Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 105679 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 528(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 352(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105679 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 528(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 352(@300wpm)
For the longest time, I had been a pawn between two empires built on blood.
I had been promised to Matteo, who was supposed to be my future.
But it was his brother who ruined me.
Adrian Salvatore—reckless, merciless, carved from sin and evil. The brother no one dared to control. The one who looked at me like I was always meant to be…his.
He stole my first kiss beneath the moonlight, right there at my engagement party.
And he never stopped.
Not when I begged.
Not when I threatened.
Until one night…
One mistake. One unforgivable moment that shattered everything I was raised to protect. My modesty, my virtue, my family’s honor.
Somehow I found myself bound to Adrian in ways I never wanted.
But he didn’t believe in love.
Everything he had ever done was driven by vengeance.
Adrian wasn’t going to protect me.
Instead, he had promised to break me.
Somewhere between the hate and fear became a reckless obsession.
And with that obsession came more destruction.
We were both damned, but only one of us would survive the monster we’d become.
BOUND BY LIES is book one in the dark and twisted FATAL ALLIANCES series. Please read the trigger warnings
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
PROLOGUE
Men have always controlled my life.
First my father.
Then my brother.
And soon my husband.
Every aspect of my existence was carefully orchestrated by them. What I wore, what I ate, where I went to school, and who my friends were.
I was the perfect and poised daughter of Caterina Morelli. The obedient daughter of Santino Morelli. The silent sister of Damon Morelli.
I was incapable of denying them. I never had the choice to say “no.”
They said walk; I walked. They said smile; I smiled. They said jump; I jumped. Even if it was jumping to my own ultimate, pitiful demise.
I merely lived in the shadows of the Morelli family. Usually, the forgotten one. The girl no one saw, so I lingered in the silence — my voice unheard and my heart woeful, until my dreams turned into decaying fragments.
I looked at myself in the mirror, and I saw haunted eyes staring back at me. A stranger, a cruel disguise. A decorated facade.
My mother died today. A fatal car accident that seemed too perfectly orchestrated. My father’s enemies were smart, and they were coming for our family with every intention to eradicate our whole lineage.
I should have felt something: heartbroken or devastated, but there was an emptiness gnawing at my soul.
“Serafina.”
The sound of my name in his gritty voice jostled me out of my thoughts. Damon appeared in the mirror’s reflection, towering over me. “You were taking too long,” he said, as if to explain why he was in the ladies’ washroom. Not that anyone would ever dare to stop him.
Damon Morelli always did what he wanted.
He touched the large bow on the side of my hat, fixing it so that it was no longer lopsided. “You have to present yourself better,” Damon admonished. “Mother has taught you better than this. You are to be sophisticated and refined, Serafina.”
I was being berated for a lopsided bow at my mother’s funeral.
Of course, there was no other choice than to be perfect.
“Yes,” I uttered quietly.
“This is your first public appearance in more than three years. Do not disappoint Father.” His hand slid down to my arm, wrapping his fingers around my bicep.
I nodded.
I knew the rules and consequences.
“Matteo is here and he’ll be seeing you for the first time. You are to impress him.”
I nodded again.
“Do you understand, Serafina?” He squeezed my bicep, not hard enough to leave a bruise but enough to make me inwardly flinch. Though, I showed no reaction to my brother.
Docile. Gentle. Compliant.
“Yes, I understand.”
Damon turned me around so I was facing him. I met his eyes through the black net veil attached to my expensive mourning hat.
My brother stared at me for a long second before he let go. When we walked out of the washroom, he offered me his arm, and I dutifully took it.
We would appear as one unit.
Brother and sister.
Two grieving siblings.
We walked into the church where dozens of faces from the New York Famiglie stared back at us. I kept my chin low, avoiding their deceptive eyes.
Gooseflesh peppered my skin and my lower spine tingled.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Damon and I took our places beside our father; I on his left and my brother on his right. The priest began his sermon after my father nodded in acknowledgment.
“We gather today with heavy hearts, in faith and in sorrow…”
His voice faded.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
My skin tingled again the way it did when I first walked into the church. Not because I knew the Famiglie were looking at me.
No—
Because I felt the warmth of his gaze before I could even see him.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
A part of me wanted to turn around, to look for him. To meet his gaze with my own.
But I didn’t move.
I was Serafina Morelli.
Obedient. Graceful. Faithful.
The seconds ticked by, and I felt him. Watching me. Learning me. Tempting me.
There was something devious about this game of his.
He thought he was in control.
But he was wrong.
This was my story—
CHAPTER ONE
Serafina
My earliest recollection of a funeral was my grandfather's. I knew of him, that was all. He was practically a stranger to me. We never had a bond, but he loved my brother dearly. I always wondered why our grandfather never gave me any chocolate or hugs, as he would to Damon. Then, I grew older… I realized it was simply because I was a girl.
My worth was nothing in his eyes.
He wanted another grandson, a spare to the heir… but instead I was a liability. A hindrance to our lineage.
I was too young to remember much of his death. Being only knee high I was lost in the shuffle of the day, no one cared to check on me or see how I was doing. I had merely faded in the background.
But not today.
No, this time… I was more than just a shadow. I had a dozen sets of eyes on me.