GemNoir

“You need my help, Tesoro. You choose. A marriage with me or be torn apart by them” His voice was cool as though this wasn't a matter of life or death.

I didn't want this life. My father had gambled a lot and left me with a lot of enemies and now I needed the help of Don Vincenzo LaRosa who was my high school bully and now the Don of the most powerful mafia family in Italy if I was going to survive it.

It was just a marriage of convenience but I realized something. He wasn't helping me out of a good heart. I had been sold without my permission to him. I was the mafia's pawn.

Sold to the Capo

Tears blurred my vision, but I refused to blink, refused to look away. My heart was hammering so loudly that it drowned out the chaos behind me. I couldn't move, couldn't breathe.

"…Dad?" My voice barely came out, just a whisper laced with disbelief.

The man standing before me—Lord Rossi—looked like my father, but at the same time, he didn't. He was older, harsher, his eyes devoid of the warmth I once knew. There was nothing soft in his expression, nothing familiar except the face itself.

I had spent years—half my life—searching for this man. Crying over him. Begging for him. And now… now he was here?

I took a shaky step forward, my trembling fingers lifting as if to touch his face, to prove he was real. "Dad, it's me," I choked out. "It's—"

Before I could finish, his hand shot out, gripping my wrist so tightly that pain flared up my arm. My breath hitched.

THE DEVIL WEARS MY FATHER'S FACE