How Long Do Professional Treatments Keep White Teeth?

On our seventh wedding anniversary, I was straddling my Mafia husband, Lucian, kissing him deeply. My fingers fumbled in the pocket of my expensive silk dress, searching for the pregnancy test I'd hidden there. I wanted to save the news of my unexpected pregnancy for the end of the evening. Lucian's right-hand man, Marco, asked with a suggestive smile in Italian: "Don, your new little canary, Sophia. How does she taste?" Lucian's mocking laughter vibrated through my chest, sending a chill down my spine. He replied, also in Italian: "Like an unripe peach. Fresh and tender." His hand was still caressing my waist, but his gaze was distant. "Just keep this between us. If my Donna finds out, I'm a dead man." His men chuckled knowingly, raising their glasses and swearing their silence. The warmth in my blood turned to ice, inch by inch. The one thing they didn’t know was that my grandmother was from Sicily, so I understood every word. I forced myself to remain calm, keeping the perfect smile of a Donna fixed in place, but the hand holding my champagne flute trembled. Instead of making a scene, I opened my phone, found the invitation I had received a few days ago for a private international medical research project, and tapped "Accept." In three days, I would disappear from Lucian's world completely.

The supplementary card I've issued for my grandmother shows that an eight-thousand-dollar purchase has taken place in another city. But the transaction records show that the money is used on hymenoplasty. I'm shell-shocked, to say the least. Grandma is 84 years old this year. She's been bedridden and paralyzed for years. Why would she even get hymenoplasty done on her, to begin with? But when my investigation leads me to a plastic surgery hospital, I find out that my wife, Stella Watson, is actually the lead doctor of said clinic. So, I call her to demand answers from her. However, Stella refuses to answer my questions properly. "Don't worry, honey. Something's most likely wrong with the system. Betsy is already this old—why would she have her hymen repaired?" That's just a bullshit answer coming from her. She seriously thinks I'm gullible enough to believe her. I merely huff coldly in return before calling my dad, who works in the Department of Commerce. "Dad, Stella is most likely cheating on me. I want her plastic surgery hospital as compensation for my impending divorce!"

My fiancé is one of the country's top neurosurgeons. One day, he discovers that his childhood sweetheart has been diagnosed with cancer and only has a month to live. He wants to spend this time with her, so he feeds me a newly developed memory-wiping drug to make me forget him for a month. During that time, he throws his childhood sweetheart a wedding and goes on a honeymoon with her. As they stand amid an ocean of flowers, they vow to be together in another lifetime. One month later, he kneels before me in the rain. Tears stream down his face as he says hoarsely, "The drug's effects were only supposed to last for a month. Why have you permanently forgotten me?"

Three years ago, on the day I married Luca Moretti, he personally handed me a marriage contract with a fixed term of three years. His tone was casual, indifferent, as if he were discussing an ordinary business deal. "This marriage exists solely to serve the alliance of interests between the Morettis and the Vitales. Sign this agreement. After three years, the marriage will automatically dissolve. When that time comes, you can go and pursue your true love." I barely hesitated before signing. Ten years earlier, at an inter-family business gala, when I was ten and Luca was sixteen, I had already fallen hopelessly in love with him. What looked like a strategic alliance was, in truth, the outcome of my decade-long unrequited love. During the three years of our marriage, Luca was attentive and gentle toward me. Over time, I began to believe I was loved. I sank into that illusion, unable to pull myself out, forgetting entirely about the agreement. That illusion was shattered completely on the night of our third wedding anniversary. That evening, Luca arrived with Elena, who had just returned to New York, and attended what was supposed to be our third anniversary celebration together. She stood beside him with ease and composure, smoothly engaging with business partners. People praised her, saying she looked more like the Donna of the Moretti family. In that moment, even though Luca never mentioned the agreement again, I understood clearly that it was time for me to step aside. After breaking free from his control, crossing an ocean to rebuild myself, and becoming a brilliant leader in my industry, I would no longer wait for his love.

Three years to the day after we sealed our betrothal oath, Keller Blake finally arrived in Silver Fir territory with the bonding gifts that would make our mate bond official. Our people lit the pine-resin braziers, and my parents looked as if a weight they had carried for years had finally lifted. But just as I reached the front door, Keller's attendant came running with a message. Keller had ordered the entire convoy to turn around. He never even came inside. One of Keller's aunts, who had traveled with the convoy, planted herself in front of his truck. "Keller, what kind of betrothal drags on for thirty-six full moons without a marking? The first year, you spent the bonding gifts to ransom your savior's daughter from hunters. The second, you injured a Grey Ridge warrior defending her and used the gifts to pay the damages. What is it this time? Keep this up, and the Halls really will dissolve the oath!" Keller already had the truck door open. His careless reply carried to me on the wind. "Lydia Vaughn's father left her a wolf-fang pendant. It's the only thing she has left of him, and I have to buy it back from the Neutral Zone auction house. As for Evelyn, we've been together since we were pups. A little sweet talk and she'll come around. Everyone in the North knows we're betrothed. She's twenty-six, and I've kept her waiting three years on top of that. Who else would dare take her?" I drew back the foot I had nearly set across the threshold. "The Lunar Council statute is clear. If thirty-six full moons pass and one party still refuses to deliver the promised bonding gifts, the oath is automatically void. I'm a free wolf now. I can choose another mate."

What could possibly go wrong when Maria is assigned as the personal doctor to the heir of a billionaire clan who just woke up from thirteen months in a coma? Probably unintended sparks and complicated intimacies. The saying that 'opposites attract' can't be more true between these two contradicting beings. *** He frowned down at her, moving towards the bed again, and sealed her lips with a palm. "Stop smiling like that," he said, in a deep rumble, brown eyes darkening with a different emotion she couldn't put into words. Her brows creased slightly before pulling his hand away and then chuckled lightly at his strange set of words. "Why? Is it not funny?" She asked with amusement, looking back at him with her grin getting wider. A groan softly broke through his lips, and his frame lowering towards her brought her chortle to an abrupt end, making her freeze in place when his face was a mere inch from hers. Her breath hitched for a second as she gazed into those dark eyes that could melt her in just one look, the softest of whispers breaking free from him, his fingers gently tracing over her jaw. "Because if you continue..." he paused, taking his time to finish his thought as his thumb ran up along her cheek. "... I am going to kiss you." Her eyelids stretched open at his words, gasping silently, feeling the heat rise to her cheeks. "Mr. Stanley..." And before she could complete words she wasn't even sure of saying next, he captured her mouth with a passionate kiss that stole her breath away, all sound from her vanishing in that instant. ***