Page 42 of Of Lies and Shadows

The room remains heavy with silence, broken only when Rizzo speaks again, voice cutting through the tension like a blade.

“Prepare for your wedding,Signorina Mori.” I turn my head slightly, catching Dante’s profile, stone carved from rage and betrayal, and I realize there is no forgiveness coming. No redemption.

Only survival.

I walk out of the judge’s office with my head high, my body shaking on the inside, and my heart dying one beat at a time.

Because from now on, there will be no more Francesca Mori.

Only the nanny.

The maid.

The whore.

Dante Forzi’s possession. And if I want to survive him… I have to become everything he thinks I already am.

Chapter Ten

Dante

The wedding day arrives like a bad omen. Heavy, choking, settling over the estate like a storm about to break.

I sit in my office, still in my shirtsleeves, ignoring the black suit hanging on the back of the door.

The clock ticks down the minutes to the ceremony.Tick. Tick. Tick. Like a fucking countdown to my own execution.

Bruno arrived this morning, as ordered. He hovers. Always too close. Always looking at her like she’s somethingprecious. Something that needs saving.

It crawls under my skin. Festers.

It started at the judge’s office. The way her eyes darted to him, not me, when the contract was signed. The way she flinched when I touched her but stood steady when he did.

That wasn’t nothing. That was loyalty. Affection. Maybe even love.

And the jealousy, the possession that tore through me like a blade, it caught me off guard. Made me angry enough to see the truth I hadn't wanted to see.

When I got the names from the rat we executed, and I ordered my men to dig into them, I never expected Mori to show up on the list.

Too remote. Too minor. Just a laundromat chain owner moving dirty money through cleaner hands.

But then I saw her. No hair color or contact lenses could hide her.

No disguise could change the way her eyes, the brightest fucking green I'd ever seen, burned straight through me.

Mesmerizing. Deadly. A snake hidden in silk.

And now, I understand everything.

She was caught fucking Bruno, her father's personal guard, no doubt. Mori, furious at the dishonor, sent her on a suicide mission into my home. To let me finish what he craved but could not do… Kill her.

Punishment disguised as espionage. A daughter turned into a weapon. A whore turned spy.

And the worst part? A part of me still wants her—enough that it makes me hate her even more.

I glance at the suit again. Time to play the part.

The details of our contract are private, only known to the few who stood in that room.

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