La Esposa Rechazada Del Cruel Mafioso - Adri Lu... -

He leans in. His lips hover a breath from mine.

"I don't want you," he says, voice rough. "But I won't let them have you either."

That was three years ago.

I stood beside him in ivory lace, my hands trembling inside silk gloves, while he signed the mafia contract that bound our families. The wedding was a formality. The real ceremony happened afterward: Alessandro's father, Don Ferraro, shaking my father's hand over a table of illegal arms deals. La Esposa Rechazada del Cruel Mafioso - Adri Lu...

"You're in my room," I reply, surprising myself with the steadiness of my voice.

And beneath it, written in elegant script:

I stand in front of the floor-length mirror in my empty room, my reflection a ghost in a designer nightgown I didn't choose. My hair is longer now — dark waves down my back, the same obsidian black as the night he first rejected me. My eyes are hollow. Once, they were warm. Once, I thought love could soften a cruel man. He leans in

Now, I live in his marble tomb of a mansion on the outskirts of Milan. Servants who won't meet my eyes. A bedroom on the opposite wing from his. And a husband who has spoken exactly seventeen words to me in thirty-six months.

His thumb brushes my cheekbone. Gentle. Almost tender.

"The Don's rejected wife. So easy to take. So easy to break." "But I won't let them have you either

"You're still awake," he says.

I was a fool.

"Because," he says, and his voice drops to a dangerous whisper, "I've spent three years convincing everyone, including myself, that I don't want you. But the Rosetti just threatened what's mine."

"Why?" I breathe.

Since I don’t have direct access to Adri Lu’s specific unpublished or published work, I can instead in that exact style and title for you. Below is a dramatic, emotional opening chapter written as if it were from that book. La Esposa Rechazada del Cruel Mafioso By Adri Lu (original development piece) Chapter 1: El contrato sellado con sangre