His Chosen Mafia Queen

Valentino and Sophia have been best friends since the moment her family moved in next door to his house. They went to junior high and high school together. Valentino was viewed as the mysterious guy that everyone wanted to get to know, especially the girls and guys who found him attractive. Sophia was viewed as his polar opposite; they used to say she was the girl next door type, and no guy dared ask her out because they assumed Valentino was Sophia’s boyfriend. Valentino’s father, Deangelo, was known as a strong, powerful man, and everyone in town knew not to mess with him, but no one knew exactly why, not even Sophia, who had known their family for many years. Valentino thought that everything was going great and had made a plan to tell Sophia a secret he had always hidden from her after their graduation ceremony, but then his plans changed when his father stated they had to move to New Draven totake over his grandfather’s The Lords Of Draven Mafia empire. Valentino tried to convince his father to let him stay behind for the summer, but his father stated it would not be safe for him to stay behind before handing him his high school diploma. Valentino was prepared to tell his father that he was 18 and could now live on his own, but his father insisted on going to learn the family business because he was getting older and wouldn’t be able to keep everything running smoothly in a big city on his own for very long. Deangelo knew that Valentino would be there for him and their family legacy because it was his mother’s dying wish for them to remain close and always be there for each other. When Sophia didn’t see Valentino at their graduation ceremony, she immediately got worried and tried to call him several times, but the calls went to voicemail. All of her text messages were left on delivered. She wanted more than anything to leave the ceremony to search for him, but she knew she couldn’t. Once the ceremony ended, Sophia said her quick goodbyes to her friends and family, then drove to Valentino’s house, but she was too late. His house was empty; it looked as if no one had been living there for years. Feeling her heartpounding like a wild stampede escaping their predator, she sat down on the bottom step of the inside staircase and called Valentino’s number while holding her breath. Seconds later, the automated message: ‘the number you have dialed has been disconnected, please check the number and dial again’ echoed through the empty house, followed by the sound of Sophia’s head banging against the wall as she fainted. It had been 10 years since the day both of their lives changed in ways they never expected. Valentino is now the King of Draven since his father got ill and retired. Sophia moved out of her old small town when she went to college at Draven University and graduated with a master’s in business. She then opened a beauty school that offers beauty services for the public at a fraction of the cost of a regular salon. Sophia never tried calling Valentino again and gave up on her search to find him after a year passed. Valentino, on the other hand, has never stopped thinking about Sophia.