I was the brightest, most untouchable red rose in New York’s mafia world.
I was beautiful enough to make men lose their nerve with a single glance. People said the men obsessed with me could line up from Manhattan all the way to Brooklyn, but I rarely bothered to look twice.
Then my best friend made a bet with me.
“Bella, if you can win over my godfather, Dominic Morello, you can pick any car you want from my underground garage.”
Dominic Morello was the head of the Morello family, one of the most powerful names in New York’s underworld. Cold, restrained, born to command. To the daughters of old money families and mafia clans alike, he was the kind of man no one dared reach for. Rumor had it no woman could get within arm’s length of him.
I smiled.
I had never failed to get something I wanted.
But plans rarely survive contact with reality.
On the very first day of the bet, I found Dominic drugged and barely holding on. I had already meant to get close to him. By sheer accident, I became the antidote he needed.
After that night, the ice around Dominic Morello seemed to crack.
For three years, he came back to me again and again. Against the floor-to-ceiling windows on the top floor of the family headquarters, in the bathroom of his private Gulfstream, in the dressing room of a private cigar club. We tangled together in places no one would have imagined.
And piece by piece, through all that intimacy, I lost my heart.
I thought this man, worshiped by everyone else like a god, had become mine too.
Until tonight.
After we had been together in the back seat of his car, I noticed one of his sapphire cufflinks had fallen off. I picked it up and went to return it.
At the end of the corridor, the door to a cigar room stood half-open. I was about to push it wider when laughter drifted out from inside.
“Dominic, did you just get out of her bed? Isabella is usually such a proud little wildcat. She looks down on everyone. But with you, she turns sweet enough to melt. When are you going to marry her?”
I stopped in my tracks.
Then I heard the cold voice I knew down to my bones.
“She’s just a bed partner. How could I marry her?”
The Godfather’s Forsaken Rose Chapter 09 His brows drew together. He strode to the edge of the lake and held out his hand, anger held tight in his voice. “Isabella. Come up.” I slapped his hand away and kept searching. Only when my fingertips brushed something cold and hard did I close my fist around […]
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The Godfather’s Forsaken Rose Chapter 08 I struggled hard. “Get away from me.” But he was stronger than I was, and he was already leaning in when the lights dimmed again. The next second, I heard him hit the floor. Someone dragged him away. My heart skipped. I recognized the man who had done it.
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The Godfather’s Forsaken Rose Chapter 07 Victor understood immediately. “Did you hear him?” he shouted at the guards. “Thirty lashes first. Then lock her in the side hall until I say otherwise.” “Let me go. Victor, you’re no father of mine. You’re a beast.” I fought with everything I had, but the guards pinned me
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The Godfather’s Forsaken Rose Chapter 06 After dinner, the four of them sat together in the living room, chatting as if they were a perfect family. I had no interest in playing my part in that little performance, so I stood and went out to the garden. The early-summer breeze carried a faint chill, but
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The Godfather’s Forsaken Rose Chapter 05 “Dad, Mom, I’m home.” Victor and Elena, who had only just recovered from the scene I had caused, instantly put on warm, polished smiles. They surrounded Sophia with concern and greeted Dominic with almost embarrassing respect. Dominic’s gaze landed on me, and his brows drew together. It seemed that
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The Godfather’s Forsaken Rose Chapter 04 After handling my departure paperwork, I went home. The moment I walked through the door, I ran into my stepmother, Elena Voss, dressed and made up as perfectly as ever. As soon as she saw me, she began lecturing me in that familiar tone. “Bella, you still remember this
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The Godfather’s Forsaken Rose Chapter 03 When I woke again, I was in St. Mary’s Private Hospital. A nurse was adjusting the IV in the back of my hand. When she saw my eyes open, she said, “Miss Moretti, you’re finally awake. Your injuries are serious, and we’ll need to keep you here for observation.
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The Godfather’s Forsaken Rose Chapter 02 He said he had never fallen for me. So for three years, I had been the only fool in a play he had directed, pouring every real feeling I had into a role that meant nothing to him. I stood frozen, staring at my empty hand. The warmth of
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The Godfather’s Forsaken Rose Chapter 01 I was the brightest, most untouchable red rose in New York’s mafia world. I was beautiful enough to make men lose their nerve with a single glance. People said the men obsessed with me could line up from Manhattan all the way to Brooklyn, but I rarely bothered to
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