Accidentally Proposed To The Mafia King

CHAPTER ONE

Bella's POV

I've always believed that the universe sends warnings before it breaks your heart. Little shivers, gut pinches, whispers that sound like, "Something is fucking wrong."

I have always believed that it did.

This morning, the universe did just that. Heck, it wasn't only whispering.

It was screaming at me.

I just didn't want to hear it.

"Bells, you sure you don't want me to drive you?" Ava asked from the doorway, her eyebrows raised in that way only best friends have mastered which was a combination of half concern and half judgment.

I tucked my lip gloss into my purse and forced a smile. "I'm fine. It's just a quick stop at Ethan's office. I want to surprise him before his presentation."

Ava rolled her eyes in response and folded her arms. " Oh please. Surprises are for people you trust. Last week, he canceled your date for the third time. The universe is talking to you, babe. You just don't want to hear it"

I waved her off like her words weren't scratching at something raw inside me. "He's just stressed, Ava. This pitch to Valor Tech is huge. He said they might promote him to VP if it goes well. He is not acting up. Don't make a big deal out of it please."

At my words, Ava's expression softened. "I am not trying to, Bells. You know that. I just... don't want you running after a man who's not running to you."

I laughed and I felt it was too light, too fake. "I'm not running anywhere. I'm just being a supportive girlfriend. That's all."

I then smiled brightly at her and made to leave. But when I hugged her goodbye and stepped into the elevator, that uneasy knot in my chest tugged a little tighter.

Still, I told myself what I always tell myself when I feel things I don't want to: Stop overthinking.

If only I knew I should have listened to the knots.

***

The city felt different that morning, I thought as I left my apartment building. It was as if it too was giving me a sign I could not help but to ignore.

I sighed deeply as I clutched the small velvet box in my bag, running my thumb over the outline of the ring through the fabric.

Ethan didn't know about it. He didn't know that I'd spent the last three months quietly saving, planning, praying...

He didn't know that today I was going to ask him to marry me.

I smiled, imagining the surprised look on his face, the way his serious expression would soften, the way he'd kiss me like the world finally made sense.

Because it did, when I was with him.

Or at least... it used to.

The cab ride down to Midtown felt endless, each red light dragging me deeper into my own head. At one point the driver glanced at me in the rearview mirror and then furrowed his brows in concern.

"You okay back there? You look like someone with a lot on your mind."

I forced a nod. "I'm fine."

But my heart wasn't. It was pacing like I had been running for miles. But of course, I couldn't tell the driver that.

By the time we reached Ethan's company building-a tall glass tower that reflected the Manhattan sky like it wanted to swallow it whole-my palms were damp.

I adjusted my dress, smoothed my hair and reapplied a thin layer of my peach gloss. Ethan loved that gloss. Said it made me look soft.

Then I checked my reflection in the lobby's mirrored wall-my skin was glowing, lashes were curled, edges behaving for once.

Perfect.

I looked like someone ready to start a new chapter.

If only I had known the chapter waiting for me was the kind people don't put in love stories. They put it in warnings.

***

The elevator hummed as it rose-soft, almost too calm, like it didn't want to disturb me before everything shattered. I held the velvet box in my hand now, unable to let go of it, like it could anchor me.

Ethan had sounded tired on the phone the night before. Distracted. Distant in a way that made something cold slither up my spine. But when I suggested coming by, he said:

"Not tomorrow, baby. I'll be swamped."

He didn't want me there.

But I wanted to be there for him.

So I had decided to surprise him.

The elevator dinged at the seventh floor, and the doors slid open to reveal a reception area with sleek furniture and pretentious indoor plants that looked like they belonged in a billionaire's Tribeca mansion .

His assistant, Camilla's coat was draped over the back of the receptionist's chair.

A flicker of something in me tightened.

Why was she here? She wasn't supposed to be in until much later. Ethan mentioned she was taking a half-day because of a migraine. Because she had become a friend, I had even made a mental note to call her later in the evening to check up on her.

Maybe she felt better?

Maybe she came in early to help him prepare?

Maybe...

Stop overthinking, Bella. Please.

Still, my heart continued to pace frantically as I walked past the empty reception desk to an adjacent corridor. My heels echoed too loudly in the corridor as I walked. It was like the building too was trying to warn me of what was coming.

Ethan's office was at the far end of the corridor-glass walls, frosted halfway up for "privacy"

As I reached it, I could hear voices.

Muffled voices. Too intimate sort of.

I froze as I realised who had the voices.

Camilla's laugh floated through the corridor to me in a soft and breathy manner.

