Lorrito de Luca, who would one day be called the MAFIA KING, was not always ruthless.
In fact, he used to be a soft, caring man.
There was a time, brief, dangerous, unforgettable, when he loved Caroline, a very beautiful young lady he was never meant to love.
She was not from a rich background, so her family had no connections and that was the problem.
Her family name has always been looked down upon by many. Old accusations that had never been proven always seem to be carried by the family. Marrying her would have brought disgrace to his family name as they stood higher and more powerful than any other family in the Nation. So to protect her, he had to abandon her.
Before he left he called her to meet him at a hotel.
The room smelled of cigarette smoke and cheap pine cleaner. The bed creaked under their weight before they even touched. Caroline walked in wearing that faded yellow sundress he'd always loved. Her eyes were already red-rimmed. She felt hot immediately after seeing how sexy he was looking.
Lorrito stood by the window, shirt unbuttoned, chest rising fast. He looked at her like she was the only beautiful thing left in his fucked-up world.
"Caroline," he said, voice cracking just once. Then he crossed the room and kissed her like a man drowning.
It started soft. His lips on hers, trembling, tasting salt from her tears. But love in him had always been violent. He backed her against the wall, hands shaking as he shoved the straps of her dress down. Her breasts spilled out free. He kissed and groaned against her mouth, cupping her breast like they were sacred, thumbs brushing her nipples until they were standing firm.
"You're everything," he whispered into her neck, teeth grazing skin. "Everything I can't have."
He dropped to his knees.
Something he has never done for anyone else, burying his face between her thighs through the thin cotton of her panties. He inhaled her like oxygen, then yanked the fabric aside and licked her open-mouthed, hungry and desperate. Tongue flat and broad, then flicking her clit hard until her knees buckled and she grabbed his hair to stay upright.
"Lorrito,ah.., please… Sto.." she said as she was shaking her legs slowly.
He stood, spun her around, bent her over the edge of the bed.
Rolled up her dress to her waist. He freed his cock, already hard and leaking, thick and throbbing. He rubbed the head along her slick folds, coating himself in her juices.
"I love you," he rasped, almost angry. "I fucking love you and it's killing me."
Then he thrust in, deep and slow. Caroline cried out, hands fisting the sheets.
"Stop, please, it's my first time and you're too big." she cried out.
He wasn't expecting her to taste this good so he didn't give her time to breathe.
He fucked her like he was trying to crawl inside her soul, hard snaps of his hips, skin slapping skin, bedframe rattling against the wall. Every stroke bottomed out, his balls heavy against her clit.
"Feel that?" he growled.
"Stop, please, go slow. It Hurts." she said as tears rolled down her cheek. He got so carried away that his hand wrapped her hair, pulling her head back so he could see her face.
Sweat dripped from his brow onto her back. He reached around, fingers finding her clit again. Rubbing fast, rough circles while he pounded deeper. She moaned brokenly, pushing back to meet him, tears streaming.
"I can't, Lorrito, I'm gonna…"
"Cum for me, baby," he begged, voice wrecked. "Cum on my cock. Let me feel you."
She shattered, screaming his name, walls pulsing, gushing around him, soaking his thighs and the sheets. He fucked her through it, chasing his own end, whispering filthy love letters against her ear.
"Mine… my girl… my fucking heart…"
He came with a choked sob, deep, pulsing, flooding her until it leaked out around his cock, dripping down her trembling legs. He stayed buried inside her for a long time, breathing ragged, forehead pressed to her shoulder.
"I love you," he whispered again, softer now. "I'm sorry."
Then he pulled out.
The absence hit her like a slap. Cum trickled down her inner thighs, warm, sticky, obscene.
Caroline turned, reaching for him, eyes pleading. "Stay. Just tonight. Please."
They spent the night together.
The next morning, he woke up very early, dressed up.
Face shuttered. The softness vanished like smoke.
He pulled cash from his pocket, and set it on the dresser without looking at her. Dropped a note of apology and asked that she do not look for him. Then he kissed her forehead while she was still asleep. "I love you." he whispered to her ears and walked to the door.
Paused with his hand on the knob. Then closed it quietly behind him.
Few minutes later…
She woke up looking tired.
After figuring out that he had left, she found the piece of paper on the dresser close to her… She read it with teary eyes. .
Years later, she disappeared from his life entirely.
He married Isabella, the woman chosen for him by his parents.
They searched for someone who was on the same status as their family. They were looking forward to building more connections and making the family more powerful.
Enemies tried to kill him from the inside as they were always competing with the other families. He was a smart man, so after many attempts to bring him down before marriage, none was successful.
So they used someone from the inside.
His newly wedded wife. She was given a poison to slip into his drink on the night of their honeymoon.
She was given a description of how to add it, but she missed a part of it, resulting in a failed assassination.
Later that night, he slept with his wife.
The next morning she was surprised nothing happened to him even after taking all the poison.
She tried so many other ways to end him so she could become the one giving out orders as the MAFIA QUEEN, ruling the great empire the family has created for generations.
Years passed, so she gave up after many tries. Unfortunately for him, he couldn't have a daughter no matter what he did.
He took in a lot of concubines who could give him a daughter but all of them failed, resulting in him being a father of 9 sons.
It was later discovered that through his bloodline he could never produce a female child as a result of something he had taken years ago.
Every child he fathered was a boy. Strong. Cold and disposable.
He told himself fate had decided to treat him this way.
He never knew Caroline, the woman he loved many years ago before he got married had already given him what fate had denied.
Serafina was three when her mother died. She was brought up by neighbors who were close friends with her mom.
She remembered fragments only the smell of lavender, the feeling of hands brushing her hair, and a voice humming when the power went out.
After that, there were foster homes. New cities. Movement became survival and Silence became a habit.
No one ever told her who her father was.
She grew up with beauty and smartness.
Sometimes her foster parents wished they were her real parents.
By the time she was twenty, she was already being disturbed by men who came for her hand in marriage.
She refused everyone as she wasn't really ready for that yet…
On one faith day.
She had just stepped out of the school gates, bag slung over one shoulder, head bent as she checked her phone.
The street was loud with traffic, vendors shouting and students were laughing.
Then the laughter cut off.
A black van stopped too close to her.
Hands grabbed her before she could scream.
Someone pressed a cloth over her mouth, sharp, bitter and the world tilted sideways. They jacked her up into the van and drove off immediately.
The last thing she saw was her phone shattering on the pavement.
She woke up somewhere cold.
Concrete floor.
No windows.
A single light buzzing overhead.
Her wrists weren't tied. That scared her more, but surprisingly, she looked calm in that situation.
Behind a one-way screen, men watched.
They were not important men…not yet.
Minor subordinates of the king.
The kind who survived by noticing things others overlooked.
One of them leaned closer to the glass. "Pause it, zoom in."
The footage froze on her face.
The room went quiet.
Same eyes.
Same stillness.
"No," one of them whispered. "That's not possible."
But they all felt it, the disturbing feeling of who they thought she was and what danger it could cost them.
If she was nothing, she would die quietly.
If she was something… everything changes for them and their plan.
They could not afford that.
They didn't go to the King.
That would have their plan ruined.
Instead, they did what cowards with ambition always do.
They built a game.
An underground operation disguised as opportunity.
Survival framed as entertainment. Players stripped of names, pasts, protection.
They told themselves it wasn't personal.
They told themselves she'd be eliminated in the early rounds.
To make sure of it, they planted a weapon inside the game.
A man with a codename and no hesitation.
A man whose job was simply to erase her.