LOGINMadeline is the black sheep of the family. Her father hated her since the day she was born because the day she was born, her mother died. Her father is to call her a murderer. Her biggest dream was to become the best chef in town, and when she went to culinary school, she returned with the hope of being a chef in her father's restaurant. However, her father made her marry her high school crush. The marriage did not last six months when his first love returned. Kicked out of the house with nowhere to go. She went to her father's house, but he kicked her out, making her sleep in her car that night. Little did she know that her fortunes would change the next day. Her grandfather gave her inheritance. Enough to start her restaurant. However, she went up at night and celebrated with her friend. She hooked up with one of her brothers and her ex-husband's friend. And he did not know that she was already divorced. They were both drunk and had sex. But he told her he is furious with her for sleeping with him while married to his friend. He told her never to contact him again, and she never did, although she walked out of that relationship with a package. Now, seven years later, she is returning home. her family and ex-in-laws' biggest enemy in the restaurant business, and she is her to take revenge! She is here to bankrupt them and tell them GAME OVER!
View MoreMadeline's POV
I stand in front of the window of my office. I look over this city. The sun is busy setting. I love this city. It was my home for seven years. That is how long it took me to build up a restaurant group. We specialise in making pasties, and our desserts are genuinely exceptional. The last seven years were not easy for me. However, my life was not easy overall. Ever since I was a child, I was born into hatred. The day I was born, my mother died, and my father could never forgive me. Sean, my brother, who is a year older than I, is everything to him. I was only a disappointment to my father. Not only did I murder my mother, according to my father. I begged my father to send me to culinary school. And he did it to get rid of me and get me out of the house. My father was the head of the biggest restaurant group, and his only competition was the Micheals' family. The restaurant groups were called Bella and Rosa. Both were named after the wives of the CEOs. When I returned home from culinary school. I wanted to become the head chef in one of my father's restaurants. I wanted to be a pastry chef in one of the Bella coffee shops.
My father promised me that I could become a chef if I married Roman Michaels. The marriage will combine the two restaurant groups, and they will no longer compete with each other. I did as my father asked, but it was all lies! Roman never wanted to marry me. He never loved me. Roman was always in love with Celest, his high school sweetheart. After marrying Roman, I wanted to go and work as a chef, but my father informed me that I would be a housewife and a good wife to Roman. For six months, Roman treated me like a maid. After six months, he came home one day, and I was surprised to see him home during the middle of the day. He told me that it is over. He wanted a divorce. He and his lawyers forced me to sign all the papers and everything, leaving me with nothing. I had nowhere to go, and I did not even have a penny in my pocket. I went home, but my father chased me away, telling me that I was not even good enough to keep my husband. Of course, he did not care that Michael and I were divorced. My father got what he wanted. The new restaurant group was called Bella Rosa. Sean and Roman were running it.
I still remember that night. It was the worst day of my life. I had nowhere to go. So, I slept in my car. Crying and cold, lying in the back seat of my car. I didn't know what the next day would bring. I did not know that my fortune was going to turn the next day. I woke up the next morning, went to a public restroom and washed myself as well as I could. I put on new clothing and was about to go and ask for a job at a fast food restaurant when my phone rang. It was my grandfather's lawyers. They asked me to come to their office. I was curious because my father had always been searching for my grandfather's will. He could never find it, and he could never lay his hands on the money. My grandfather was quite wealthy. I went into their office, and the lawyer told them that I am the only heir to my grandfather's fortune. That is where my luck changed. Well, there was one minor incident that I would rather not think about. However, this is my story, and I have to think about it.
Mary, my best friend, and I got drunk that night. We were celebrating my good fortune. That is where I met Logan Stevens again after not seeing him since school. He is about two years older than I. He is also one of my brother's friends and a billionaire playboy. Well, we ended up in bed that night. I don't know how it happened, as I don't remember much of that night. However, I remember the following morning when he kicked me out of his apartment and told me never to bother him again, because he was furious that I could sleep with him while I was married to one of his best friends.
I tried to explain to him that I was divorced, but he did not want to listen to me and told me to get lost. Not many people knew I had divorced Roman at that stage. I did not care about Logan. He could go to hell for all I care. He even accused me of being a gold digger and that I slept with him because he was wealthier than Roman, and I must be looking for a richer man. He told me to never come near him or bother him again. Aside from being a little ashamed about what happened the night before, I had nothing to be embarrassed about, and if he asked me, I would have told him I do not want his money as I have money of my own. I told him to go to hell and walked out of his life for good. I did not know that I was walking out of the room with a package that morning. Nine months later, my babies were born, Connor and Carmen. I never bothered their father, as he had asked me not to. I was a virgin. Roman never touched me because he was never in love with me. And the only woman he wanted was Celest.
Now it is seven years later, and my children are six years old. I am returning to New York. I am ready to play the games that people play when competing against each other in business. I can only smile because I feel proud. My restaurant here in Houston has been awarded three Michelin Stars. Something my father always wanted, but could never get. I am Bella Rosa's biggest competition, and they cannot compete with me because they are so outdated. I am ready to take revenge. After all, the saying goes that revenge is a dish served cold.
