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Chapter 35: Preparations and Fractures
Last Updated:
2026-02-11 03:03:56
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The Mafia's Forced Bride Chapter 39: Shattered Illusions
( Aria's Point of View )Victory tastes like ash when you realize it was never really victory at all. Just a lull in the storm.The ride back to Villa Moretti should have felt triumphant. We'd rescued Senator Hartley's daughter, captured Marcus, and survived another deadly encounter with the Tribunal. But the silence in the SUV was heavy with something darker than exhaustion. A creeping unease that none of us wanted to name.Dante sat beside me, his hand gripping mine so tightly my fingers were going numb, but I didn't pull away. Viktor rode in the front passenger seat, his phone pressed to his ear as he coordinated with the teams still extracting from Riverside. And in the third row, Mikhail slumped against the window, his shirt stained with someone else's blood."How many did we lose?" I asked quietly, afraid of the answer."Two dead at Riverside," Viktor said without turning around. "Three wounded, one critical. The medical team is working on him now." He paused. "Could have been w
The Mafia's Forced Bride Chapter 38: Into the Lion's Den
( Aria's Point of View )I sat in the back of an unmarked sedan, watching the lights of Parkview Heights approach through the window. The gated community rose from the landscape like a fortress of wealth and privilege. High walls, manicured lawns, houses that cost more than most people earned in a lifetime. Somewhere inside those walls, Marcus waited with Senator Hartley's daughter, believing I was walking into his trap.He wasn't wrong. I was walking into a trap. I just wasn't planning to stay caught."Five minutes to the gate," the driver said. He was one of Hartley's federal agents, a man named Torres who'd been with the Senator for over a decade. "You sure about this, Mrs. Moretti?""Not even a little bit," I admitted. "But we're doing it anyway."In my ear, Isabella's voice crackled through the nearly invisible communication device they'd installed. "I have you on thermal. You're showing as the only heat signature in the vehicle. The gate guard is in position, but he's not alerti
The Mafia's Forced Bride Chapter 37: The Riverside Gambit
( Aria's Point of View )Waiting is its own special kind of torture. Especially when the people you love are walking into danger you sent them toward.The command center had transformed into a nerve center of barely controlled tension. Isabella sat at her station, monitoring six different camera feeds and three communication channels simultaneously. I stood behind her, watching the tactical display that showed Viktor's strike team as moving dots on a digital map. Dante paced like a caged animal, his injured shoulder forgotten in his anxiety. Even Giuliana had abandoned her usual composure, standing rigid by the window with her arms crossed tightly."Team One approaching outer perimeter," Mikhail's voice crackled through the speakers. "No visible sentries. Proceeding to secondary position."On the screen, I watched the thermal imaging Isabella had hacked from a commercial satellite. The Riverside Manufacturing Complex appeared as a ghostly outline, heat signatures blooming in different
The Mafia's Forced Bride Chapter 36:The Wright of Choices
( Aria's Point of View )Insomnia has a particular texture when lives hang in the balance.I gave up on sleep around three in the morning and found myself wandering the Villa Moretti's halls like a ghost haunting her own life. The estate felt different at night, with armed guards patrolling the grounds and the hum of surveillance equipment replacing the usual silence. Through windows, I could see the tactical lights Viktor's team had installed, turning the once-beautiful gardens into something that looked more like a military checkpoint.My feet carried me to Giuliana's library without conscious decision. The old woman sat in her wingback chair by the fireplace, a book in her lap and a glass of wine on the side table. She didn't look surprised to see me."Can't sleep either?" she asked, gesturing to the chair across from her."I keep doing the math," I admitted, sitting down. "One life for dozens. Marcus made it sound so simple.""Evil often does," Giuliana said. She closed her book.
The Mafia's Forced Bride Chapter 35: Preparations and Fractures
( Aria's Point of View )War doesn't announce itself with trumpets. It creeps in through cracks in trust, through exhaustion, through the slow realization that everyone you love might die tomorrow.The command center had become the beating heart of our defense, a converted ballroom now filled with tactical displays, communication equipment, and people who, twenty-four hours ago, had been enemies. Isabella manned the central computer station, coordinating surveillance feeds from cameras Viktor's team had installed around the estate perimeter. Senator Hartley stood over a three-dimensional tactical map projected onto the table, moving virtual markers representing defensive positions and potential attack vectors. And Viktor prowled the edges of the room like a caged wolf, questioning every decision, challenging every assumption."The north wall is our weakest point," Viktor was saying, jabbing a finger at the projection. "Trees come too close to the perimeter fence. It gives attackers co
The Mafia's Forced Bride Chapter 34: The Senator's Game
( Aria's Point of View )Power recognizes power. And Senator Thomas Hartley wore his like a tailored suit, expensive and perfectly fitted.The coordinates he'd sent led to a private airfield thirty miles outside the city, the kind of place where people with money and secrets came to avoid questions. Isabella and I arrived in an unmarked sedan at exactly two PM, the timing deliberate. Not early enough to seem eager, not late enough to appear disrespectful."Radio check," Isabella said quietly, adjusting the nearly invisible earpiece she wore. "Viktor, you reading me?""Clear as crystal," Viktor's voice crackled back. "I have eyes on the location. Two vehicles on site. One sedan, one SUV. Four heat signatures total. Thermal shows no additional personnel in the surrounding buildings.""Copy that," Isabella replied. She looked at me. "Ready?""No," I said honestly. "But let's do it anyway."We got out of the car. The airfield was small, just a single hangar and a runway that looked like i
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