Mariah_Stories

☠️EXCERPT☠️ "The Deadline of the Loan is today" A woman cries to her husband in fear "I will try to explain to him to give us more time" The husband bites his nails saying this "You know how ruthless the Fernandez are" The woman says hitting her husband on the head "Should we just run till we get the money?" The woman asks and the husband kept quiet contemplating "Get Elsa and pack a few things" The husband says and the woman ran up the stairs to little Elsa room "Mommy Mommy ,come see my drawing" 5 year old Elsa says to her mom smiling but the woman mind was far away from Elsa words "Baby where's your pink bag?" The woman asks scattering the room searching for it "But Mom, I said you should come see my dra..." Elsa was cut off by her mom "Shit up Elsa and show me your pink bag" The woman shouts in anxiety and fear, Elsa pouts as tears builds in her eyes as she pointed under her bed The woman rushes there and tales the pink bag stuffing some few clothes in it quickly, her husband comes to the door "Hurry" He says and The woman hurriedly zipped Elsa's bag and pulls Elsa with her as they all rushed downstairs "Load the bags" The woman gave the bag to her husband who quickly loaded it into the boot The woman put Elsa into the car and does the seat belt before joining her husband in the front He inserts the car key and ignites it before zooming off, The woman fear began decreasing as she sighs in relief "Mommy where are we going?" Elsa asks playing with her doll "Somewhere safe baby, Somewhere safe" The woman answers and Elsa nodded Soon after they were on the road, they crossed and entered a silent road path, no cars were seen their neither were people. Thier car was soon counter attacked by 3 other cars "Oh My God, they found us" The woman said in fear as her heart began to palpitate Her husband hands became sweaty on the steering wheel as he stared at a figure which stepped down one of the cars The figure was Eduardo Fernandez, one of the richest Business man in the whole of Italy at the age of 50 , in the outside world he was a business man but in the inside worl, be owned one of the biggest Mafia clan name Tigers Clan "Well Well Well, if it isn't the Dobardo family" Eduardo says with a cold deep voice with his one eye patch and a customized walking stick Mr Dobardo steps out the car going on his knees "Please give us a little time, well..." Mr Dobardo was cut off by Eduardo "What makes you think you could run and hide?" Eduardo asks with Venom in his voice and Mr Dobardo grew shut "No we weren't..." A bullet went straight into Mr Dobardo right eyes as blood ran down it and he scream in pain "Arghhhh" Mrs Dobardo had moved to the backseat and was currently covering Elsa's ear and eyes, she flinches when she saw the scene as tears rolled down her eyes "Where's your beautiful daughter and wife?" Eduardo asks signalling to Rocco, his personal bodyguard Rocco gets the sign and walks to Mr Dobardo car and drags Elsa and Mrs Dobardo out "Mommy" Elsa cries and Mr Dobardo rushes to her after they had been thrown on the ground "Let me give you this as a warning" Eduardo says and shot Mr Dobardo right leg "Arghhhhh" Mr Dobardo shouts in agony and Pain Elsa peeked from behind her mom and locked eyes with Eduardo Eduardo glances at Elsa and smirks "Infact, there's a way to escape this debt" He says with a lustful smirk "Ho..oow?" Mrs Dobardo asks in fear holding Elsa tight "Your daughter can be used as a collateral, as a gift for my grand son, the next heir to the Mafia clan" He says and Mrs Dobardo gasps "No you can't...." A gunshot went straight into Mr Debardo forehead rendering him dead "Daddy No" Elsa cries "Any thing else to say" Eduardo asks and No sound was heard "Good I'll be back on the day of her 18th birthday" Eduardo says and entered his car and soon all entered and they drove off Mrs Dobardo crawls to Mr Dobardo crying profusely "Mommy what's wrong with daddy?" Elsa asks looking at her mom's crying face "Daddy went to meet God early baby" Mrs Debardo says and stands starting to drag Mr Dobardo into the boot of the car She successfully did so and zooms off going home ••••• What will happen when Elsa's 18th birthday comes around? What mysteries will she unlock in the clan? Read to find out!!!

