BOUND TO KILL BOUND TO LOVE

Mia's pov

The epoxy floors of the De Luca estate looked expensive enough to make you forget the amount of blood that paid for them. I stood in the hallway outside my father's study, counting the seconds until someone remembered I existed. I was at eight minutes, forty-three seconds already which was actually a new record.

"Mia." My stepmother's voice cut through the silence, her voice was hoarse and filled with resentment for me for no particular reason. "Your father will see you now."

I turned to face Elena De Luca, a woman who'd perfected the art of looking disappointed without having to move a single muscle. "How generous of him, I was starting to think he'd forgotten he had three daughters instead of two."

"Don't be dramatic." She walked past me, her eyes rolling in spite, as her expensive perfume filled the air. "It's unbecoming."

Right, because being forgotten is so becoming. I followed her into the study, where my father sat behind his desk like a Godfather that was ordered from Temu surrounded by books he'd never read and weed pots.

Vittorio De Luca didn't look up, of course he wouldn't. Eye contact might accidentally convey paternal affection, and we couldn't have that.

"Sit," he barked with a commanding voice like he was talking to one of his slackers and not his daughter. But then again, that's exactly what I've been since mom died. Another one of his slackers.

I sat. Good dog, Mia, want a treat? I joked around in my mind.

Martha and Clara were already sitting on the sofa looking like matching dinosaurs in designer dresses. Martha's smile was filled with mischief and Clara's fake sympathy face was in full effect, the one that said "I'm so sorry this is happening to you" while secretly hoping it gets worse.

"We have an opportunity," my father began, finally gracing me with his attention. "One that requires your...particular expertise."

Oh good, nothing that starts with "particular expertise" has ever ended badly. "What kind of opportunity?"

"One that involved you getting married." He said still not sparing a glass in my direction.

I laughed and stopped, then started laughing again so hard until my tummy started to ache. "You're joking right?"

The silence that followed confirmed he was not, in fact, joking. The universe really did hate me more than I'd thought.

"Jonathan Mysterio," my father continued, as if he hadn't just detonated a grenade in the room. "The billionaire, you know him."

Know him, what a spectacularly inadequate verb for what Jonathan and I had been.

"I'm aware of who he is," I said carefully, grateful that my voice didn't crack even though everything inside me was.

Martha leaned forward cheerfully since her hobby had always been watching me reel in misery."We know you two had a...relationship. Last year, wasn't it? Before he dumped you?"

There it is, I'd wondered how long it would take for her to twist that knife. Apparently, thirty seconds was her personal best.

"How romantic," Clara added, her voice dripping with fake passion. "A second chance at love."

"This isn't about love," my father said immediately, his gaze rising to meet mine. "This is business, Jonathan needs investors and International connections. We need access to his empire and his networks."

"And you need me because...?" I asked, my eyebrows raising as I struggled to comprehend what they were saying.

"Because you've been in his life once," Elena said, examining her polished nails. "You know everything about him so you're the logical choice."

Logical, as if logic had anything to do with sending your daughter back to the man who broke her heart so she could...what? Smile prettily while gathering intelligence?

"What's the real goal?" I asked, because in this family, there was always a real goal hiding under the covers of the official story.

My father's expression didn't change, which wasn't really surprising since he always wore a neutral expression no matter the situation. As a kid I always wondered if he still wore the expression while he was pooping.

"You'll marry him, gain his trust and when we give the order..." He paused, and in that moment I knew that nothing good was coming after. "You'll eliminate him."

My stomach dropped so hard I thought I was going to vomit.

Eliminate, such a clean, corporate word for murder, for putting a bullet in the head of the man I'd once loved.

"You want me to kill Jonathan." I said it out loud, the shock still evident in my voice.

"Exactly." Martha exclaimed, her smile sharp and entirely deceitful. "Unless you're not capable? I'm sure Clara could-"

"Clara couldn't seduce a man even if he came with instructions on how to," I snapped, my voice raising. "And this isn't about capability, this is about you using me as your weapon again."

"You're a De Luca," my father said coldly. "You'll do what's required or you'll face the consequences

I looked at each of them-my father, my stepmother, my step-sisters-and saw exactly what they'd always seen me as. A tool. The unwanted daughter who'd outlived her usefulness the moment her mother died.

