EMMA“Do I have your full attention, Ms. Carson?”I gulp and refocus on my boss. Ruslan Oryolov is glowering—not because I’ve done anything wrong, but just because that’s how he always looks at me.Actually, that’s how he always looks at everyone. I’m pretty sure he’s that unfortunate case you always hear moms telling their kids about: he made a sour face once upon a time and it just got stuck like that.To be fair, this time, he has good reason. He’s actually caught me in the middle of a somewhat shockingly violent fantasy about stapling his beautiful lips together with the stapler on his desk and then yeeting him out of his gorgeous thirtieth-story office window.He’d deserve it. And he only has himself to blame.Because I am all-caps EXHAUSTED from tending to his every whim today.I arrived at the office at the buttcrack of dawn this morning. I haven’t had more than ten consecutive seconds to myself all day long. And only now, with the clock nearing 9:00 P.M., am I getting anywhere

Last Updated : 2026-01-29

That pretty much set the tone for our working relationship.“I’m leaving,” Ruslan announces back in the present moment. “Make sure the folders are set out for the department head meeting in the morning.” He rounds the desk and strides toward me. My heart quickens when he gets close enough for me to smell his cologne. Today’s is woodsy. Smoky. Crisp.“Yes, sir,” I croak quietly.“Oh,” he adds, “I also need my tuxedo brought to the penthouse on 48th. Tonight.”“Tonight?” I balk. “But I have to—”He’s already gone. Swishing out the door without bothering to look back. The only thing left behind is the trailing tendrils of his cologne.An hour later, I am the walking dead. Every nerve ending in my feet is on fire. I trekked my booty across town to Ruslan’s tailor, picked up his tuxedo, and trekked back to Midtown to his penthouse.When the elevators let me out directly into his foyer, I release a sigh. One final task on this Tuesday custom-designed by Satan.Not that tomorrow will be any

Last Updated : 2026-01-29

He made Reagan cry the other day because her scrunchie snapped while he was trying to do a ponytail for her. As if that was her fault.I keep telling myself to have grace. He’s going through a dark time. He’ll come out of it.At least, I hope he will. Truth is, I was never a huge fan of his in the first place. I found ways to tolerate him for Sienna’s sake, because there’s nothing I wouldn’t have done for my sister.Without her, though… it’s harder.I shake my head. It’s not good to let myself dwell on these ruts. Nothing good will come of wondering why this is the hand I’ve been dealt. I just have to do the work. Silently and unthanked, sure. But the world isn’t built to be kind to people like me.So I drop my purse, roll up my sleeves, and do what I can to make it kind to people like Josh, Caroline, and Reagan.Beer bottles go in the trash. Clothes go in the dryer. Dishes get scrubbed and toweled and put back in the cabinets, and little by little, the mess dwindles. In the corner, t

Last Updated : 2026-01-29

EMMA“Auntie Em! Auntie Em, wake up.”I come to with a start. The sun is slanting in through the blinds and I have absolutely no freaking idea what planet I’m on. I feel a sharp line of pain on my cheek. It takes me a long moment to realize that it’s because I have a shoelace plastered to my skin. I peel it off with a wince and look up to see Josh standing over me.“Auntie Em, it’s 7:45. We’re late for school.”“Shit!”I leap to my feet—and promptly fall right back on my ass, because my legs are completely numb from sleeping in such a weird fetal position, curled up at the foot of Josh’s desk like a dead cockroach.The next fifteen minutes are a blur. I get the girls up and dressed in the least coordinated outfits in the history of shitty parenting. I hurl random food into their lunchboxes with no regard for nutritional value. And then we’re all sprinting out the door.Ben, needless to say, doesn’t so much as lift a finger to help.I get the evil eye from the receptionist at the kids’

Last Updated : 2026-01-29

“No.” I blurt it before I can think better of it. “No. No. I’m not some little worm under your shoe, Mr. Oryolov. I’m a—I mean, fuck you, I’m a person! I have a life and hobbies and people who depend on me. I’m real! So I’d appreciate it very much if you’d pull your smug head out of your smug asshole and treat me with some damn respect for once.”Ruslan blinks.Blinks.Blinks.“Is there something else, Ms. Carson?”That’s when I realize that my whole little tirade took place entirely in my head. It wasn’t real. All imagined. Just a pleasant little detour to a fantasy land where I give him my two cents and then some.I swallow past the nasty taste in my throat and stand. “No, sir,” I say quietly. “Nothing at all.”EMMA“I’m gonna piss on his car.”Phoebe, my BFF, bursts out laughing on the phone. “You’re gonna what? Em, I love you to bits, but you wouldn’t even remind the bodega guy that you asked for no mustard on your sandwich last weekend. I don’t think you have a rebellious bone in

Last Updated : 2026-01-29

All Chapters of Cruel Paradise - Mafia Romance: Chapter 1 - Chapter 5

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