Lahat ng Kabanata ng Claimed by My Brother’s Best Friend (A Mafia Romance): Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 6

ISABELLA“Ugh,” I groaned, dragging a hand down my face as we stepped out of the exam hall. “Now my brain decides to wake up? Seriously?”Liliana twirled toward me, arms flung wide like we’d just walked out of prison. “What now, Isa?”“Question two,” I muttered. “I just remembered the answer.”She gasped dramatically. “No! The horror. The betrayal. The loss of two full points. We must grieve immediately. With cake.”Before I could argue, she grabbed my arm and yanked me toward the lot. “Come on. No spiraling. Exams are over. Time to feed your soul.”The sun hit my skin as we stepped outside, and for the first time in weeks, I exhaled without flinching. Liliana’s car windows were down, bass pulsing through the speakers like a heartbeat that hadn’t flatlined yet.> This was what peace was supposed to feel like.Light. Free. Normal.The bakery smelled like heaven the second we stepped in vanilla and strawberries wrapped in caramel promises. I paused at the door just to breathe it in.Lil

ISABELLA Darkness. Thick. Suffocating. Alive. It clung to my skin like oil, slithered into my lungs with every breath. I shot upright. Cold slapped my spine concrete, damp and unwelcoming. My fingers scrambled over the ground, searching for anything, anyone. Nothing. No sound. No movement. Just a hairline crack of light leaking through a wall. Not enough to see. Only enough to remind me I was trapped. Buried. Alive. My chest tightened. Breath snagged in my throat. The old fear twisted inside me like a blade. Not the dark. Not again. I folded into myself, arms shielding my head, rocking like a child as the panic bloomed. Damian knew. He knew. I told him once stupid, innocent me how darkness made me drown in my own mind. How, after the accident when I was six, I couldn’t sleep without the hallway light. He remembered. And he left me here. This wasn’t punishment. This was precision. Tears burned hot down my cheeks. My jaw clenched until it ached. He was using my wor

DAMIANBANG.The gunshot cracked through the room like thunder.Isa flinched hard.Like the sound hit her bones.She didn’t scream she staggered, eyes wide, mouth parted, her breath gone.Disappointing.I had hoped she’d do it. I wanted to watch the innocence die in her eyes, watch her become one of us.But not yet.She still clings to the illusion of mercy. That’s fine.Breaking her will be a far more exquisite process.I looked down at the corpse another loose end from Vincent’s camp.“Clean it up,” I said.Richard moved instantly.Isa didn’t.She just stood there, staring at the blood painting the floor. Her hands trembled. Her chest rose too fast, too shallow. Panic dressed her like a second skin.She was unraveling.And she was beautiful like that.Her skin was pale, her lip trembling. Blood had speckled her jaw like some kind of violent artwork. She looked like something sacred ruined.Perfect.I pulled off my shirt, wet with blood. Her eyes flicked to my chest and then away.T