Marco’s POVMichelle Morris. The thought of her coils in my mind like smoke, rising and curling with potential, with danger, with opportunity. She moves through this city, fragile but ambitious, a woman used to being seen, to being admired, to bending people with a glance, and yet I know she has weaknesses, small cracks that can be widened, gaps that can be exploited. She wants to matter, she wants attention, she wants power, even if she doesn’t realize it. And Logan Rossi… he has been careful to surround himself with loyalty, with walls, with impenetrable defences, but every fortress has a gate, and every gate has a lock. Michelle might just be the key.I have my men watch her movements, track her habits, whisper through the streets, the bars, the high-end restaurants she frequents. They know to stay invisible, to blend, to note everything without alerting her. Every smile she offers, every question she asks, every shadow she passes through, all of it is intelligence. Intelligence, w
Marco’s POVI stride into the back room of the bar, the low whispers of conversation and clinking glasses fading behind me as the door shuts, leaving only the faint smell of cigarette smoke and spilled whiskey. My men glance at me, heads lowered, because they know what my expression means, and I don’t have to say a word for them to understand the tension coiling like a snake in the room. Every movement, every measured step I take carries authority, the weight of the Castello name pressing into the walls, reminding anyone who dares look that I am no man to be trifled with. I have spent my life building empires from the shadows, carving my place from blood and fire, and yet there is a pulse of anticipation thrumming beneath my skin tonight, a restless energy that refuses to be contained.One of my men approaches, careful, too careful, but I see the hesitation in his eyes, the tiny tremor that betrays the weight of the information he carries. He hesitates, and I do not allow the pause to
Logan’s POVI stand behind Maddie as she studies the floor plan of the estate, the map spread across the large oak table like a battlefield waiting to be defended, and I watch her fingers trace every hallway, every entrance, every window, because she sees it all, not just the physical layout, but the vulnerabilities, the places someone like Marco Castello could exploit, the shadows where danger could hide. She leans forward, elbows pressed to the table, jaw tight, eyes sharp and calculating, and I feel that familiar rush of pride mixed with possessiveness, because this woman is not just beautiful and fierce. She is brilliant, unflinching, the perfect partner in a world built on power and betrayal. She also knows, like I do, we have to make our home safe first.“We need more cameras,” she says, finally looking up at me, her voice steady even as her eyes flash with determination. “At every gate, every entry, and every blind spot. Marco may already know all the weak points. What if he ha
Logan’s POVThe office is quiet, the noise of the city outside barely reaching the thick walls that have heard more secrets than most people could imagine, and I stand by the window for a moment, letting my gaze drift across the skyline, before turning back to Maddie, who sits in the chair across from my desk, hands clasped tightly in her lap, the tension in her shoulders impossible to miss. I take a deep breath, steadying the words I am about to say, because there is no easing the truth, no softening it, and she deserves nothing less than the full weight of it.“Maddie,” I begin, my voice low but firm, carrying the authority that comes not just from being a Don, but from being a man who has seen what betrayal and power can do, who has walked through fire and come out unburned, “Sean, Roman, and his family, they’re gone. They will never return to America. The arrangements are in place, and the consequences are final. You won’t have to worry about them threatening our children, our fam
Michelle’s POVThe night air is cool when I step outside the bar, but it does little to settle the storm inside me, and as the flash of camera bulbs blinds me for a moment, I almost forget the swarm of paparazzi I left waiting, their questions loud and sharp, each one stabbing into the quiet I need. I ignore them, sliding into the back of my car, and as the driver pulls away, the noise fades, but the silence that replaces it is heavier, thick with the weight of Marco Castello’s words.I lean my head back against the leather seat, closing my eyes for just a moment, and I can still see him sitting there across from me, his dark gaze steady, his smile cold, every word chosen like a knife meant to slip beneath the skin. He was not asking for anything, not really. He was planting, hinting, weaving threads he expects me to follow, and the worst part is that I felt the pull of it, the quiet tug of his suggestions wrapping themselves around thoughts I do not want to admit I still have. Logan
Marco’s POVI sit back in the chair opposite her, the glass of whiskey in my hand catching the faint glow of the bar’s low-hanging light, and I watch Michelle Morris with the kind of patience most men mistake for disinterest, but it is not disinterest, it is calculation, because everything about her, the set of her jaw, the way her eyes follow me without flinching, the deliberate calmness she wears like an expensive dress, is a test, and I already know that if I want her, if I want to bend her to my purpose, I will need to play the long game, the careful game, the game where every word is a step closer to making her believe she is in control when in truth she is already caught in my web.Michelle is beautiful, of course, but not in the way that makes me reckless or stupid, her beauty is sharp, the kind that slices if you are foolish enough to reach without thought, and I understand why Logan Rossi once looked at her with something more than passing interest, because she is not the kin
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