
Fall for the Mafia's Deception
Aurora Starling · Ongoing · 100.8k Words
Introduction
Chapter 1
Mia POV
"You should marry a foreigner who needs a green card. I can help you with that."
"What?"
"You heard me."
My mom had been in the hospital for years. It had been pure luck that the hospital found a kidney donor match recently, but we were in so much debt that getting another loan was almost impossible. I knew my best friend, Katie, was worried about us, but marrying someone who needed a green card for profit? Was she insane?
"Katie, that's-"
"What are your options?" Katie asked, leaning on the counter "The grant?"
"She's not eligible," I choked out.
"And... even if you started work tomorrow and took every shift available?" I grimaced at the thought. I didn't want to admit it, but I didn't have to. "You'd end up dead from stress in a month, and it still wouldn't be enough."
I nodded pitifully. I bit my lip. "I'm still waiting to hear back about the loan."
She lifted a shoulder. My phone buzzed, and hope filled me. I reached for it, and she placed her hand on mine.
"Before you look at... whatever that is. How are you going to pay back this loan? And all the others?"
I pulled the phone toward me. "I'll figure it out."
She rolled her eyes. "Mila, get real--"
"I am--"
"You'll be filing bankruptcy in a week, homeless soon after, and your mom will still need recovery."
"There are other ways---more legal ways, and as I said, I'll figure it out."
Katie scoffed. "At the rate you're going, you're going to end up in a bed right beside her."
I shuddered at the thought. "I... It won't come to that."
"Know any wealthy men? Got a rich uncle you can whack and get an inheritance from?"
I pulled my hand free. "You'll see. My application was stronger than a lot of people who get approved all the time."
Katie gave me a pitying look. I opened the email, and my blood ran cold.
Your loan application has been rejected.
I set my phone down, blinking back tears of frustration. I didn't even read the rest of the message. I knew what it would say. Then, I got another message from my landlord saying that my rent was going to go up when I renewed.
Mom wasn't going to make it without a new kidney. We were already drowning in debt between my student loans and all of Mom's medical bills. The time to say yes to the donor was running out.
I looked back at Katie, unsure of what to say.
"It's not the greatest path to being debt-free, but it's a path. Probably a lot faster than any other path you have."
I hesitated. Marrying someone to get them a green card was illegal. I could hear my mom telling me not to even think about it.
Crime is a slippery slope, my mom told me countless times growing up, but so was financial ruin and renal failure.
Crime was inevitable, especially in a mafia city, but her death and the suffering we'd already been enduring didn't have to be, and it didn't have to get worse either.
I was sure I would probably go to jail if I got caught, but if I didn't get caught, Mom would be okay.
I bit my lip. "Send me the information as soon as you can."
Katie whipped out her phone, dialed, and waited.
"Babe," Katie said, her voice turning flirty. "You know that favor you owe me... No, not that favor. The other one. Mm-hm. I need to cash it in... for Mia. As quick as you can."
Wait… Katie was clearly calling her new boyfriend, Ivan. She had been secretive about him.
"Thanks, babe!" She hung up and smiled at me.
“Was that Ivan? What does he do? This feels a little too convenient..."
“I was about to tell you… but you can't get mad about it."
"... and what's that?"
“Ivan is the underboss of a bratva."
"What?!"
Albert POV
"Your father is in your office, boss."
I stopped, glancing at the underling beside the door. He gave me a thin smile.
"Anyone else?"
"The underboss."
Ivan and my father in my office together? I pushed the door open to my office and scanned the room. Ivan was standing off to the side with a look on his face that said Dimitri, my father, was going to piss me off today, probably more than usual.
I didn't even glance in my father's direction. It would just play into his hand. I walked across the room and took a seat at my desk, not bothering to acknowledge him. If he was going to play power games, he was going to have to learn to lose.
I smirked at the thought. It would be good practice for the future.
"I had expected you to give in by now."
"I didn't realize that was the kind of successor you were aiming for."
Ivan's lips twitched into a little smile. Dimitri stood, finishing his drink and turning to me. He pulled a handful of photos from his jacket pocket and dropped them on the table in front of me.
