Chapter 3 A Deal with a Stranger

Seraphina exhaled shakily, as if she had been holding her breath, waiting for him to refuse. For a moment, the flickering café light above them cast deep shadows across her face, highlighting the sharp angles of her cheekbones and the tension in her jaw.

Leandro watched her carefully. She was young-far too young to be sitting in front of an old man, asking for a marriage that should never have been an option. But desperation had a way of forcing people's hands, stripping them of dignity, of choices. He had seen it before.

"Start from the beginning," he said, his voice low but firm.

Seraphina straightened slightly, as if bracing herself. Her fingers clenched together in her lap, and for the first time, Leandro noticed the bruises on her wrist-faint, but there. He frowned but said nothing, waiting.

"My father," she began, her voice steady despite the storm in her eyes, "was once a respectable businessman. He owned a shipping company-small, but profitable. Until two years ago, when he made the mistake of trusting the wrong people." She swallowed hard. "He borrowed money. A lot of it. And when he couldn't pay it back... they came for us."

Leandro's fingers drummed against the table. "Who?"

She hesitated. "Riccardo Esposito."

His grip stilled. He knew that name. Everyone in the underworld did. Riccardo Esposito was not just a man who loaned money-he was a wolf who sank his teeth into the desperate and never let go. If her father owed Esposito, then there was only one way this story would end.

"And now the debt falls on you," he murmured.

Seraphina nodded. "My father... he's sick. He barely leaves his bed anymore. My mother... she's too afraid to leave the house. So that leaves me."

Leandro's jaw tightened. He had seen men like her father before-weak men who made mistakes and let their families suffer for them.

"They threatened you?" he asked.

She let out a bitter laugh. "Threatened? No. That would imply they left room for negotiation." She lifted the sleeve of her dress slightly, revealing the faint outline of a bruise on her forearm. "They don't threaten. They remind."

Leandro exhaled slowly, his fingers curling against the edge of the table.

She dropped her sleeve and met his gaze. "I have no money. No way out. But I know one thing about men like Esposito-they don't touch another man's wife. If I belong to someone else, I become off-limits."

Leandro studied her for a long moment. She wasn't wrong. A married woman, especially one under the protection of another man, was more trouble than she was worth to someone like Esposito.

But still, she was asking for something dangerous.

"You would marry a stranger," he said slowly, "without knowing a thing about him?"

Her lips parted slightly, as if she hadn't considered that angle. But then, she squared her shoulders. "I don't need to know you," she said. "I just need you to say yes."

A small smile played at the corner of his lips. Bold.

He should refuse. This wasn't his problem. He had built this life in the shadows to escape the world of power and money, not to involve himself in someone else's battle.

But then, a thought struck him.

She had no idea who he was. No idea that the 'old man' she was speaking to was actually one of the wealthiest, most powerful men in the country. That she was unknowingly offering herself to someone far more dangerous than Esposito could ever be.

And for the first time in a long time, Leandro found himself intrigued.

"I'll marry you," he said, watching her eyes widen slightly in surprise. "But under one condition."

Seraphina's hands curled into fists. "What condition?"

"You will become my wife in every sense of the word," he murmured, his voice smooth despite the aged rasp he had adopted. "Not just on paper."

A flicker of hesitation crossed her face.

Leandro leaned forward slightly, lowering his voice. "You need protection, cara mia. And if we are to fool men like Esposito, then this cannot be a mere arrangement. It must be real. You must play the part."

Seraphina swallowed. "What exactly are you asking?"

Leandro tilted his head. "You will live with me. You will be my wife in the eyes of the world. And until the day this arrangement ends, you will belong to me."

For the first time that night, true uncertainty flickered in her expression.

Leandro waited, watching her war with herself. This was her final chance to walk away, to refuse.

But instead, she exhaled and nodded.

"Fine," she said quietly. "I accept."

A slow, satisfied smile spread across Leandro's lips.

So be it.