The New American Mafia

He never looked at me in high school. Not once. I was the secret —hidden after my mother’s murder, the only daughter of New York’s most feared mafia boss. I was told to be quiet and obedient. I’m neither. Matteo De Salvo was the only boy who ever rattled me. The boxer with a future. The one who got someone else pregnant and kept walking. Six years later, he’s a single dad and a champion; I run my father’s “legitimate” businesses and don’t hide anymore. I told myself I was over him —until the night I stormed a dive bar to save a friend's life…and saved Matteo instead.

I used her rebellion against her. She wanted out from under a ruthless father. The ink on her snow-pale skin, the way she stared me down —I took it all and turned it into leverage. I promised hate. I promised blood. Instead, I gave her a ring. Sasha Nikolayev was never meant to be mine. Wrong family, wrong culture, wrong war. But the first time I tasted her defiance, I knew I’d chain her to me with vows if I had to. Now our marriage is the most dangerous lie we tell. Enemies circle. Fathers scheme.

I didn’t get to say goodbye to my mother. When I watched her coffin lower into the ground, I swore I’d never love another that deeply again. I didn’t have to. I found solace in the opposite.