"When is the marriage?" I asked finally, hating myself for surrendering.

"Three days," my father said. "Jonathan has already agreed to it, he doesn't know about os or our... business interests."

Of course he doesn't, because Jonathan Mysterio with all his billions had somehow missed that his new bride came from a family that made the peaky blinders look like amateurs.

"What if he finds out?" I asked, my eyebrows raising slightly.

"Then you'll ensure he doesn't live long enough to act on that information," my father replied simply, as if we were talking about something very simple. "Collins will be your contact, call him for anything you need."

My blood went cold the moment I heard the name. "Collins knows about this?"

"Collins helped plan it," Elena said with a satisfied smile. "He's been quite... supportive."

Collins, my secret lover. The man who knew every scar on my body and in my soul, the same man who'd promised to protect me from this family's darkness, even as he pulled the strings that pushed me deeper into it.

"I need to make a call," I said, standing abruptly.

"No calls," my father ordered, reaching for the button under his table that could send guards up here in seconds."Not until after the wedding, we can't risk you warning him or running."

Running, as if I had anywhere to run, as if they hadn't systematically destroyed every exit I'd ever tried to build.

"You'll move into the guest house tonight," Martha said, clearly enjoying her role as herald of my doom. "Collins will brief you on everything you need to know, the wedding is on saturday."

Three days. Three days until I married the man who'd broken my heart and become the weapon aimed at his head.

I walked out of the study with my spine straight, my chin up and my expression blank, because I'd learned long ago that this family fed on weakness like sharks on blood. I made it to my room-the smallest one in the building before the shaking started.

Jonathan.

I leaned against the closed door, memories flooding back aggressively. The way he laughed, even the way he usually played with my hair.

The breakup had been sudden, I didn't see it coming. He called me to his penthouse, poured expensive scotch that he didn't drink, and explained that "our worlds don't align" and "it's better this way" and all the other polite phrases people use when they mean "you're not good enough."

I'd left with my heart in pieces, and I'd sworn I'd never let anyone hurt me like that again.

Joke's on me, I guess. Because now I'd be hurting him, permanently.

My phone buzzed with a text from Collins. Let's meet on the rooftop at midnight.

I should've ignored it and just stayed in my room and processed this nightmare alone. But I'd never been good at should've, and Collins was the only person in this family who'd ever chosen my side, even if he'd apparently just helped seal my fate.

Mia's pov

The rooftop garden reminded me of my mother. It was where I came anytime I needed to remember her.

Collins was already there, smoking a cigarette. "You look pissed," he said, his eyes scanning me as I approached.

"How observant. " I collected the cigarette from him and took a long drag, even though I'd quit six months ago. "When were you going to tell me?"

"About the marriage?" He shrugged, his expression neutral as he collected his cigarette back. "I only found out last week."

"And you didn't warn me because...?" I trailed off, my heart racing slightly anxious to hear his reply.

"Because warning you wouldn't have changed anything." He answered very casually with a tone that suggested that he wasn't interested in the conversation, not the warm tone he usually used when we were alone. "Your father made his decision, that's the end of it."

I studied his face in the dim light, searching for the Collins I knew but the hardened expression on his face told me everything I needed to know.

"That's it?" I asked, my voice raising slightly"That's all you have to say? I'm being forced to marry Jonathan and you're just... fine with it?"

"What do you want me to say, Mia?" He took another drag, not sparing a glance in my direction. "That I'll fight your father? Get myself killed over some arranged marriage? Be realistic."

"Some arranged marriage." As if it wasn't Jonathan, as if Collins didn't know what Jonathan had meant to me, what I feared he still meant even though he broke my heart.

"You helped plan this," I said slowly, the pieces clicking together as understanding dawned."Elena said you were supportive, I thought she was exaggerating, but she wasn't, was she?"

"Your father needed someone who could assess Jonathan's security protocols. I have the expertise." He finally looked at me, his expression unreadable. "It's my job, Mia. Same as this is yours."

My job.

Marrying the man who broke my heart so my family could use me and destroy him, just another day in the De Luca empire except this time it was different.

"Is that all I am to you?" The question came out before I could stop it. "A job?"

His expression still remained infuriatingly neutral like we were playing poker."What we had was...convenient, for both of us. But it can't continue once you're married, you understand that, right?"

