Scarred Hearts: A Mafia Billionaire Romance
img img Scarred Hearts: A Mafia Billionaire Romance img Chapter 2 CHAP 2: Harrison's Fury
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Chapter 6 CHAP 6: She Wasn't Meant to Know img
Chapter 7 CHAP 7: A Warning in the Dark img
Chapter 8 CHAP 8: The Hidden Clause img
Chapter 9 CHAP 9: The Edge of Loyalty img
Chapter 10 Chap10: The Heat Beneath the Cold img
Chapter 11 Chap 11: Lies Between the Sheets img
Chapter 12 Chap 12: Thorns in Velvet img
Chapter 13 Chap 13: The Price of Her Silence img
Chapter 14 Chap 14: Under the Ashes img
Chapter 15 Chap 15: Power Is a Woman's Silence Breaking img
Chapter 16 Chap 16: When the Queen Rose img
Chapter 17 Chap 17: When Queens Don't Seize Thrones-They Set Traps img
Chapter 18 Chap 18: Behind the Smile img
Chapter 19 Chap 19: Where Hunger Doesn't Hurt the Worst img
Chapter 20 Chap 20: The Stillness Before the Return img
Chapter 21 Chap 21: Where Hunger Doesn't Hurt the Worst (Continued) img
Chapter 22 Chap 22: The Visitor, the Voice, and the Weight of Staying img
Chapter 23 Chap 23: And Then the Door Opened img
Chapter 24 Chap 24: The Undoing Begins img
Chapter 25 Chap 25: Vultures in Velvet img
Chapter 26 Chap26: The Cost of Silence img
Chapter 27 Chap 27: The Double Life img
Chapter 28 Chap 28: Nights That Burn Quiet img
Chapter 29 Chap 29: The Night That Should Have Been Boring img
Chapter 30 Chap 30: The Visitor, the Voice, and the Weight of Staying img
Chapter 31 Chap 31: What Shadows Know img
Chapter 32 Chap 32: Trust Is a Loaded Gun img
Chapter 33 Chap 33: The Visitor, the Voice, and the Weight of Staying img
Chapter 34 Chap 34: Whispered Warnings and the Echo of Rage img
Chapter 35 Chap 35: Between Ambushes and Allies img
Chapter 36 Chap 36: Firelight and Fractures img
Chapter 37 Chap 37: Smoke Has Memory img
Chapter 38 Chap 38: Doubts, Ghosts, and Silent Loyalty img
Chapter 39 Chap 39: Poison Invitations img
Chapter 40 Chap 40: The Devils' Dinner Party img
Chapter 41 Chap 41: Glass Walls and Quiet Wars img
Chapter 42 Chap 42: A Debt Paid in Silence img
Chapter 43 Chap 43: Secrets Wrapped in Silence img
Chapter 44 Chap 44: A Cage With Questions img
Chapter 45 Chap 45: Smoke in the Walls img
Chapter 46 Chap 46: The Fire Beneath Her Silence img
Chapter 47 Chap 47: What Silence Begins to Destroy img
Chapter 48 Chap 48: A House Built on Doubt img
Chapter 49 Chap 49: Under Every Floorboard img
Chapter 50 Chap 50: Under Every Floorboard (Part II) img
Chapter 51 Chap 51: The Servant's Silence img
Chapter 52 Chap 52: No Crown Is Given Twice img
Chapter 53 Chap 53: The House She Never Chose img
Chapter 54 Chap 54: A Cage of Their Own Making img
Chapter 55 Chap 55: The Quiet Rebellion img
Chapter 56 Chap 56: A Cage of Their Own Making img
Chapter 57 Chap 57: The Walls Remember Everything img
Chapter 58 Chap 58: Even Queens Break img
Chapter 59 Chap 59: Poison in Pearls img
Chapter 60 Chap 60: Lies Leave Fingerprints img
Chapter 61 Chap 61: The Uninvited Guest img
Chapter 62 Chap 62: Tarnish and Theater img
Chapter 63 Chap 63: The Woman in the Mirror img
Chapter 64 Chap 64: A Name Worth Nothing img
Chapter 65 Chap 65: Shattered img
Chapter 66 Chap 66: The Silence Under Polished Floors img
Chapter 67 Chap 67: Locked Hearts and Hollow Doors img
Chapter 68 Chap 68: The Weight of Ashes img
Chapter 69 Chap 69: The House Never Sleeps img
Chapter 70 Chap 70: When Walls Begin to Listen img
Chapter 71 Chap 71: Even Fire Cracks in Silence img
Chapter 72 Chap 72: What Grows in Silence img
Chapter 73 Chap 73: No One Wants to Read img
Chapter 74 Chap 74: What I Came to Say, I Never Did img
Chapter 75 Chap 75: The Silence That Ought Not Be img
Chapter 76 Chap 76: The Price of Desperation img
Chapter 77 Chap 77: When Shadows Speak img
Chapter 78 Chap 78: Smoke Behind the Glass img
Chapter 79 Chap 79: Gold Upstairs, Ashes Down img
Chapter 80 Chap 80: A Thief in the Light img
Chapter 81 Chap 81: The Moment She Was Unmade img
Chapter 82 Chap 82: Guilt Wears Silk, But Shame Wears Skin img
Chapter 83 Chap 83: Behind the Porcelain Smile img
Chapter 84 Chap 84: The Room without Applause img
Chapter 85 Chap 85: Guilt in Gilded Gloves img
Chapter 86 Chap 86: Where the Bruises Go img
Chapter 87 Chap 87: A House That Whispers img
Chapter 88 Chap 88: The Web Tightens img
Chapter 89 Chap 89: The Turning Thread img
Chapter 90 Chap 90: A House of Eyes img
Chapter 91 Chap 91: The House That Swallowed Her Voice img
Chapter 92 Chap 92: The Thread Unravels img
Chapter 93 Chap 93: Paper Cuts and Deception Polishsed img
Chapter 94 Chap 94: What the Silence Held img
Chapter 95 Chap 95: Fractures Beneath the Surface img
Chapter 96 Chap 96: The Pretender's Mercy img
Chapter 97 Chap 97: Brothers at Odds img
Chapter 98 Chap 98: Shadows Between Them img
Chapter 99 Chap 99: Fragile Morning img
Chapter 100 Chap 100: Weight of a Name img
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Chapter 2 CHAP 2: Harrison's Fury

