CHAPTER ONE: THE DEBT

Lena’s pov

A scream tears through the Virelli mansion.

My mother’s.

I’m down the stairs in three seconds, barefoot, heart in my throat.

I find her in the living room, collapsed and shaking. Her makeup all ruined.

“Mom.. ” I hit my knees beside her. “What happened? Talk to me.”

She doesn’t. She Just claws at her chest like she’s trying to dig the air out.

“Please,” I grab her shoulders. “Mom, you’re scaring me.”

She looks up, her eyes extremely red and voice broken glass.

“Your father is dead.”

The floor drops out.

“What?” The word doesn’t sound like mine. “No. He’s…. I just saw him this morning.”

The front door slams open.

Luciano. My father’s right hand and also my godfather, walks in.

His face says it before his mouth does.

“Luciano.” I’m on my feet, choking. “Tell me she’s lying. Tell me it’s a mistake.”

He doesn’t blink. He just remains silent for a beat.

“I’m sorry, Lena. He’s gone.”

Luciano doesn’t cry. Not when we buried his wife. Not when rival bullets grazed his ribs.

But today he’s crying now.

That’s when my knees give.

I hit the rug. The sobs rip out of me, ugly and loud.

Luciano kneels next to my mother and his voice drops. This isn’t for me.

“Cara.” He says to my mother. “It wasn’t an accident.”

My mother freezes mid-sob. Her grief turns into something colder.

“Explain.” She says, her word full of steel.

“Brakes were cut, Professionally.” Luciano’s jaw ticks. “He argued with Dante Moretti last week. Moretti said he’d be ‘collecting’ soon.”

Dante Moretti.

The name lands like a gunshot.

Heir to the Moretti family and one of the most brutal Dons in the city. The man my father called a ‘snake in a Tom Ford suit.’

“He threatened him?” My mother’s voice is deadly.

“Dante doesn’t do empty threats.” Luciano not making eye contact. “And now he’s calling in the debt.”

Debt, my throat goes dry. “What debt? We…”

“The Morettis are done waiting.” Luciano finally meets my eyes. “They want payment in blood or in vows.”

My stomach plummets.

“Marriage,” he says. “Dante Moretti wants a wife. He wants you.”

“No.” The word rips out of my mother. She’s on her feet, shielding me like I’m five again. “I won’t let my daughter marry that murderer.”

Luciano doesn’t flinch. “The offer wasn’t for you, Carla.”

My brother chooses that moment to walk in. Marco. Twenty-three. My father’s men at his back. He’s been crying too. But his eyes are dry now.

“Of course she accepts,” Marco says to Luciano, “A Moretti alliance clears the debt. Saves the family. You tell Dante we agree.”

Luciano nods and then leaves.

No one even asks, how I feel about it.

“Marco…” I can’t breathe. “He killed Dad. You want me to share his bed?”

Marco doesn’t look at me either instead he looks at Mom.

“It’s done, Lena. The Virellis survive. That’s what Dad would want.”

My mother comes to me then strokes my hair.

“This is for the best, sweetheart.”

She says it like she believes it.

She says it like she’s relieved it’s me and not her.

I stand in my father’s living room frozen.

And in a few weeks, I marry the man who murdered him.

My name is Lena Virelli.

And I just became a truce.