Elena Carter never thought her life could get any worse. After years of being treated as an outsider in her own family, she thought she had finally found love with her boyfriend, Brian. But everything shatters when she catches him in bed with her younger sister. Her father, a desperate gambler, sees her as nothing more than a burden. When a ruthless mafia boss, Dominic Moretti, comes to collect a debt, her father makes a horrifying decision—he offers Elena as payment. Before she can process what is happening, she is handed over to a dangerous man who sees people as nothing more than pests under his expensive shoes. Elena is taken to Dominic’s estate, where she is treated like a prisoner. But unlike the others who fear him, she refuses to submit. “I'll be a good girl," I said. "But only if you treat me right." Something crossed his face at the mention of my words. Amusement? Respect? Crossed his face. "We'll see," he said, pulling his hand away.
View MoreChapter 1
Elena's POV
My boyfriend. The same boyfriend with whom I had spent and dreamed of long-term love, trust, and life together was sprawled on a bed sheet with nothing but my little sister, Lily.
"Elena!" Brian tried in vain to get into a sitting position, his face a picture of guilt and fear written all over his face.
I guess it was too late. "It's not what it looks like!"
But it was exactly what it looked like. Lily, my sister, leaned back against the headboard, completely unfazed, her smug grin igniting my anger.
Well, I knew she was a snake, but bringing my boyfriend into this. He was the only one on my side. At least I thought so.
“Oh, come on, Elena," she voiced out, playfully wending a strand of her hair through her shoulder.
“I hope you didn't think he'd be sticking around for someone like you, or did you?”
Her words cut deep as if someone had plunged a knife into my chest. My vision flashed, and my hands locked at my sides, screaming constricted my very throat.
There was the urge to just let out every emotion I was building inside through a scream, but it was harder than I thought.
"Why?" My voice broke in an almost whisper.
Brian stood, tugging quickly on a pair of pants.
“I—I didn't want things to go this way," he stammered, looking away from me.
“He's only saying that because he has been caught. The whole time we have been fucking each other, he never complained or mentioned you.”
“Lily?” She shut him up with a finger and turned back to me.
"I’m not telling you all this, so you can blame him for infidelity because are the one to blame, Elena. You're boring, a bit plain, just a little too desperate for love." She giggled.
“I guessed he got tired of you and decided to move to a more fun person. I guess it just happened to be me.
I hope it didn't hurt you too much. It's not the end of the world. It's just the end of your relationship.” She said, still trying to hold her burst of laughter.
I couldn't spare another second to dwell in this room. After taking a last stare at Brian, I turned to the door and ran out, her words hitting my back.
It was like an echo that kept reminding me of the cruel thing I had just experienced. The journey home to my father's house was slow and quiet.
I decided not to take a cab but to trek, while I used the opportunity to dwell on what had just transpired, wondering what I had ever done to deserve such a cruel treatment.
Tears ran down my cheeks and my chest tightened with the pain of my shame and sadness. I couldn't control my emotions. Everything was all messed up at that point.
When I got to the front door my eyes were red and swollen. The familiar scent of cigarette smoke and cheap perfume greeted me, along with the sharp voices of my stepmother and Lily.
I wasn't surprised she got home before me. I had spent my afternoon walking home alone while crying my eyes out over them.
The latter had returned home before me, fresh from her latest act of betrayal. My eyes fell on her and all I could see was her wide smile of mockery. She had ruined my life and all she could do was smile.
I was slowly losing it.
"Well, if it isn’t the little crybaby," Lily sneered as I stepped into the living room.
Her face was still painted with that infuriating smirk.
I guessed it was evident on my face that I had cried my whole way home.
"What do you want, Lily? You've done enough already." I asked, my voice hoarse.
"Just wanted to see how you’re holding up," she said mockingly.
“You know, I'm so happy Brian finally got the message, you’re a pathetic little rodent.
Her words were like poison, spreading through my veins. "You’re vile," I snapped, my anger bubbling to the surface.
Her eyes shrank in surprise. I wanted to ignore her like I always did, but she was making me furious.