My stomach twisted immediately.

No. Not twisted.

Dropped.

I tightened my grip on the ring box until my knuckles ached.

I tried to talk myself out of it.

Maybe they were talking about the pitch.

Maybe he said something funny.

Maybe I was being paranoid because Ava's words were still in my head.

Maybe...

But then my heart didn't believe that word anymore.

So, I took one more step. Then another. The closer I got, the clearer the sounds became which were the voices of Camilla and Ethan blending into something unmistakably intimate.

I reached the door.

My hand shook as I grabbed the handle.

"Ethan..." Camilla breathed just then in a moan.

My blood froze.

I didn't wait to hear more.

I didn't need to.

I pushed the door open.

And there they were.

Ethan.

Camilla.

Her hands in his hair.

His mouth on hers.

CHAPTER TWO

Bella's POV

My breath stopped.

My world stopped.

And just like that-

everything I thought I knew,

everything I believed,

everything I planned for today...

was shattered.

For a moment, everything inside me went silent.

It was the kind of silence that presses against your eardrums, thick and suffocating, like the world had been dunked underwater.

I felt the ring slip from my fingers- cool metal against trembling skin - and did nothing as it then fell to the floor.

There was a tiny clink, barely a sound, as it hit the office carpet but to me, it was a sound louder than my heartbeat breaking open.

I stared at Ethan and Camilla frozen in that stupid, intimate posture - his hands still cupping her waist, her lipstick smeared against his mouth like a brand. It was a bright, glossy betrayal.

The scene before me, no matter how real it was, didn't make sense. And my brain refused to process it.

Camilla.

My friend and Ethan's assistant.

Ethan.

My... everything.

Or what I thought was my everything.

I didn't even breathe. I couldn't breathe.

When Ethan looked back and saw me, he jumped back so fast he nearly tripped over the leg of his desk chair.

"B-Bella...Bella, wait...this isn't...God, it's not what it looks like-"

His voice reached me as if through thick glass. Muffled. Far away. Unimportant.

Camilla was already stammering as well, "Bella, please...listen, we didn't mean..."

Didn't mean to what?

Didn't mean to kiss?

Didn't mean to betray me?

Didn't mean to destroy five years of my life?

Humiliation burned hotter than the tears stinging my eyes. It was as if a wild, choking fire had climbed up my throat.

I felt it in the tips of my fingers, my jaw, my ribs.

I wanted to scream.

I wanted to slap Ethan.

I wanted to drag Camilla out by her fake-blonde ponytail and ask her how long she'd been pretending to like the gifts I occasionally sent to her while sleeping with my boyfriend.

I wanted to say to Ethan:

"How long?"

"Was it worth it?"

"Did you ever love me?"

"Is this why you've been distant?"

"Did you use me?"

But none of the words formed.

I felt everything and nothing at once. It was like numbness was wrapped around agony within me.

My chest tightened until I could barely breathe.

I took one step back. Then another.

Ethan's voice sharpened in panic. "Bella...stop...don't walk out...listen to me!"

But my body had already chosen for me.

I turned and walked out.

Not a single word from me was uttered.

Not one breath wasted on them.

The door felt heavy, like resistance itself tried to keep me inside that nightmare. But I pushed through, blinking rapidly as the world blurred - office hallways turning into streaks of white and chrome.

I didn't know where I was going.

I just needed to get away before the screams in my chest spilled out of my mouth.

By the time I reached the street, the February air slapped me hard across the face - cold, sharp, merciless.

It felt like the city itself was telling me to wake up from the agony I was embroiled in.

Couples walked past me laughing, holding roses and balloons tied with glittering ribbons.

Every bit of red I saw felt like mockery.

Every promise of love I overheard felt like a slap.

Every "Happy Valentine's Day!" floating through the air twisted the knife deeper.

It was Valentine's Day.

Of all days.

Of course.

The universe had a twisted sense of humour.

The sidewalks glittered with slush, neon reflections from the storefronts trembling in the puddles. A man handed a chocolate box to his date right in front of me and she squealed with delight.

I looked away before I cried again.

Five years.

Five years of loving Ethan.

Five years of believing I'd found safety after losing my parents, after losing my sister, after losing so much.

Five years of cooking late dinners, buying anniversary gifts he barely remembered, covering for him when he forgot events, swallowing my own doubts because "he was stressed" or "work was rough lately."

Five years of thinking my love was finally enough.

And today... today I'd walked in with a ring.

A ring.

God, I felt so stupid.

