Chapter 1

The custom-designed logo I created for Dante Mancini's new company, a gift for my twenty-second birthday and the supposed start of our life together, slipped from my fingers the moment I heard him tell his consigliere he was faking an engagement to get rid of me.

It landed with a soft thud on the plush carpet outside the private room, the sound swallowed by the low thrum of music from the club. My world went silent.

Chapter 1

Seraphina POV:

I had loved Dante "The Shadow" Mancini since I was fifteen. He was the heir to the Mancini crime family, and I was the daughter of his father's most trusted Capo, Leo Moretti. In our world, he was my Don, my destiny. I saw it confirmed when I was sixteen, at a Mancini charity gala. A piece of scaffolding, heavy and lethal, broke loose above me. Dante moved like lightning, a blur of expensive wool and raw power. He yanked me back, his grip like iron on my arm, just as the metal crashed where I had been standing.

He didn't say anything. He just looked down at me, his dark eyes assessing, before he tossed a silver coin into my trembling hands. It was stamped with the Mancini crest. A silent, possessive claim. My guardian. I kept that coin with me always, a sacred link to our shared future.

On my eighteenth birthday, filled with champagne and foolish courage, I confessed everything. I kissed him. He'd seemed more bored than anything else, a faint smirk playing on his lips. "When you're twenty-two and done with school," he'd said, his voice a low rumble that vibrated through me, "if you still have this... loyalty... maybe I'll consider tying our fates together."

A Don's command.

I took his careless words as a holy vow, a promise of an arranged marriage that would bind our families. I built my entire life around it. I went to Pratt Institute in New York, closer to the heart of his empire. For four years, I perfected my craft, waiting.

Tonight was my twenty-second birthday. The culmination of everything. I'd designed the perfect logo for his new legitimate front, a sleek, modern emblem that was both beautiful and intimidating. It was my soul on paper, a testament to my devotion. A gift to seal our family bond.

Now, standing outside his private room, I heard the truth.

"She's a nuisance, Vito," Dante's voice was laced with irritation. "This obsessive loyalty is a liability."

"So, what's the plan, Don?" Vito, his consigliere, asked.

"Isabella is ambitious. She'll play her part. We'll announce an engagement. A baby. That should be enough to scare the little Moretti girl away for good. She's too... pure for this. It's for her own good."

A woman laughed, a throaty, confident sound. Isabella Rossi. An outsider, a social climber. "Don't worry, Dante. I'll make it very convincing."

My breath caught in my throat, a painful, sharp thing. The logo, my offering, lay forgotten at my feet. The silver coin in my pocket suddenly felt cold as ice.

I turned and walked away. I didn't run. My movements felt disconnected, like I was watching someone else. I pushed through the heavy doors of the club and out into the New York rain. It was cold, and it soaked through my dress in seconds, but I didn't feel it.

My phone buzzed in my purse. Dante. Then my brother, Leo. I silenced it, shoving it deep into my bag.

He didn't want my loyalty. He wanted to cut me out. So I would. I would sever the tie myself.