"You better watch your tone, Elena. You don't want to incite my anger. You know you are useless and can't do anything to me because I'm the one Dad cares about. And also, the one Brian cares about."
That did it. Something within me shattered.
"How dare you! You've gone too far now," I growled, my voice trembling In anger.
Without a second thought, my hand shot up and struck her cheek. And it made a loud crack.
Lily emitted a loud cry, clutching her face like I had just hit her with a massive hammer.
Almost immediately, my father stormed into the room, his face filled with questions. He must have heard Lily's cry. That was the only reason he would come out running like that. He wouldn't even have done something like that for me.
"Elena!" He yelled. "What have you done?"
"She had it coming," I retorted, however, my voice began to shake beneath his furious gaze.
"She's your sister!" he exclaimed. "And you think you can smack her? Who gave you such right to touch my daughter?"
"She's not my sister," I mumbled.
I managed to say the words before his hand struck out.
The slap was swift and forceful, leaving my cheek red and my ears ringing.
"You ungrateful little brat," he yelled.
“You’ve been nothing but bad luck since the day you were born."
I stumbled back, clutching my cheek as my stepmother appeared. They were all present. My family. More like my hell.
"You've always been jealous of Lily. Always has been and always will be. You couldn't get what you wanted, so you proceeded to harm her.”
That wasn't a surprise coming for her. Seeing that Lily was her daughter, and I wasn't.
According to everyone, my real mom was a whore. She left my father and he never heard from her again. He took his anger on me since I looked a lot like her.
He remarried and there we have it. The Cinderella story. An evil stepmother and a stepsister, twice as evil.
Before I could get the chance to reply to my stepmother, the front door burst open. My father froze mid-sentence. His face became pale when a group of men in dark suits stormed in.
At the centre of them was a man who exuded authority and something else. Danger. I could sense it. This was someone that I wouldn’t want to be around or interact with.
He was tall and broad-shouldered, and he looked like he was in his late thirties. He had jet-black hair. His sharp, angular features were made known with his grim expression.
His dark eyes scanned the room. The air seemed to thicken up. It was suffocating. He began to move forward with his polished shoes rubbing against the ground.
"Did you think you could get away with paying your debt to me?” His voice was thick
"I saw my dad fall over, his anger fell off.’
“Si–” He stuttered, "I was going to pay you." He continued. I just need more time.
He scowled, unimpressed. "How much time has passed?" he whispered, his voice filled with jests. Do you think I do charity or I'm some kind of charity case?”
My father's arm was clutched by my stepmother, her face gloomy.
"Please hear us out." She pleaded with him.
“We'll find a resolution to this issue.". Let's have another week.”
It was no surprise that my dad was a debtor. This wasn't the first time. He always wasted his money on gambling.
With a low, nonchalant laugh, he said: "You're out of time, and you've got no hope." He continued:
My father's expression changed. “I do.”
His gaze was directed towards me, causing painful thoughts in my head. I was already having a bad feeling about the look.
With a desperate tone, he said, "Take my daughter. She's young and healthy. The debt can be paid off by her.”
“What?” I heard myself say, father was pointing at me.
“You can take her,” he repeated. He looked like he had never been this certain in his life. I bit my lip, throwing to hold in the pain I was feeling.
“Father, are you giving me away?!” The fear in my tone was very audible. As much as I hated my family, getting on the mafia's bad side was not advisable.
A soft but evil chuckle escaped the mafia’s lips and he immediately pulled out a gun making sure it was loaded, before pointing it to dad. “Take your daughter as my payment? The nerve of you to give me such an offer. Either I get my money or you all die today, one after the other.” His voice was low but as cold as ice
"Please. Don't kill us." Mom was the one talking now.
Soon, father chimed in. “We don’t have the money yet but we will get it soon. Hold my daughter, till I am to repay all. She'll do anything you want. Please just spare our lives.”
Without any apparent emotion, he lowered his gun, "Take her."
I collapsed on my knees, falling to the ground with tears on my face. "No, please. Don’t take me," I pleaded, my voice slowly slipping away from me.
He didn’t say anything to me. I turned to my family, looking at each of them. "Don't let them take me, please. Dad, don't do this. Mom, Lily, please save me.”
