the baby. For the life we had nearly lost before it had even begun. One afternoon, while she sat in the chair beside my bed wi

  • Contracted to My Fiance’s Mafia Don   51

    Elara The hospital room was quiet. Alexander was asleep at last, and it had taken hours of stubbornness, arguments, and exhaustion to get him there. He had fought the sedation longer than he should have, insisting that he was fine, insisting that he could stay awake, insisting that he could still keep watch over me if he only tried hard enough. I had sat beside him through all of it and kept my voice calm until he finally gave in. Now his breathing was even. His chest rose and fell beneath the bandages, and his face had softened in sleep in a way I rarely saw when he was awake. He looked peaceful. He looked alive. So did I. I sat in the chair beside his bed and rested one hand over my stomach, letting the reality settle into me one piece at a time. The baby was his. The truth was no longer twisted and hidden and poisoned by David’s lies. I had spent too many days believing I was carrying the child of the man who had hurt me, and the fear of that had sat inside me every hour s

  • Contracted to My Fiance’s Mafia Don   50

    Alexander I woke up in a hospital bed. The room looked painfully familiar, down to the dull white walls, the steady beeping of the machines, and the clean antiseptic scent that always made me feel more exposed than healed. For a moment, I did not move. I only stared at the ceiling and let the fact of my own survival settle in. I had survived again. I turned my head slowly, and the sight beside me hit harder than the pain in my body. Elara was sitting in the chair beside my bed. Her fingers were wrapped around mine, and her eyes were red, swollen, and tired. She looked as though she had not slept properly in days. Her face changed the moment she saw my eyes open. “You’re awake,” she said. “Apparently.” Her mouth trembled, but her expression stayed firm. “Do not ever do that again.” “Do what?” “Get shot,” she said. “Do not get shot saving me, and do not make me sit here wondering whether you are going to die.” “I did not die.” “You almost did.” I tightened my fingers aro

  • Contracted to My Fiance’s Mafia Don   18

    AlexanderAfterward, I lay awake.Elara slept on my chest, her dark hair spread across my skin, one hand curled over my heart as though she had reached for it even in sleep. The tension she carried in her shoulders constantly — the held-in, braced quality of a person who had been waiting for somet

  • Contracted to My Fiance’s Mafia Don   17

    Elara The house emptied slowly, the way houses do after something significant has happened in them. Marcus handled my parents first. My mother had stopped crying by the time he guided her toward the waiting car, replaced by the particular quiet of a woman who had more questions than she knew h

  • Contracted to My Fiance’s Mafia Don   16

    Alexander The garden emptied fast. Vivian moved first, grabbing Elara's mother by the arm with one hand and her father with the other, steering them toward the French doors with the efficient calm of someone who had handled emergencies before. Marcus was already on his phone, walking the perim

  • Contracted to My Fiance’s Mafia Don   15

    Elara The morning of my wedding to Alexander Thorne, I woke before the sun came up. For a few seconds I lay completely still and didn't know where I was. The sheets were too soft. The ceiling was too high. The light coming through the curtains was the particular grey-blue of very early morning, n

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