All Chapters of The Mafia Don's Stolen Bride: Chapter 1 - Chapter 4

CHAPTER 1: A HELLISH NIGHTThe clock on the wall of the editorial room showed a little past eight in the evening. Flora Vance exhaled a long breath, then forced closed the laptop on her desk. Overtime was a daily staple for a Senior Editor at a major publishing house in Manhattan, New York, like herself. Tonight, however, her fatigue vanished into thin air. There was a joyful spark she couldn't hide."Hey, Nessa, want to head home together?" Flora asked as she slung the strap of her crossbody bag over her shoulder.Vanessa, her best friend and the Managing Editor who was busy checking drafts in the next cubicle, looked up. "Can't, Flo. I have a dinner plan with my cousin. Go ahead."Flora smiled, leaning her body over Vanessa's cubicle. "Alright, I'll go first. Don't forget to accompany me for the wedding dress fitting tomorrow. Don't you dare be late!"Vanessa laughed cheerfully, flashing a thumbs-up. "Got it, Bride-to-Be! Say hi to Devon for me!"Hearing Devon's name, Flora’s chest

Since that hellish day, Flora Vance had changed completely. There were no more sweet smiles or crisp laughter from the usually cheerful Senior Editor. She locked herself in her spacious room in an elite New York neighborhood, refusing to see the outside world. Flora became incredibly quiet and sensitive. Every time her bedroom door was knocked on, her body would jolt in fear, consumed by flashes of the trauma from Arthur's brutal rape that kept looping in her brain like a broken cassette.The climax occurred this afternoon. The piling despair made Flora's sanity collapse completely. Inside her tightly locked bathroom, she smashed a glass cup onto the marble floor, then picked up its sharpest shard. Her violently trembling hand prepared to scratch the object right over the pulse of her wrist."FLORA, DON'T!" BANG!Vanessa, her best friend who had come to visit and grew suspicious because Flora had locked herself in for too long, managed to forcefully break down the bathroom door at the