I was still pleading, when the hands of two heavy looking men grabbed my arms and lifted me while I slashed and kicked.
“No!” I yelled out but it didn't do the trick.
One of them growled at me, "Stop struggling."
My voice became louder and louder as I stared at my father, wondering "How could he do this to me?".
After being struck by the words, I gave up and lost all physical strength. I was pulled towards the door by these men, and upon leaving. I caught sight of my father, stepmother, and Lily, with faces that were all relieved.
To think that I had gone through a lot just today. Without knowing I was coming back to another. I didn't feel safe going along with him. Something about himself wasn't right. He looked like the devil himself.
I looked away and tears began to stream down my face.
Within a few hours, my world had collapsed. Still, I found it amusing that all of these happened in one day.
Dominic POV "Ulterior motives eh?" I repeated and Selene nodded twice. “That's what I believe." selene affirmed. “She’s probably pushing your buttons, trying to get on your soft side so when you don't notice, she'll do what she's planning internally. What she harbors in mind." "Hmph," I said thinking, and Selene smiled.She probably thought in her head that if I gave her an inch, she was going to go a mile and keep adding fuel to fire so, Elena wouldn't be in my favour, but then, the conversation that seemed to be going North in her favour went south very fast. "What do you take me for?" I asked and Selene was caught off guard by the question."Uhm, what do you mean by that, Dominic?" She asked, genuinely confused. "Exactly what I said. What do you take me for?" I repeated, facing her and my expression had become grim and cold and Selene gulped nervously but she still stood her ground thinking of a way she could regain control of the conversation. If
Elena POVThe first kiss was totally unexpected. And even after it, I didn't know what I was going to expect from Dominic or even myself. There were too many emotions involved for me to make the right call on the particular reaction I was going to make. Or Dominic was going to make either.But then he does this—an unexpected after a previous unexpected.This kiss wasn't as soft as the previous one. This time, I could feel there was more intention and desire behind it.This time, it was more raw and passionate and I could even say clumsy. I had closed my eyes, feeling just sizzles in my body while his tongue searched around in my mouth.And in this moment, my body surprised me the most because it wasn't doing anything I thought it was supposed to do. That is, kick against it, stop him from tasting me, and get angry even.We continued to kiss for a minute before he finally dislodged his lips from mine, and I was surprised by how I was trying to catch my breath. I felt as if fire had bee
Elena POVIn that subtle moment, everything felt paused to me, like a movie. I didn't think a single thought ran through my mind before I rushed over to the side of Dominic's bed, kneeling on the ground as I felt my worry spike within me.“Dominic!” I said, my worry now very evident on my face as my eyes still remained locked on his wounded arm.I gently grabbed his arm and examined it. To me, it seemed that the wound, which was already wrapped before, had reopened again, and that was because there were two shades of blood, with one darker than the other. It must have been from when he stood up abruptly from the bed and told Selene to leave, I think.“What happened to you while you were away? How did you get this wound?” I asked, hungry for answers. But then, seconds passed and I didn't get any answers to my questions.Dominic just sat there silently. He wasn't looking at his wound or at my hand, which I used to apply pressure on the wound so that the bleeding would slow down. To me,
Elena's POV“What's happening here?” I asked, ignoring Selene’s previous question as my eyes darted between Selene and Dominic, laying so still it almost felt like he was a log of wood.“What are you doing to him? Why is he—” I didn’t finish my next question before Selene jumped to her feet and rushed to me, using her hand to cover my mouth so I wouldn’t keep talking.“Shhhh,” she said, turning to Dominic, seeing that he only grunts a bit and then continues to sleep. She exhaled in relief and faced me with her earlier cold expression.“I asked you, why did you come inside?” she said, but her tone was low and stern as well.“Why wouldn’t I? I was very curious. I didn’t understand what you meant by your statement and again, you didn’t come out, so I didn’t know what to do and I couldn’t keep waiting outside,” I replied, also keeping my voice low.“Well, the best thing for you to have done is to go back to your room and wait till Dominic has decided to go to his office or somewhere you c