My chest ached like I'd been pierced from the inside. The cold stung my eyes, or maybe that was just the tears breaking free.

I rounded a corner too fast and that was when I slammed straight into someone. Hard.

My body jolted from the impact, and the ring box slipped out of my grasp again. It clattered onto the concrete, flipping open as if mocking me - the diamond catching the streetlight and shining brighter as if telling me it was more important than the Ethan who had just broken my heart.

"Shit...sorry," I muttered, crouching to grab it, but a hand reached it first.

A large hand.

The stranger I had just slammed into had bent down in one smooth motion and picked up the box.

When he straightened, I looked at him and froze.

Because nothing about him was... normal.

He looked like he'd stepped out of a darker, sharper dimension - like a character an artist sketched in charcoal and angles.

He was tall, broad-shouldered and the coat he was wearing was tailored to a precision that whispered expensive danger.

He had jet-black hair that was slicked back with the kind of careless perfection men like Ethan could never pull off.

And his eyes-

Oh.

His eyes.

Gray, cold, and stormy.

The kind of gray that warned of hurricanes before the sky even changed.

He looked at me - through me - with unsettling calm, as though chaos didn't exist for him, only observation. His gaze drifted down to the ring in its velvet bed, then back to my face that was streaked with tears and humiliation.

Oh God, no, I thought while feeling embarrassment run through me in waves.

He tilted his head slightly.

"Yours?"

His voice was a low baritone, smooth but edged with something dangerous. It was likd a quietness that didn't feel peaceful at all, but powerful.

I should have said yes.

I should have said thank you.

I should have walked away and gone home to cry into my pillow.

But something inside me snapped.

Or maybe it awakened.

Maybe it was the humiliation that burned through me.

Maybe it was the pain from seeing Ethan kiss a woman that was not me.

Maybe it was the sheer recklessness of having nothing left to lose.

Or maybe it was the way this stranger looked at me - not with pity, not with confusion, but with an unreadable intensity that made heat skitter down my spine.

So I lifted my chin.

Met those storm-colored eyes.

And said the stupidest, wildest, rawest thing that had ever come out of my mouth.

"Would you marry me?"

God.

Even hearing myself say it sounded insane.

What the hell had I just say?

But the stranger didn't laugh as I had expected.

He didn't frown in surprise either.

He didn't step back or look embarrassed or call security on the crazy woman proposing to strangers in the middle of Manhattan.

Rather, bis gaze flicked to my shaking hands, to the smeared tear tracks on my cheeks, to the half-open box he still held.

Then something shifted in his expression. It was barely there, a subtle pull at one corner of his mouth.

It was a slow, dangerous, almost amused curve.

He stepped closer.

So close I could smell him. It was a clean, enticing smell with a hint of something dark, like smoke and spice and secrets. He had a scent that made the cold in me disappear in one breath.

Even as I thought about it, his voice dropped in a manner that was soft, husky and sexy at the same time and he spoke, "I do."

CHAPTER THREE

Bella's POV

The moment his words hit my ears, the world didn't just spin for me, it fractured into tiny dizzying pieces.

I do.

I do.

I do.

His words echoed again and again in my ears and as it did, I froze mid-step, the cold wind biting through the thin fabric of my coat, the wet slush clinging to my heels. I wanted to scream, to retract the words I'd just said on an angry, humiliated impulse and make him do the same but the city had other plans.

Somewhere, a car honked, sirens blared in the distance, and a cellphone camera clicked

I glanced around to see that a stranger had been filming us already.

Someone at the corner of the street, smirking behind a lens, was filming us.

My face, streaked with tears, the ruined blush of my cheeks, the shaking velvet box open in the palm of a stranger I didn't even know... it was all being captured.

And then before I could think about how to react about it, I heard the ragged, panicked footsteps pounding toward us.

"Bella!"

I looked around to see that it was Ethan. He had run out of his office looking for me. His face was pale, his eyes wide, his chest heaving and his coat flapping against his back like wings desperate to catch me.

Immediately, I took a step back. I didn't want him anywhere around me. After what he just did to my heart, I wished for only one thing: that we were miles apart.

But then something strange happened.

Ethan looked at who was with me and his eyes widened in panic.

"Boss?" he blurted when he finally stopped just a few feet away from the stranger who had my hand in his and had found his voice.

Boss? I thought as I blinked rapidly in shock.

The stranger tilted his head slowly, his storm-gray eyes locking onto Ethan with that same unreadable calm.

"Ethan. What a coincidence," he said, his voice lazy but edged with a subtle menace, the kind that made your stomach churn and your instincts scream danger.

