Journal

Seraphina Vale has always been a survivor. Bullied mercilessly by her affluent college classmates and betrayed by her closest friend, Isla Kensington, Seraphina has spent years hiding behind a quiet, unassuming façade. Her turning point comes when Isla’s ultimate betrayal, she leaked Seraphina’s private journal containing intimate reflections about her deceased mother and that led to a public humiliation so devastating that Seraphina ends up hospitalized. Emotionally shattered and at her lowest point, Seraphina stumbles upon Adrian Montclair, a charismatic yet ruthless Mafia boss who offers her an unexpected lifeline. Adrian, a man haunted by his own dark past, sees something in Seraphina that reminds him of the person he used to be: broken but not irreparable. He offers her a "contract." He will help her rebuild herself, reclaim her life, and exact justice against those who wronged her. In return, she must agree to one favor in the future, the nature of which he will not reveal. Desperate and with nothing to lose, Seraphina accepts, plunging herself into Adrian’s dangerous world.

"You don’t need to see the world to survive it," Lucian whispered. "You just need to belong to the right monster." Seraphina Vellaro, blind, limping, and silenced by years of cruelty, is the forgotten daughter of mafia queen Celeste Vellaro. After her mother's brutal death, she is imprisoned by her father Danta, a sadistic man desperate to seize control of Celeste’s legacy. But fate changes course when Seraphina’s loyal nanny Gloria escapes with a powerful relic—Celeste’s blood-coded journal—and places it in the hands of the most feared family in the underworld: the Morettis. Now under the protection of Lucian Moretti, a scarred mafia prince cold enough to make death shiver, Seraphina becomes the key to a buried empire—and the center of Lucian’s growing obsession. He doesn’t love her. He claims her. But in a world of velvet prisons, power-hungry enemies, and dark inheritances, Seraphina must decide: Is she still someone’s pawn—or will she rise as the queen her mother raised her to be?