Semua Bab The Mafia King’s Forbidden Obsession : Bab 1 - Bab 5

Selene POV The elevator in Dario's building always smelled like expensive cologne and marble cleaner a scent that used to make my heart race with anticipation. Tonight, it made my stomach churn.I clutched the takeout bag tighter, the grease already seeping through the paper. Thai food from our usual place on 42nd Street. Pad thai, extra spicy, just how he liked it. A peace offering for missing dinner again because of my marketing internship that barely paid enough to cover subway rides.The brass numbers above the elevator doors ticked by slowly. Fifteenth floor. Sixteenth. My reflection stared back at me from the polished metal l dark hair escaping its messy bun, mascara slightly smudged from the October rain, cheap blazer wrinkled from a twelve-hour day. I looked exactly like what I was: a girl from Queens trying to keep up in Manhattan.Twenty-second floor.The hallway stretched before me, all gleaming hardwood and modern art that probably cost more than my mom's monthly medical

Selene POV I stared at Caspian's business card for three hours.Three hours of sitting on my narrow dorm bed, turning the heavy cardstock over and over in my hands until my fingerprints smudged the pristine white surface. Three hours of Jessica asking if I was okay and getting nothing but mumbled responses. Three hours of my world spinning off its axis while I tried to convince myself that what had happened in the coffee shop was some kind of elaborate hallucination.But the photograph was real. It sat on my desk like an accusation, my parents' faces staring back at me with eyes that held secrets I'd never imagined.By ten PM, I couldn't stand the silence anymore.My fingers trembled as I dialed the number. It rang once before a familiar voice answered."I wondered how long you'd make me wait."No greeting. No surprise. Like he'd been sitting by the phone, counting down the minutes until my resolve crumbled."We need to talk," I said, proud of how steady my voice sounded. "But not ov

Selene POV The address Caspian sent me led to a penthouse on the Upper East Side that probably cost more than most people made in a lifetime.I stood in the marble lobby, feeling like an imposter in my jeans and worn leather jacket while the doorman pretended not to notice how out of place I looked. The elevator was lined with mirrors that reflected my anxiety back at me from every angle pale skin, wide eyes, hands that wouldn't stop trembling no matter how many times I clenched them into fists.Twenty-three floors up, the doors opened directly into an apartment that belonged in a magazine. Floor-to-ceiling windows showcased Manhattan's glittering skyline, and everything else was white and chrome and expensive enough to fund a small country's national debt.Dario was waiting for me in the living room, a glass of something amber in his hand and tension radiating from every line of his body. He'd changed from the perfectly styled man I'd caught with his lover into something rawer hair