THE MAFIA QUEEN

Daphne lili Thorne is nineteen and angry enough to burn the world down. When her family forces her into a marriage she never agreed to, she refuses to play the role of the quiet, grateful wife. She wasn’t raised to submit and she definitely wasn’t raised to belong to a stranger. Adrian Smith is twenty four and used to control. The marriage is nothing more than strategy to him, a move on a board he’s been winning on his whole life. Daphne is supposed to be easy,Predictable,Temporary. She isn’t. On their wedding night, Daphne points a gun at her new husband, her hands shaking but her resolve unbroken. “Put it down,” Adrian says calmly, still dressed in his wedding suit. “Go to hell,” she snaps, gripping the fabric of her dress as she keeps the gun aimed at him. She pulls the trigger. The bullet misses on purpose cutting close enough to leave his ear burning. Adrian doesn’t move. He just looks at her, something dark and dangerous flickering behind his eyes. For the first time, he realizes this marriage won’t be easy. And Daphne realizes something worse he’s not afraid of her at all. What begins as a power struggle turns into something neither of them expected. Beneath Adrian’s cruelty is a man shaped by violence and loss. Beneath Daphne’s fire is a girl who has already survived her own kind of hell. They are not meant to save each other. But somehow, they become the only thing that makes sense in a world built on control, loyalty, and blood. Because even monsters were once human. And even angels can come from broken places.