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CHAPTER FOURTEEN: What Mateo Found
Tanggal publikasi:
2026-07-21 20:56:56
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The Mafia King’s Forced Bride CHAPTER FOURTEEN: What Mateo Found
"Tell me," Nero said, already standing.Mateo set the folder down on the desk, hands not quite steady, which unsettled Ivy more than anything he'd said so far. She'd already learned that very little rattled this man, and watching him now, jaw tight, breathing slightly too fast for someone who spent his days managing crises for a living, told her more clearly than words could have that whatever he'd found had shaken him properly."You said everything," he told Nero. "So I pulled everything. Every file, every archive, every scrap of paper with the Cross name attached to it going back twenty years." He rubbed a hand over his face. "I wasn't expecting to find this much this fast.""The plates on that car weren't just fake," he said. "They were cloned from a vehicle registered to a haulage company that went under nine years ago. Cross Freight Solutions."The room went very still."That's not a coincidence," Nero said."No. It's a message." Mateo opened the folder, spreading photographs acr
The Mafia King’s Forced Bride CHAPTER THIRTEEN: The Call
Ivy followed him. She knew she probably shouldn't, knew Mateo's sharp glance toward her as she moved past him was a warning she was choosing to ignore, but her legs carried her down the corridor after Nero anyway, driven by something stronger than caution.He didn't stop her. That surprised her more than anything.The corridor felt different this morning, longer somehow, every closed door she passed suddenly heavy with the possibility of secrets she hadn't known to look for a week ago. She'd spent the last nine days thinking of herself as collateral, a debt with a face, something simple enough to understand even if it wasn't fair. The idea that there might be something older underneath all of it, something reaching back into her own childhood, made the whole house feel unsteady under her feet.His study door was open when she reached it, and he was already on the phone, pacing the length of the room with the kind of tightly wound energy she'd only seen from him once before, that night
The Mafia King’s Forced Bride CHAPTER TWELVE: Mateo
Nobody slept that night.Ivy heard voices moving through the house until well past three, low and urgent, boots on gravel outside her window, the occasional crackle of a radio cutting through the quiet. She sat wrapped in a blanket by the window, watching torch beams sweep the treeline over and over, and didn't bother pretending to herself she'd be closing her eyes anytime soon.Every so often she caught fragments through the glass, a name here, a location there, none of it enough to piece into anything solid. At one point she saw Nero himself cross the courtyard, phone pressed to his ear, moving with the kind of tightly controlled urgency she'd only seen from him once before, that night in the rain with the man on his knees. Whatever he was hearing on that call, it wasn't good news.By seven, exhausted and restless in equal measure, she gave up entirely and went looking for coffee.She found the kitchen occupied. A man she didn't recognise sat at the long table, sleeves rolled, lapto
The Mafia King’s Forced Bride CHAPTER ELEVEN: The Ride Home
Neither of them spoke until the gates of the Castellano estate had shrunk to nothing in the rear window.Ivy sat with her hands folded tight in her lap, the red silk of her dress bunched slightly where she'd been gripping it under the table without realising. Beside her, Nero stared out at the dark river sliding past, jaw still set from dinner, one hand resting loosely on his knee like he was concentrating on keeping it there instead of somewhere else.She kept replaying the moment at the table, Marco's eyes narrowing over his wine glass, the whole room going quiet waiting to see if she'd crumble the way Antonio said other women had. She hadn't. She still wasn't entirely sure how.Her hand ached faintly where Antonio's fingers had brushed it, not from any real pain, just the phantom memory of unwanted contact, the same feeling she used to get after a bad shift behind the bar back home when some stranger assumed a drink bought more than it did.She glanced sideways at Nero. He hadn't l
The Mafia King’s Forced Bride CHAPTER TEN: Castellano's Table
The dress arrived Thursday afternoon, exactly as promised, deep red silk with nothing extra to it, the kind of simple that cost more than complicated ever could. Ivy stood in front of the mirror Friday evening and barely recognised the woman looking back.Nero was waiting by the car when she came down, and something in his expression shifted the moment he saw her. Just briefly. Gone before she could name it, replaced by the same careful stillness he wore like a second skin."You'll do," he said."High praise.""From me, yes." He opened the car door himself, which surprised her. "Remember what we discussed.""Smile, stay quiet, don't encourage Antonio." She slid into the seat. "I remember."The Castellano estate sat on the river, older money than Nero's, quieter about it in a way that felt somehow more dangerous. Marco Castellano met them at the door himself, a broad, silver haired man with a handshake too firm to be friendly."Nero." He clapped him on the shoulder like old friends who
The Mafia King’s Forced Bride CHAPTER NINE: The Work
She was at his study door at six exactly, dressed plainly like he'd asked, hair still damp from the bath she'd let the staff run for her that morning.He was already at his desk, jacket off, sleeves rolled, three phones lined up next to a laptop like weapons he hadn't decided which one to use yet."Sit," he said, not looking up.She sat. She'd learned by now that arguing about the small things wasted energy she needed for the bigger ones."The Castellanos," he said, still not looking at her, "run the east docks. We've had an arrangement with them for six years. Profitable for both sides, mostly quiet.""I don't know who that is.""You don't need to. You need to know that Marco Castellano is hosting a dinner Friday night, and he expects me to bring someone.""Bring someone.""A woman on my arm. It's tradition among people like us. A man without a woman looks unstable. Unstable men get tested." He finally looked up. "I intend to look very stable on Friday."Something cold settled in her
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