"Here are your options," Dimitri said, his eyes cold. "If you'd like to continue this way, that's fine, but do not blame me for choosing the one that suits my tastes best."
I laced my fingers together, not even bothering to glance at the photos. It had been years of him trying to get me to marry the air-headed daughter of one of his old allies or subordinates. Years of him slowly trying to pin me down to this life he'd forced upon me. I'd resisted at every turn, but for some reason, my marriage was the hill he wanted to die on.
I'd like to crucify him myself, but the problem was that Dimitri, while no longer the boss, had enough friends in the right places that my name would end up on a marriage certificate with or without my signature, and I didn't have the time to fight for a divorce. Underground politics would only throw a wrench in my plans, and I was so close to having everything go the way I wanted.
Too close to let him ruin it now. Too close to let my anger take over either.
Dimitri turned to the door. "The wedding will be held within a week. This is a decision, not a negotiation."
He left then, leaving his used glass on the edge of my desk. Ivan's phone rang as I tried to tell myself why it was a bad idea to off my father, at least for right now.
How interesting that he'd chosen a week as a deadline. For a moment, I wondered if he'd been tipped off somehow of what I planned. It just meant I needed to move faster.
"Marriage, hm?" Ivan said.
I looked up. I knew Ivan was dating, but were they already planning to get married?
"Got it. Alright." He hung up with a sigh.
"When's the date?"
He flushed. "Not ours. She's... calling in a favor for a friend. A green card exchange."
"So?"
He winced. "Her friend's not really made for the type of guys on my usual list, so it's going to take some time."
I blinked. Like lightning, it hit me: even Dimitri's friends in legal places couldn't override an already-existing marriage certificate.
"Is she affiliated?"
He frowned. "Not that I know of. Sick mom. Drowning in debt. She just graduated nursing school."
On the right side of the law, a nurse, probably not interested in putting up too much of a fight: she was perfect.
"Arrange it."
"You have someone?"
"Me, but let her think I just need a green card."
Last Chapters
#70 Chapter 70
Last Updated: 11/12/2025#69 Chapter 69
Last Updated: 11/12/2025#68 Chapter 68
Last Updated: 11/12/2025#67 Chapter 67
Last Updated: 11/12/2025#66 Chapter 66
Last Updated: 11/12/2025#65 Chapter 65
Last Updated: 11/12/2025#64 Chapter 64
Last Updated: 11/12/2025#63 Chapter 63
Last Updated: 11/12/2025#62 Chapter 62
Last Updated: 11/12/2025#61 Chapter 61
Last Updated: 11/12/2025
You Might Like 😍
The Princess's Revenge
Alpha Logan is an illegitimate son whose mother disappeared when he was 10 years old. He grew up suffering from humiliation and lacking maternal love.
Alpha Logan saves Valencia at Marcus's funeral, which seems to be destined by fate—part of the Moon Goddess's grand plan.
As Valencia accidentally discovers prophecies in Logan's mother's diary that seem to be related to her, the truth gradually surfaces. Valencia appears to be merely a tool in a princess's revenge plot. How will Logan and Valencia navigate their path amid the national war and pack politics?
Iron And Glamour Just Don't Mix
Well… Sometimes you just might turn out to be right.
It turns out, the fae stole my little brother. In his place? A pixie with boundary issues and a talent for home repairs.
I’ve spent my life taking care of everyone else. So when my baby brother is taken, I don’t hesitate. I walk straight into a faerie mansion and make a bargain with its infuriatingly charming master.
Kie is everything you’d expect from a dangerous fae, beautiful, political, and entirely too amused by me. Power wrapped in a smirk. Sensual, mischievous, and far too aware of the effect he has on people. He agrees to help me find my brother.
For a price.
Now I’m bound by a faerie bargain and navigating a world of glamour, manipulation, and ancient rules I definitely should have learned sooner, enchanted forests, political games, magical contracts, and a fae lord who treats seduction like a perfectly reasonable negotiation tactic.
Iron is how I keep people out.
Glamour is how he draws them in.
And apparently, they just don’t mix.
The mafia princess return
The Family Books 1-3 (A Mafia romance)
The saint to my sinner. with her innocent eyes and devilish curves.
A Madonna that was meant to be admired but never touched.