"Right," I said, my voice surprisingly steady. "Convenient."

I wasn't even surprised, with everything I've seen in this Godamn estate, nothing could really get to me anymore. Well, except the fact that i was about to get married to my ex boyfriend.

"I'll still be your contact," he continued, as if he hadn't just dropped a bomb."You'll receive your instructions through me. Security updates and anything you need to complete the mission."

"When?" I asked with a slight tremble in my voice. "When do they want it done?"

"That depends on how quickly you can gain his trust." Collins threw his cigarette on the floor and crushed it under his boot.

"I should go," I said, suddenly exhausted by this conversation, by him, by everything. I looked at him one last time, memorizing the face of yet another person who'd proven that love in this family was just another weapon. "I'll wait for your instructions, that's what you want, right? A good little soldier?"

"I want you alive," he said quietly, his eyes narrowing."That's what I want."

"Funny way of showing it." I turned and walked away, leaving him alone with his cigarettes and whatever the hell he'd actually been planning when he decided to help my father destroy my life.

The walk back to my room took several decades. It was as if the wall was whispering the truth I had feared to acknowledge. The same truth I'd been avoiding, I was completely alone in this, my father wanted to use me. My stepsisters wanted to see me fail and Collins-the one person I thought might actually care-had just revealed himself to be exactly what he'd always been. A loyal soldier in my father's army.

I locked my door and dropped in my bed letting myself feel the betrayal.

Three days until I married Jonathan Mysterio, three days until I stepped back into his world with a tongue filled with nothing but lies.

My hand drifted unconsciously to my face, tracing the subtle differences the surgery had created. Smaller nose, slightly different cheekbones, eyes that looked wider now, more innocent. A year ago, when Jonathan knew me, I'd been Sophia, my mother's maiden name, the identity I'd built when I tried to escape this family. I had dark hair and sharper features, a totally different face from the one I was wearing now.

Then Jonathan ended it, and my father finally found me after months of searching and the surgeries began. "If you're going to be useful," he'd said, "you need to look like a De Luca, like my daughter not like her."

So they erased every trace of Sophia from my face and made me into Mia De Luca, the daughter who'd been conveniently "studying abroad" for years. The perfect bride for a billionaire who'd never connect her to the woman he'd loved and discarded.

This is going to take a lot out of me. I thought to myself, and there's not a damn thing I can do to stop it.

Mia's pov

The wedding dress was all white silk and shit, like I was some virgin maiden instead of a killer coming in wraps like a flipping Christmas gift. Martha had picked it out personally, which meant it was probably cursed or hexed or designed specifically to make me look as uncomfortable as possible.

"You look beautiful," Clara said from the doorway, her voice dripping with fake sweetness. "Jonathan won't even recognize you."

Won't recognize you, of course he wouldn't, because Sophia was dead and buried under surgical maiden.

"That's the point, isn't it?" I adjusted the veil in the mirror, studying the stranger staring back at me.

"Do you need something, Clara? Or did you just come to watch me suffer?" I smirked.

"Can't a sister wish the bride well on her special day?" She walked into the room, without permission wearing that infuriatingly innocent smile. At twenty-one, Clara had perfected the art of looking harmless while holding knives and bombs behind her back.

"You're not my sister." I kept my tone friendly and pleasant. "You're the daughter of the woman who made my childhood a living hell, let's not pretend we're family."

Her smile didn't fade, as a matter of fact, it widened. "Still so bitter about Mom marrying Dad, it's been twelve years, Mia."

As if grief had an expiry date. As if could actually forgive my father for replacing my dying mother before her body was cold, then spent the next decade letting his new family treat me like a maid.

"What do you want, Clara?" I asked with a more serious expression.

"I want to give you some advice, sister to sister." She sat on the edge of my bed, smoothing her bridesmaid dress. "Don't expect Jonathan to fall in love with you."

"I don't expect anything from Jonathan except exactly what this marriage is-a business arrangement." I shot back.

"Good, because he's not the romantic type. From what I've heard, he's cold, ruthless, and doesn't waste time on sentimentality." Clara sounded utterly interested in him, especially the way her face lit up when she spoke. "He'll use you the same way Dad is using you. The only difference is Jonathan won't pretend to care."

"Noted," I said, expecting her to spew more nonsense. "Anything else?"