I was three days away from marrying the Underboss of the Fazio crime family when I unlocked his burner phone. The screen glowed toxic bright in the dark next to my sleeping fiancé. A message from a contact saved as 'Little Trouble' read: "She is just a statue, Dante. Come back to bed." Attached was a photo of a woman lying in the sheets of his private office, wearing his shirt. My heart didn't break; it simply stopped. For eight years, I believed Dante was the hero who pulled me from a burning opera house. I played the perfect, loyal Mafia Princess for him. But heroes don't give their mistresses rare pink diamonds while giving their fiancées cubic zirconia replicas. He didn't just cheat. He humiliated me. He defended his mistress over his own soldiers in public. He even abandoned me on the side of the road on my birthday because she faked a pregnancy emergency. He thought I was weak. He thought I would accept the fake ring and the disrespect because I was just a political pawn. He was wrong. I didn't cry. Tears are for women who have options. I had a strategy. I walked into the bathroom and dialed a number I hadn't dared to call in a decade. "Speak," a voice like gravel growled on the other end. Lorenzo Moretti. The Capo of the rival family. The man my father called the Devil. "The wedding is off," I whispered, staring at my reflection. "I want an alliance with you, Enzo. And I want the Fazio family burned to the ground."

On my wedding day, my father sold me to the Chicago Outfit to pay his debts. I was supposed to marry Alex Moreno, the heir to the city's most powerful crime family. But he couldn't even be bothered to show up. As I stood alone at the altar, humiliated, my best friend delivered the final blow. Alex hadn't just stood me up; he had run off to California with his mistress. The whispers in the cathedral turned me into a joke. I was damaged goods, the rejected bride. His family knew the whole time and let me take the public fall, offering me his cousins as pathetic replacements-a brute who hated me or a coward who couldn't protect me. The humiliation burned away my fear, leaving only cold rage. My life was already over, so I decided to set the whole game on fire myself. The marriage pact only said a Carlson had to marry a Moreno; it never said which one. With nothing left to lose, I looked past the pathetic boys they offered. I chose the one man they never expected. I chose his father, the Don himself.

For seven years, I was the architect of my fiancé's criminal empire and the strategist behind his every move. I was Dante Gallo’s unofficial Consigliere, his partner in everything but name. Tomorrow, I was finally supposed to marry him and take my place as the queen to his throne. But on the eve of our wedding, a single text message sent by mistake detonated my life. It was a photo from Dante, showing a platinum wedding band on his hand. The message read: “Married this morning. She’s safe now.” My gaze fell to the engagement ring on my own finger. It was the identical band, just smaller. The engraved initials ‘D.I.’ didn’t stand for Dante and I. They stood for Dante and Isabella—his childhood sweetheart. My entire relationship was a lie; I was just a shield to protect his one true love. He dismissed my discovery as a "tantrum." Then, his new bride began taunting me, sending a picture of them tangled in bedsheets with the caption: "Loser." They expected me to break. They thought I would shatter. They were about to find out just how wrong they were. I forwarded the picture to Isabella’s fiancé, a man far more dangerous than Dante. "Your fiancée is in Suite 8808 at the Grand Hyatt," I told him. "I'll meet you downstairs. We're going to crash their party."

I stood outside my husband's study, the perfect mafia wife, only to hear him mocking me as an "ice sculpture" while he entertained his mistress, Aria. But the betrayal went deeper than infidelity. A week later, my saddle snapped mid-jump, leaving me with a shattered leg. Lying in the hospital bed, I overheard the conversation that killed the last of my love. My husband, Alessandro, knew Aria had sabotaged my gear. He knew she could have killed me. Yet, he told his men to let it go. He called my near-death experience a "lesson" because I had bruised his mistress's ego. He humiliated me publicly, freezing my accounts to buy family heirlooms for her. He stood by while she threatened to leak our private tapes to the press. He destroyed my dignity to play the hero for a woman he thought was a helpless orphan. He had no idea she was a fraud. He didn't know I had installed micro-cameras throughout the estate while he was busy pampering her. He didn't know I had hours of footage showing his "innocent" Aria sleeping with his guards, his rivals, and even his staff, laughing about how easy he was to manipulate. At the annual charity gala, in front of the entire crime family, Alessandro demanded I apologize to her. I didn't beg. I didn't cry. I simply connected my drive to the main projector and pressed play.

My marriage to Joshua Caldwell was a prison sentence. I was a Hartman trophy, sold to the powerful family who had destroyed mine. Then I discovered he was cheating. His mistress was pregnant with the child he denied me, and he was stealing my secret song lyrics to build her career. When I confronted him, he called me a spineless liability and threatened to destroy what was left of my family. To make matters worse, a one-night stand with a stranger turned out to be with my husband's brother, Anthony Caldwell-the Don of the city. He knew all of Joshua's secrets and used them to trap me in a twisted game, seeing me as nothing more than an asset. They both thought I was a broken doll they could control. I wrote a song for his mistress, a beautiful execution with a single, impossible note I knew would destroy her voice. She sang it, and now her career is over. Now the Don has summoned me to Chicago, not knowing the woman he thinks is his asset is the one who just burned his brother's world to the ground.