Until someone took that innocence from her.
She left.
The darkness in my heart was finally complete.
I avenged her, I killed for her, but she never came back.
Until I saw her again. An angel dancing around a pole for money.
She didn’t know I owned that club. She didn’t know I was watching.
This time I won’t let her escape.
I will make her back into the girl I knew.
Whether she likes it or not.
2/ Judge and Jury- I can’t stop watching her.
I’m not even sure I want to.
Taylor Lawson, blonde, beautiful, and totally oblivious to how much dangers she’s in.
She’s also the one juror in my upcoming murder trial that hasn’t been bought.
The one who can put me behind bars for a very long time.
I know I should execute her.
After all that’s what I do.
I am the Judge.
I eliminate threats to The Family.
And Taylor is a threat.
But I don’t want to kill her.
Possessing her, making her love me seems like a much better plan for this particular Juror.
3/ Rags and Ritches-
Human Capture (Up North #2)
Raised in a starving settlement choked by a vast, unforgiving forest, Lara learned early that survival has a price. To keep her family alive, she became a master hunter—agile, silent, and deadly with an array of mismatched blades. But the forest has eyes, and one evening, the shadows dragged her away.
Nine months later, Lara breaks free from a concrete dungeon, only to find herself stranded in the lawless, rogue-infested wilds of Avers Land alongside four captured werewolf girls. Seeking refuge in the neighboring territory of Illyen, she expects to find a way back to her human life. Instead, she is brought face-to-face with Alpha Rowan, the terrifying, ruthless ruler of the frozen North.
One look into Lara’s eyes, and the Alpha’s world shatters. His eyes turn an absolute shade of black. The bond is undeniable. She is his fated mate.
But a human cannot survive the brutal political landscape of the North, and Rowan openly rejects the bond, dragging her onto a warship bound for a kingdom that views her as a fragile liability. Trapped between a mate who refuses to love her and a court of monsters waiting for her to break, Lara must use every hunter's instinct she possesses. Because in the realm of wolves, a human must either grow claws of her own—or perish in the snow.
The New Girl and the Broken Basketball Star
After years of feeling unwanted by the father who should have protected her, Clara is finally forced to leave the only home she has ever known. Her stepmother’s pregnancy only makes it easier for her family to let her go.
With nothing but her mother’s old violin, she arrives in a small Pennsylvania town carrying the fear that she will never truly belong anywhere.
The last thing she expects is Adrian Cole.
Once the town’s basketball star, Adrian gave up his dreams after his father disappeared and left him with debts he never should have carried. Now he spends his days repairing cars, avoiding the court, and pretending he doesn’t want anything more from life.
Clara thinks she is too broken to be loved.
Adrian thinks his future is already over.
But somewhere between physics lessons, late nights at the repair shop, and a forgotten small-town high school, two lonely people begin to find something they both thought they had lost forever:
A reason to stay.
✦ ✦ ✦
A tough exterior with a soft heart x A soft exterior with a strong heart
✦ ✦ ✦
The first half is set in high school, and the second half is set during their college years. Hope you enjoy the journey!
This is a slow-paced story, focused more on emotions, healing, and the small moments in life rather than intense action or dramatic twists.
If you find any mistakes while reading, please feel free to leave a comment. I’ll be happy to correct them.
I hope ordinary Clara, ordinary Adrian, and all of us ordinary people can find the happiness we deserve.
The Blackthorn Saga: The Heir (Book 1 & 2)
Pulled into a hidden world he never knew existed, Kruz is forced to face the truth—he isn’t just different.
He’s a vampire.
The transformation is only the beginning. Thrust from a life of survival into one of power, wealth, and expectation, Kruz is given a position no one his age should hold: District Elder.
With it comes authority. Responsibility. And enemies he doesn’t yet understand.
And then there’s the bond.
Forced into a connection he didn’t choose, Kruz is tied to a girl—whether he wants it or not. She’s a complication. A problem. A constant reminder that his life is no longer his own.
Because the one person he wants… is the one he can’t have.
As pressure builds and danger closes in, Kruz is forced to walk a line few survive—between duty and desire, control and instinct, the life he had and the one being forced upon him.