"Just one more thing." She stood, moving closer. "Collins was here earlier, he left something for you, an envelope. Martha took it."

"Why would Martha-" she was gone before I could complete my statement leaving me alone with my wedding dress and a whole new set of questions I couldn't answer.

A knock on the door interrupted my thoughts. "Miss De Luca? The car is ready." The voice came from outside.

Already? I glanced at the clock, it was ten minutes before I was supposed to leave for the church.

"I'll be right there," I called out, my voice even more steady than I was.

I took one last look at the mirror, My new face staring back at me, beautiful in a way Sophia had never been, screaming De Luca money and power.

Jonathan wouldn't recognize me, he'd look at my face and all he'd see is a stranger, a business arrangement.

He wouldn't see the woman he'd used to love and care for, the same woman whose heart he had shattered without remorse. Maybe that was for the best, perhaps it was easier to kill a man who didn't remember loving you.

The car ride to the church was very silent except for Elena's occasional adjustments to my veil and Martha's constant chuckle at my misery. They sat beside me like guards, making sure their investment didn't run before the transaction was complete.

"Remember," Elena said as we finally pulled up to the church, "you are representing this family today, so smile and do whatever it takes to look charming and make Jonathan believe this marriage is everything he wants."

Everything he wants, what a joke. As if they had any idea what Jonathan even wanted.

"And tonight," Martha added, not sparing me a minute of rest. "you'll begin gathering the information we need. His computer passwords, his security arrangements, his schedule. Collins will contact you tomorrow with specific instructions."

The church doors stood tall at our front, massive with old wood and very intimidating. I could see the guests taking their seats, half of them were criminals, while the other half of them were corporate elite, all of them present to witness the arranged marriage.

"Show time," Martha said cheerfully, like we were about to watch a comedy show in a cinema.

The doors opened, soft music played and suddenly I was walking down an aisle toward Jonathan Mysterio-the man I'd loved, the man who'd shattered my heart and the man I was now supposed to destroy.

He stood at the altar wearing a designer suit, knowing him, it was probably one of one specifically crafted for him. He looked exactly as I remembered, but some things about him were a little different. Especially the soft look in his eyes, it was completely gone, replaced by a very cold and stoic one.

His face was very neutral and passive, almost like he was bored as he watched me approach with eyes that looked like it was scanning a land or a car that he was about to acquire.

our eyes met but there was nothing, not even an hint of recognition or even realization that I was someone he once knew, not just knew but loved.

Good, this is good. I told myself, it'd be easier this way.

I reached the altar and the music stopped.

Jonathan reached for my hand, and there was no familiarity, it was like touching a stranger. Up close, I could see the coldness in his eyes, this wasn't the man who'd laughed with me over terrible movies and expensive wine. This was someone else entirely, someone hardened by will and ambition.

"Do you, Mia De Luca, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

No, I do not, i absolutely don't fucking take this man to be my lawfully wedded husband

"I do," I heard the words stumble out before I could stop them.

"And do you, Jonathan Mysterio, take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?"

He didn't hesitate, not even a pause or a barely visible flicker of doubt.

"I do."He said, his expression remaining neutral, perfectly devoid of anything with the slightest resemblance to emotion.

The priest smiled like he'd just witnessed something beautiful instead of something absolutely weird and awkward, if those words could actually qualify what was going on.

"You may kiss the bride."

Jonathan's hands reached for my face in a very mechanical manner. His kiss was stiff and brief and absolutely nothing like the kisses we'd shared when I was Sophia. It lasted what, maybe two seconds, short enough to make it clear this meant nothing to him

When he pulled back, his expression was still absolutely neutral cold.

"Done," he said quietly, like we'd just completed a transaction instead of a wedding.

We turned to face the crowd, as applaud erupted through the air, different breed of people, clapping towards my doom with smiles on their faces.

Jonathan's hand was slightly placed on my waist as he guided me back down the aisle. We didn't speak, didn't even look at each other. We just walked in silence while cameras flashed and people smiled and pretended this was something other than a perfectly orchestrated lie.

And somewhere in the crowd, I knew that Collins was watching, Martha was smiling in mischief and my father was calculating his next move.

All of them waiting to see how long it would take before I gained Jonathan's trust and ended his life for good.

What a drag.