I stumbled back, clutching the ring box to my chest. "Wait... you know each other?" My voice cracked as I spoke.

The stranger's lips curved faintly. "Yes. He's... an employee."

My brain hit pause. My hands felt suddenly too heavy as the realization sank like ice water through my veins.

What the hell?I had just proposed to my ex-boyfriend's boss.

The man standing in front of me, impeccably dressed in a black coat tailored to his impossibly broad shoulders, with hair slicked back like he was carved from shadows, was none other than Luciano Moretti.

The Devil himself!

Oh my God! I thought in horror.

OH MY GOD! I thought again, my head spinning.

I wanted to run. And so I grabbed the ring from Luciano's hand, turned around and did just that.

"I... I'm so sorry," I stammered, my words stumbling over themselves like frightened animals even as I began to run. "I... I didn't... I didn't mean..."

Luciano didn't move, didn't even blink. His eyes tracked me as I pivoted, heels clicking rapidly against the wet concrete as I fled.

Behind me, Ethan shouted, calling my name, but I didn't look back. Not once. The bastard was the last person that could stop me right now.

By the time I made it back to my apartment, my lungs were burning, tears streaked down my face and my cheeks were numb from the cold.

Ava was waiting, arms crossed, pacing like a storm contained within the small living room. I had called her on my way home, telling her that I needed her to be at my place. And like the best friend that she was, she had said yes to my request without asking questions.

"Bella, talk to me!" she demanded immediately she saw me, her voice a mixture of concern and exasperation. "What the hell happened out there?"

I sank onto the couch, dropping the ring box onto the coffee table with a hollow clink. "It... it's a disaster," I whispered, burying my face in my hands.

Ava crouched in front of me, gripping my shoulders. "Start from the beginning. What happened?"

"Ethan...Ethan cheated on me with Camilla."

Anger exploded on the features of Ava's face. "That bastard! Why am I not even surprised?"

I continued to shake even as I said, "Yeah, you warned me. I should have listened."

Ava wrapped her hands around me. "Look, it's not your fault. You just happened to fall in love with someone who does not deserve you at all. It's really not your fault."

I wiped tears from my eyes with the back of my hand even as I murmured almost inaudibly, "That is not all."

Ava furrowed her eyebrows in concern as she said, "What else?"

"I stumbled into a stranger."

"A stranger?"

I nodded.

"Well, what then happened?"

I lifted my head. "He... he's... I don't even know how to explain it." My voice trembled, and I hated how small I sounded. "I... I proposed to him and he said yes."

Ava's eyebrows shot up. "You... proposed to the stranger?"

"Yes. And he... he said yes!" I buried my face again. "And the worst part... the absolute worst part... he's Ethan's boss. Ethan was there. He had ran out and he called the stranger, 'boss'."

Ava froze for a moment, processing. Then she exhaled sharply. "Wait. Wait, wait, wait. Hold on a minute. You... you proposed to your ex's boss while your ex was... what? Watching?"

I groaned, pressing my palms against my temples. "He... he saw me after I had proposed. Someone filmed it. The entire city probably knows by now. Oh, my God, Ava. I checked my phone while coming back home. They're calling me the... the Valentine's Bride online. Can you believe that? I... I can't... I can't even..."

Ava flopped beside me, hugging me tight. "Okay. Okay. Breathe, Bella. First, calm down. Second, I swear, we will survive this insane... very insane mess. But you need to tell me...how do you even know this man? You just saw him and propose to him?"

"I don't know him at all," I said through gritted teeth. "I... I literally just... proposed on impulse because I... because I... felt like... felt like everything else in my life just exploded and..." My voice cracked, and I buried my face in Ava's shoulder.

She rubbed my back soothingly. "Bella... hey. Look at me. You are not a disaster. You are... you're chaotic, sure, but... also brilliant in a way that makes men like him say yes. You didn't plan this, and that's okay. Sometimes, crazy, unplanned stuff... it changes everything."

I shivered, thinking about his gray eyes, the calm, unflinching way he'd said yes. A shiver of something... unnameable ran down my spine.

Ava pushed her body back while pinching the bridge of her nose. "Alright. But this isn't just... cute drama. He's... clearly powerful. That's... that's dangerous, Bella. Danger comes with this kind of man."

I nodded, swallowing the lump in my throat. "I know. I know. And... I don't even know what to feel anymore. Humiliated, angry, scared...everything."

Ava sighed and gave me a pitying look. "We will figure things out. Don't fret."