Because in this world, power isn’t earned slowly.
It’s given.
And if you’re not ready for it—
It will destroy you.
Bella and Her Beast
.
Locked in her frozen tower, Bella dreamed of warmth, of touch, of freedom and of love. Cursed with the power of ice and snow, she’s spent her life alone. A secret they tried to protect the world from. Her only escape comes in the form of the books she reads. Stories of heat, desire, and the kind of love that could melt even her frostbitten heart.
Damien is the Beast. A dragon King with a temper forged in flame and a soul hollowed by duty. The world fears him. The people call him a monster. But beneath the scales and the rage lies a man who has never been touched by love.
When frost meets fire, the world shatters. She was never meant to leave her tower. He was never meant to find her. But destiny doesn’t bow to kings or care for cages and now the question burns through them both: Can Bella have her Beast? Or will the girl of snow melt in the heat of his desire?
.
"I’m keeping her."
"What?"
Before I can react, he scoops her up. Her small body fits easily in the cradle of his talons. For a split second, she looks startled, but not afraid. Her hand rests against one scaled finger, and she stares up at him with that same curious wonder, as though she’s already forgotten she was ever meant to fear me.
"Put her down," I try to command, panic threading through my thoughts. "You’ll hurt her."
"She’s ours," the beast insists, possessive and fierce. "Our snowflake."
Let Them Kneel
Cast out by her pack. Forgotten by the Lycans.
She lived among humans—quiet, invisible, tucked away in a town no one looked at twice.
But when her first heat comes without warning, everything changes.
Her body ignites. Her instincts scream. And something primal stirs beneath her skin—
summoning a big, bad Alpha who knows exactly how to quench her fire.
When he claims her, it’s ecstasy and ruin.
For the first time, she believes she’s been accepted.
Seen.
Chosen.
Until he leaves her the next morning—
like a secret never to be spoken.
But Kaelani is not what they thought.
Not wolfless. Not weak.
There is something ancient inside her. Something powerful. And it’s waking.
And when it does—
they’ll all remember the girl they tried to erase.
Especially him.
She’ll be the dream he keeps chasing… the one thing that ever made him feel alive.
Because secrets never stay buried.
And neither do dreams.
Offside Temptation
Ethan Ryder was a disaster waiting to happen. Hot-headed, reckless, and constantly one bad decision away from ruining his career. I was supposed to hate him. Instead, I memorized him. I learned exactly how to push his buttons on the ice just to see the fire in his eyes.
When he grabbed my jersey in that locker room and kissed me in front of twenty cameras, it wasn't a mistake. It was the moment the line between hatred and obsession finally snapped. The media called it a scandal. They called us a divorced couple. But they didn't see the way Ethan trembled when I cornered him in the hallway afterward.
"You're staring again," he whispered, his back hitting the wall.
"You're still here," I replied calmly, stepping close enough to feel his erratic pulse.
He thought I was cold. He thought I was controlled. He didn't realize that every time he looked at me, I was fighting the urge to completely destroy the distance between us.
Now, the league is forcing us to live together, train together, and smile for the cameras to fix our public image. But the more time we spend alone in my apartment, the harder it is to pretend I just want to play hockey...
The Alpha Of The Shadow Pack And His Mute Luna
Vanessa, the mute runt of a cursed litter, has only ever known cruelty and abuse. Her voice stolen by a witch’s spell, her freedom crushed by a brutal father, she’s been promised to a monster she doesn’t want. But fate intervenes when she’s left for dead—bleeding, broken, and bound—only to be rescued by Alpha Alfred of the Shadow Pack.
Alfred, fighting against a generational curse that has doomed his brothers to remain wolves forever, never expected his fated mate to be a fragile girl on the brink of death. But the moment he breathes in her scent, everything changes.
Together, they must confront the past, survive betrayal, and uncover the true key to breaking the curses that bind them. Will their bond be strong enough to save them both?
Oops. My Boss Was Seventeen
The Execution: Perfect. I brought him coffee, cheered at his games, and basically operated as his unpaid teenage executive assistant. He’s totally buying it.
The Problem: I was trying to network my way into the C-suite. I think I just networked my way into his bed.