The moment I saw my husband massaging his dead brother's pregnant mistress's feet, I knew my marriage was over. He moved her into our home under the guise of "family duty," forcing me to watch as he prioritized her comfort over our vows. The final betrayal came when she stole and deliberately broke my mother's priceless necklace. When I slapped her for the desecration, my husband struck me across the face to defend her. He had violated a sacred honor code by putting his hands on the daughter of another Don-an act of war. I looked him in the eye and swore on my mother's grave that I would bring a bloody revenge upon his entire family. Then I made one phone call to my father, and the demolition of his empire began.

I was the perfect Mafia wife, my dowry the foundation of my husband's ambition. I paid for his Yale degree, his tailored suits, and the very mansion he called his own. My reward? He paraded his mistress into my bedroom and declared her his second wife, expecting me to silently finance their affair. They thought they had broken a merchant's daughter. They forgot I was raised by wolves. Armed with a blood chit—a life debt owed to my family by the most feared man in Chicago—I walked into the lion's den. I went to Damien 'The Wraith' Falcone, the Dark Don who rules the Outfit with an iron fist, to demand a simple annulment. But the King of Chicago isn't interested in simple transactions. He saw the steel beneath my silk, the vendetta burning in my eyes. He granted me my freedom, but at a price: my allegiance. Now, I'm a pawn in his lethal game of thrones, caught between a treacherous husband I swore to destroy and a ruthless Don who looks at me with a terrifying, possessive hunger. In a city built on loyalty and betrayal, I'm about to teach them all that a queen's wrath is the deadliest weapon of all.

On my wedding day, the wedding planner looked at me with pity in her eyes. She told me the groom had called with a last-minute request. He wanted the name on the floral arch changed from "Elena" to "Sofia." Five years of loyalty to Dante Romero, and I found out he was planning a "secret" ceremony with his mistress an hour before ours. He claimed she was dying of cancer. He said it was her final wish to be a bride, and that as a good mafia wife, I should understand. He swore it was just charity. But I had seen the texts where he called me "furniture." I had watched him step over my body when I fell down the stairs at a club, just so he could leave with her. And this morning, I watched Sofia walk into the hotel lobby wearing *my* custom French lace wedding dress, smirking as she clung to his arm. Dante thinks I'm crying in the bridal suite. He thinks I will sit in the front row of his "fake" wedding and wait for my turn like a dutiful puppet. He is wrong. I wiped my tears and picked up my phone. I didn't cancel the wedding date. I just changed the location to the ballroom next door. And I changed the groom. As Dante says his vows to his mistress, I am walking down the aisle to meet the only man the Romero family fears. The Reaper.

I thought my life was over when my sister died, leaving me to raise her two babies in a world that wanted to swallow us whole. Then I made the mistake of a lifetime: I left a bold, humiliating voicemail for the one man I should have feared most. Anton Oryolov. The ruthless king of the Oryolov Bratva. A billionaire monster who rules the city with ice in his veins and blood on his hands. I expected him to fire me. I expected him to destroy me. Instead, he gave me a choice that felt like a death sentence: sign a contract and become his. The rules were simple. I belong to him. I live in his shadows. In exchange, he protects the children. But as the doors of his mansion locked behind me, I realized the "forced proximity" wasn't just a business arrangement. It was a cage. He thinks he can use me as a pawn in his dark mafia games. He thinks the children are just leverage to keep me in line. But he's starting to look at me with a hunger that isn't in the contract, and I'm seeing a man beneath the monster that I never expected to find. In the Cruel Paradise of the Bratva, loyalty is a lie and love is a weakness. Our deal is signed in ink, but it's going to end in blood. He owns my signature. He owns my safety. Now, he wants my soul.

"Le--Leave Me, Christian" I stuttered, as his closeness was driving me crazy. I was screaming in my mind to push him away, I belonged to someone else but... my heart was ditching at that moment, telling me to melt in his arms again and drown in the pleasure pool. He seemed to be the firm rock in my solitude providing me light in my mafia dark world. Ivanna being the simple girl was a love-struck fool until she was dumped by the man, whom she loved dearly. Her life then reversed a whole 180 degrees when a stranger entered simultaneously with her ex's entry, who wanted forgiveness and to get back with her. Ivanna was left with two choices: one who had been a complete stranger to her but brought immense happiness and light while the other with whom she had a complicated past. Who will she choose? .