The reception had taken place in the great ballroom of the Blackwood estate, a lavish affair of crystal chandeliers casting shimmering light across polished marble floors. Leya swam through the crowd, accepting well-wishes from the guests she didn't know, nodding politely at their empty compliments. But all the while, she had the feeling that she was a ghost wafting through a life that wasn't hers.

She caught a glimpse of Harrison across the room, similarly flanked by his family and his business associates, wearing the same detached expression, his smile never quite reaching his eyes. A prisoner in this arrangement too, though his prison was one of power and expectation, not desperation.

As the evening wore on, she found herself standing beside the big bay window, looking down into the sprawling gardens below. Laughter and clinking glasses faded through the background as she allowed herself for a moment to breathe in the weight of everything that happened.

She felt her mother coming up to her, the softness in her eyes holding both pride and sadness. "You did well today, Leya," she says softly, laying a hand on her daughter's arm. "I know this isn't what you wanted, but. You've secured our future."

She turned to her mother, her throat tight as emotion forced its way up. "What future?" she asked, barely in a whisper. "All I feel is trapped.

Her mother's smile had faltered then, and in that split second, there was something beyond the veneer, the weight of guilt in her mother's heart. "I am so sorry darling," she whispered as her voice finally broke. "If your father were alive this wouldn't have happened.

Her father's mention made Leya's heart clenched.

She had tried being strong, tried doing what needed to be done for the sake of her and her family, but at that moment, she felt like a prisoner in a cage, wondering if the price she had to pay was too high. Somewhere right now, she had lost herself along the way and she wasn't sure that one day she would find her way back.

Harrison stood across the room, his back to the crowd, his mind as far away from festivity as possible. He heard congratulations, he heard toasts, but none of it mattered. He had done as his father had wished for, to be married to Leya; now he was consumed by bitterness, a disease he would have to suffer.

