THE SPOILT MAFIA HEIRESS

POV: Rose Volkov The crash of my bedroom door jolted me awake at exactly 3:17 AM. Six nen in black suits poured into my room, all of them holding guns pointed directly at my face. I screamed and scrambled back against my headboard, clutching my bed sheets to my chest. "Who are you? What do you want?" My voice shook uncontrollably. The men parted like the Red Sea, and another tall broad-shouldered man walked through. He was dressed in an all-black suit, and his dark hair slicked back. Then his cold eyes looked right through me. And he was dragging someone behind him. "Papa!" I lurched forward but one of the men shoved his gun closer to my face. I froze. My father's face was destroyed. Blood poured from his nose and mouth. One eye was swollen and completely shut. His expensive suit was torn and soaked with blood. The cold man threw my father down at the foot of my bed like he was garbage. "Papa, oh God, Papa!" Tears blurred my vision as I tried to reach for him, but the guns kept me pinned to my headboard. "Don't touch him." The stranger's voice was ice. I looked up at him through my tears. "Who are you?" "Liam Salvatore." He said, and my blood went cold. Everyone in the mafia world knew that name. The devil himself. The youngest mafia boss in New York who'd built an empire in sixteen years. Rumor had it he was heartless, cruel beyond imagination, and killed without hesitation. I'd never seen him in person before. I wished I never had to. "Please," I begged, my voice breaking. "Please don't hurt him. Whatever he did, I'm sure we can fix it. Just please…." "Your father killed mine when I was twelve years old." Liam's voice didn't change. "He shot him in the head during a family dinner. Then his men beat my mother so badly she's been in a coma for sixteen years." "No." I shook my head frantically. "No, my father wouldn't do that. He's a good man. He helps people. He…" "He's a liar." Liam crouched down and grabbed my father's hair, yanking his head back. "Tell her, Bruno. Tell your precious daughter what you really are." "Rose, I'm sorry…" My father's voice was filled with blood and pain. "Shut up!" I shouted at Liam, not my father. Bravery I didn't know I had surged through my terror. "Let him go! Whatever you think he did, you're wrong!" Liam released my father's hair and stood up. He walked slowly around my bed, studying me like I was an insect under glass. "You really don't know, do you?" Something flickered in his cold eyes. "You actually believe he's one of the good ones." "He is!" Tears streamed down my face. "My father helps people who can't get loans from banks. He only deals medicine to people who need it and can't afford it legally. He protects families from other gangs. He's nothing like you!" "He murdered my father in cold blood and stole everything we had." Liam stopped at the side of my bed. "He's a monster who taught his daughter to worship him." "You're lying!" "Am I?" He pulled out his phone and threw it on the bed in front of me. "Watch." My hands shook as I picked up the phone. A video was already playing. It showed a dining room. An elegant family dinner. A man at the head of the table who looked like an older version of Liam. A beautiful woman beside him. And an almost teen boy with dark hair. Then my father walked into the frame. He was smiling. He said something I couldn't hear. The man at the table stood up, still smiling, extending his hand for a handshake. My father pulled out a gun and shot him in the face. The woman screamed. Men rushed in and grabbed her. They beat her with the butts of their guns while she screamed and screamed. The little boy tried to run to her but someone grabbed him. My father stood there the whole time, watching and smiling. Then the video cut off. I couldn't breathe or think. The phone slipped from my hands. "No," I whispered. "No, that's not real. That's fake. That's…" "That's surveillance footage from my family's dining room." Liam's voice was still calm. "Sixteen years ago. Your father executed mine and destroyed my family in one night." I looked down at my father. He wouldn't meet my eyes. "Papa?" My voice broke. "Papa, tell him it's not true. Tell him!" "Rose, I can explain…" "Tell him it's a lie!" I screamed. My father finally looked at me. And I saw the truth in his eyes. He did it. My father was a murderer. A monster. Everything I believed about him was a lie. "I did what I had to do," my father said quietly. "For our family. For our future." I couldn't stop shaking. My whole world had just shattered into a million pieces. Liam watched me with those cold, empty eyes. "Now that we're clear about who your father really is," he said softly, "let's talk about your future." He moved fast. Before I could react, he grabbed my throat and slammed me back against the headboard. Not hard enough to hurt badly, but hard enough to terrify me completely. "You have two choices, Rose." His face was inches from mine. "Marry me, or watch your father die right now. Right here in your bedroom." "W-what?" I could barely speak with his hand around my throat. "You heard me." He released my throat but grabbed my chin, forcing me to look at him. "You're going to be my wife. You're going to sign whatever I tell you to sign. You're going to smile and play the loving bride. And you're going to do it perfectly." "I won't." Tears blurred my vision but I forced the words out. "I'll never marry you. I'll die first." "That's something I can do." He pressed his gun against my father's head. "But he dies first. Right now. I'll paint your white sheets with his brain and make you watch." "No! Please!" I sobbed. "Please don't kill him!" "Then agree." "I hate you," I choked out. "I'll hate you forever." "Suit yourself." Liam smiled for the first time, and it was terrifying. "Because hate makes things more interesting." He released my chin and stepped back, but the gun stayed pressed against my father's head. "Decide now, Rose. Marry me or he dies. You have ten seconds." "Rose, don't…" my father started. "Shut up." Liam pressed the gun harder. "Ten. Nine. Eight." I couldn't let him die. Monster or not, liar or not, he was still my father. I couldn't watch him die. "Seven. Six. Five." "Stop!" I screamed. "I'll do it! I'll marry you! Just please don't kill him!" Liam lowered the gun slowly. "Smart girl." "I'll marry you," I repeated, my voice breaking. "But please, let me talk to him. Let me say goodbye." "No." Liam gestured to his men. They grabbed my father and started dragging him out. "You'll see him at the wedding. If you behave." "Where are you taking him?" "Somewhere safe. As long as you do exactly what I say." Liam pulled out a card and threw it on my bed. "Come to my lawyer's office tomorrow at noon. Don't be late." "And if I run?" "Then your father dies slowly. Very slowly." He walked to my door, then paused and looked back. "Oh, and Rose? Pack a bag. After we sign the contract, you're coming home with me. You belong to me now." "I belong to no one." "We'll see." His smile was cruel. "The wedding is in three days. I suggest you start practicing your loving bride smile." He left with his men, dragging my father with them. Then the door slammed shut. I sat there in my bed, surrounded by my expensive sheets and designer furniture, in the bedroom I'd had since I was a little girl. And I screamed until my voice gave out. My father was a monster. And I was going to marry the devil.