Chapter 1 - The Accidental Empress of the Underworld
Lucas Ravalini did not believe in coincidences, and he certainly did not believe in miracles.
His world was built on blood, concrete, and unyielding power.
The five women standing in his Manhattan penthouse were chosen by his advisors for their breeding, wealth, and ambition.
Victoria Vance had offered a Cartier watch encrusted with diamonds.
Aline Sterling had promised a prize-winning thoroughbred pony.
None of them had looked at his five-year-old son, Matteo, as anything more than a stepping stone to the Ravalini throne.
Matteo had stood in the center of the Persian rug looking like a ghost in a tuxedo.
His small shoulders were tense with the crushing weight of an empire he never asked to inherit.
When Hannah Cooper laughed at Aline's ridiculous answer about feeding horses, the entire room froze.
Hannah was wearing faded flats and a second-hand blazer that smelled faintly of laundry detergent and cheap coffee.
She was thirty years old, drowning in debt, and desperate for a nanny position to keep her elderly landlady from evicting her.
Yet, when Matteo dropped his broken wooden train, Hannah did not hesitate to drop to her knees beside him.
She did not see a mafia heir or a billionaire's son.
She saw a lonely little boy who just wanted someone to care.
When Matteo wrapped his tiny arms around her waist and whispered that he wanted her, the air left the room.
Lucas slowly stood up from his leather armchair.
His dark eyes pierced through Hannah like a dagger.
He stepped forward, his leather shoes clicking against the marble floor with terrifying precision.
The five rejected socialites looked like they wanted to scratch Hannah's eyes out.
Victoria Vance sneered, whispering that this filthy beggar would never survive a single day in their world.
Lucas ignored them completely.
He stopped mere inches from Hannah.
His gaze was intense, analytical, and dangerously magnetic.
He told her that what Matteo chose came with a price.
He offered her an impossible choice that night.
She could walk out the door right now with a check for fifty thousand dollars and forget she ever saw them.
Or she could sign a three-month contract as Matteo's live-in nanny and his public fiancée to deceive his enemies.
The salary was enough to pay off every single debt she had and secure her future.
Hannah looked down at Matteo, who was gripping the hem of her skirt like his life depended on it.
May you like
She swallowed hard and nodded.
That single nod sealed her fate in the darkest underworld of New York City.