Then there was his sister, Eleanor, beside him, her face as keen-edged as ever. "I must say brother, you did well to conceal your repulsion," she said with heavy sarcasm.

Harrison had nothing to say; his jaw was clenched, his eyes fixed on his half-emptied glass of whiskey. How he detested this charade, this show, the whole sham of everything being right when it was not.

"You are better at this game than you think," Eleanor teased further. "Father must be proud."

Harrison's gaze met his father, who stood across the room, surrounded by guests, looking every inch the powerful patriarch. His father had orchestrated this whole thing-had him hog-tied, he was being forced into a union he did not want, bound to a woman he had already made his mind up to detest.

I ain't playing any games, Harrison growled low, his resentment lacing his words.

Eleanor queried a brow, the smirk deepening. "Oh, but you are, dear brother, whether you like it or not. You're in this neck deep now, and so is she.

His gaze strayed to Leya, who stood by the window, her back to him bathed in soft, silvery light from the chandelier. For a moment, a strange sense of guilt washed over him, a guilt he hadn't wanted to feel, and yet he felt guilty because he had not asked for this marriage, nor had she. They were both mere pawns in his father's game, both trapped in a life they had never chosen.

That didn't change the fact that he resented her, hated her for a part in this.

Harrison tossed back the remaining whiskey, the fire churning in his stomach doing little for the storm brewing inside. From the minute his father had announced this arrangement, a silent vow was made that he would never let Leya Anderson in. She was no more than a means to his end, a tool to lock in his father's empire. And he would make sure she knew that.

He watched her from across the room, standing alone, her shoulders tense with the weight of it all, a flicker of doubt crept onto his mind. Was she really the enemy he had convinced himself she was? Or was she just as much a victim in this as he was?

Harrison shook the thought away, refusing to let it take root. It didn't matter. None of it mattered.

Finally, when the reception finally started to die down, Leya excused herself from the crowd, retreating to the quiet sanctuary of her new bedroom in the Blackwood mansion. It was a grand room, luxurious everything anyone could ever wish for. Still, to Leya, it felt cold and empty.

She sat on the edge of her queen-sized bed, her fingers trailing into the edges of her gown as she stared into the magnificent wallpaper opposite her.

This was her life now, married to a man who despises her more than anything, being trapped in a house that wasn't hers, bound to a family that would never accept her as their own.

It pricked at the edges of her eyes, but she blinked them away. She had promised herself she wasn't going to cry. Not here, Not in this house.

The creak of the door opening behind her made her stiffen. She knew who it was without having to turn around.

A sharp, cold Harrison's voice cut through the silence. "Don't get too comfortable," he said.

Leya swallowed hard while letting her racing heart face him. He stood framed in the doorway, his face unreadable, but his eyes gleamed with something dark. Something dangerous.

"This isn't your home," he went on, low and menacing. "And don't think for one second that I'll ever treat you like my wife."

His words fell onto her chest one by one, each heavier than the last. She opened her mouth to speak, but words would not come.

"I don't care why you agreed to this," Harrison said, taking a step closer so that he could stand directly in front of her, never once breaking his stare. "But let one thing be clear: you are nothing to me. Less than nothing."

And with that, he turned and left, slamming the door shut behind him.

She sat in the room, her breath under the silent desperation of the room choking her. It was no longer a matter of denial, it was the truth that had hit home, and the reality of her situation really sunken in. This wasn't a marriage of convenience; this was war. A war she isn't so sure she has the strength to win.

But as she let her tears finally break through her defenses, escaping down her cheek, the action of wiping it away seemed to steal a resolve in her chest. She had survived the loss of her father. She had survived the collapse of her family's world.

She would survive this too.

But as it got quieter, a figure shadowed stood into the night. Mr. Samuel Blackwood sat in his personal study with a glass of brandy on the rocks, his mind as far away from the plush wedding celebration as his thought could get.

He pulled open a drawer in his desk retrieving a file marked with one single name: Anderson.

            
            

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