Love's Shadow, A Billionaire's Tears

mes, but it was the last one tha

bled, pulling us both into the pool. My heavy gown dr

right past me.

s voice, sharp and clear for everyone to

nt. My love for him

high-stakes poker game. He kissed her in front o

booming across the silent room. "She's

keep her around long enough to make Ellie jealous. Give it a few weeks.

heartbreak-it was a

pened my laptop, and applied to a university in

pte

ana

e, the one that left me to drown in a glittering pool while

uld even walk. Jax Moretti, heir to the Chicago Outfit's Underboss, was my destiny. I was El

per frayed; he knew the story behind the scar that slanted through my eyebrow, a mark from a share

gone conclusion: marr

ina Rinald

er from another city. The Don himself tasked Jax with watchin

led, his head in my lap as I traced the shar

mplaints s

was a missed late-night meeting. "Cat

. "Her brother got into some t

me stargazers, my favorite flowers, their scent filling my apartment. But soon, the apologies beca

act with panicked reassurances, crushing me against his chest and whispering about the empire we

in I was bound by family loyalty, that I would never truly

as thick with cigar smoke and the scent of expensive perfume. Capos and Soldiers

ress that was too innocent for the calculated look in her eyes.

t theatrically-into me, her momentum p

ing on the rough concrete before I plu

ed me down. I flailed, gasping, my eyes lockin

body a blur as he dove in after Catalina, who

to him, my voice a de

nce. His words cut through the noise of the

s no longer

ng-it all faded away. There was only the sting of chlorine

f the Gallo estate, something inside me broke.

ry. I didn

the application page for a university in New York, a city far outside the Moretti sph

his number, and untagged myself from a decade of shared memories. I packed

threat. This