Elena POVIn that subtle moment, everything felt paused to me, like a movie. I didn't think a single thought ran through my mind before I rushed over to the side of Dominic's bed, kneeling on the ground as I felt my worry spike within me.“Dominic!” I said, my worry now very evident on my face as my eyes still remained locked on his wounded arm.I gently grabbed his arm and examined it. To me, it seemed that the wound, which was already wrapped before, had reopened again, and that was because there were two shades of blood, with one darker than the other. It must have been from when he stood up abruptly from the bed and told Selene to leave, I think.“What happened to you while you were away? How did you get this wound?” I asked, hungry for answers. But then, seconds passed and I didn't get any answers to my questions.Dominic just sat there silently. He wasn't looking at his wound or at my hand, which I used to apply pressure on the wound so that the bleeding would slow down. To me,
Elena POVI didn’t sleep much last night.In my head, my conflicting thoughts were too much of a bother to allow me to lie down and get up to three hours of rest and so, I ended up sleeping outside for a few minutes before I woke up again. From the way I saw it, it felt as if the night just went by in minutes.All this while, I was thinking but yet, I still wasn't able to find a suitable answer to settle my worries. I sighed dejectedly and got on my feet, deciding it was better to go back to my room. There was no reason for me to keep answering questions with questions. I had to try and get some sleep, even if it was just a little.The soft ticking of the big clock in the hallway was the only sound accompanying my racing thoughts.There was something wrong, something off. And I could feel it.Every corner of this mansion seemed to carry hidden details of secrets I wasn't seeing.It felt like betrayal and a blend of other eerie things were going on from beyond the facade of it all, an
Dominic POVI just spent the last few minutea trying to stabilize myself and calm my nerves. Things were unraveling at a rate I wasn't catching up to in time. And I need to, before things get worse than they already are.“Boss.” Gabe called my attention, and I turned to him with an angry look. Not necessarily because he was disturbing me—I was just mad at everything right now.“I'm sorry, boss, but what do we do with her now?” Gabe asked me, and I shifted my gaze from him to Johanna, who still had a pool of tears streaming down her face. Her eyes were still locked on her brother’s lifeless body, and I sighed dejectedly and walked in front of Johan, covering his eyes before I shifted my gaze to her, shielding the body from her sight as I said,“This wasn’t how things were supposed to go.” I paused, looking at her, but she had shut her eyes, still biting on Gabe’s hand, who seemed to be enduring the pain. I signaled to him to let go, and he took his hand off her mouth. She kept weeping
Dominic POV“Would you like some tea?” I said mockingly, and Johan gulped even harder this time. I could see him starting to shake in his spot, his eyes darting around the room for a way to escape.“We've waited all this time for you,” I continued, enjoying the moment. “Your sister here gave us assurance you'd be back soon, so we took her words. Else we’d have taken her,” I added with a look over to Johanna, and she clenched the blanket she was holding even tighter. It was from fear—the more, the better. It would make things easier for me, easier to get information from Johan when he knew what was truly at stake.He had a look of desperation on his face, and in a sharp move, he turned toward the door. But he didn't take two steps before the man already behind him slammed the door shut. The impact made Johan fidget. He turned toward the stairs, desperate to run up them, but another of my men stood in his path. He slid and fell to the ground, his eyes locking onto the fire alarm. He was
Dominic POV I sat behind my desk in the study room, my knuckles pressed into my temple, while, with my other hand, I flipped through a document I wasn't bent on reading. I wasn't concentrating on the document, not really. Not since that damn message came in. A set of knocks on the door was easily enough to draw my attention and my eyes left the document. “Come in,” I said, and the next second, James walked in with an expression that made me curious. Clasping my hands together, I asked, “What is it?” “We found him,” James said. My eyes narrowed as I proceeded to ask, “Where?” “He’s currently at an abandoned duplex towards the southern part from here. It shouldn't be up to a two-hour drive. The man’s name is Johan. From what I've gathered, he works at a computer shop. Not too far from where he lives. He’s got a sister—just got discharged from a hospital.” I raised an eyebrow and James continued. “Cancer. Most likely in its late stage, from what we can tell.” My gaze left James
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