CHAPTER TWO

Bella's POV

My breath stopped.

My world stopped.

And just like that-

everything I thought I knew,

everything I believed,

everything I planned for today...

was shattered.

For a moment, everything inside me went silent.

It was the kind of silence that presses against your eardrums, thick and suffocating, like the world had been dunked underwater.

I felt the ring slip from my fingers- cool metal against trembling skin - and did nothing as it then fell to the floor.

There was a tiny clink, barely a sound, as it hit the office carpet but to me, it was a sound louder than my heartbeat breaking open.

I stared at Ethan and Camilla frozen in that stupid, intimate posture - his hands still cupping her waist, her lipstick smeared against his mouth like a brand. It was a bright, glossy betrayal.

The scene before me, no matter how real it was, didn't make sense. And my brain refused to process it.

Camilla.

My friend and Ethan's assistant.

Ethan.

My... everything.

Or what I thought was my everything.

I didn't even breathe. I couldn't breathe.

When Ethan looked back and saw me, he jumped back so fast he nearly tripped over the leg of his desk chair.

"B-Bella...Bella, wait...this isn't...God, it's not what it looks like-"

His voice reached me as if through thick glass. Muffled. Far away. Unimportant.

Camilla was already stammering as well, "Bella, please...listen, we didn't mean..."

Didn't mean to what?

Didn't mean to kiss?

Didn't mean to betray me?

Didn't mean to destroy five years of my life?

Humiliation burned hotter than the tears stinging my eyes. It was as if a wild, choking fire had climbed up my throat.

I felt it in the tips of my fingers, my jaw, my ribs.

I wanted to scream.

I wanted to slap Ethan.

I wanted to drag Camilla out by her fake-blonde ponytail and ask her how long she'd been pretending to like the gifts I occasionally sent to her while sleeping with my boyfriend.

I wanted to say to Ethan:

"How long?"

"Was it worth it?"

"Did you ever love me?"

"Is this why you've been distant?"

"Did you use me?"

But none of the words formed.

I felt everything and nothing at once. It was like numbness was wrapped around agony within me.

My chest tightened until I could barely breathe.

I took one step back. Then another.

Ethan's voice sharpened in panic. "Bella...stop...don't walk out...listen to me!"

But my body had already chosen for me.

I turned and walked out.

Not a single word from me was uttered.

Not one breath wasted on them.

The door felt heavy, like resistance itself tried to keep me inside that nightmare. But I pushed through, blinking rapidly as the world blurred - office hallways turning into streaks of white and chrome.

I didn't know where I was going.

I just needed to get away before the screams in my chest spilled out of my mouth.

By the time I reached the street, the February air slapped me hard across the face - cold, sharp, merciless.

It felt like the city itself was telling me to wake up from the agony I was embroiled in.

Couples walked past me laughing, holding roses and balloons tied with glittering ribbons.

Every bit of red I saw felt like mockery.

Every promise of love I overheard felt like a slap.

Every "Happy Valentine's Day!" floating through the air twisted the knife deeper.

It was Valentine's Day.

Of all days.

Of course.

The universe had a twisted sense of humour.

The sidewalks glittered with slush, neon reflections from the storefronts trembling in the puddles. A man handed a chocolate box to his date right in front of me and she squealed with delight.

I looked away before I cried again.

Five years.

Five years of loving Ethan.

Five years of believing I'd found safety after losing my parents, after losing my sister, after losing so much.

Five years of cooking late dinners, buying anniversary gifts he barely remembered, covering for him when he forgot events, swallowing my own doubts because "he was stressed" or "work was rough lately."

Five years of thinking my love was finally enough.

And today... today I'd walked in with a ring.

A ring.

God, I felt so stupid.

My chest ached like I'd been pierced from the inside. The cold stung my eyes, or maybe that was just the tears breaking free.

I rounded a corner too fast and that was when I slammed straight into someone. Hard.

My body jolted from the impact, and the ring box slipped out of my grasp again. It clattered onto the concrete, flipping open as if mocking me - the diamond catching the streetlight and shining brighter as if telling me it was more important than the Ethan who had just broken my heart.

"Shit...sorry," I muttered, crouching to grab it, but a hand reached it first.

A large hand.

The stranger I had just slammed into had bent down in one smooth motion and picked up the box.

When he straightened, I looked at him and froze.

Because nothing about him was... normal.

He looked like he'd stepped out of a darker, sharper dimension - like a character an artist sketched in charcoal and angles.

He was tall, broad-shouldered and the coat he was wearing was tailored to a precision that whispered expensive danger.

He had jet-black hair that was slicked back with the kind of careless perfection men like Ethan could never pull off.

And his eyes-

Oh.

His eyes.

Gray, cold, and stormy.

The kind of gray that warned of hurricanes before the sky even changed.

He looked at me - through me - with unsettling calm, as though chaos didn't exist for him, only observation. His gaze drifted down to the ring in its velvet bed, then back to my face that was streaked with tears and humiliation.

Oh God, no, I thought while feeling embarrassment run through me in waves.

He tilted his head slightly.

"Yours?"

His voice was a low baritone, smooth but edged with something dangerous. It was likd a quietness that didn't feel peaceful at all, but powerful.

I should have said yes.

I should have said thank you.

I should have walked away and gone home to cry into my pillow.

But something inside me snapped.

Or maybe it awakened.

Maybe it was the humiliation that burned through me.

Maybe it was the pain from seeing Ethan kiss a woman that was not me.

Maybe it was the sheer recklessness of having nothing left to lose.

Or maybe it was the way this stranger looked at me - not with pity, not with confusion, but with an unreadable intensity that made heat skitter down my spine.

So I lifted my chin.

Met those storm-colored eyes.

And said the stupidest, wildest, rawest thing that had ever come out of my mouth.

"Would you marry me?"

God.

Even hearing myself say it sounded insane.

What the hell had I just say?

But the stranger didn't laugh as I had expected.

He didn't frown in surprise either.

He didn't step back or look embarrassed or call security on the crazy woman proposing to strangers in the middle of Manhattan.

Rather, bis gaze flicked to my shaking hands, to the smeared tear tracks on my cheeks, to the half-open box he still held.

Then something shifted in his expression. It was barely there, a subtle pull at one corner of his mouth.

It was a slow, dangerous, almost amused curve.

He stepped closer.

So close I could smell him. It was a clean, enticing smell with a hint of something dark, like smoke and spice and secrets. He had a scent that made the cold in me disappear in one breath.

Even as I thought about it, his voice dropped in a manner that was soft, husky and sexy at the same time and he spoke, "I do."

CHAPTER THREE

Bella's POV

The moment his words hit my ears, the world didn't just spin for me, it fractured into tiny dizzying pieces.

I do.

I do.

I do.

His words echoed again and again in my ears and as it did, I froze mid-step, the cold wind biting through the thin fabric of my coat, the wet slush clinging to my heels. I wanted to scream, to retract the words I'd just said on an angry, humiliated impulse and make him do the same but the city had other plans.

Somewhere, a car honked, sirens blared in the distance, and a cellphone camera clicked

I glanced around to see that a stranger had been filming us already.

Someone at the corner of the street, smirking behind a lens, was filming us.

My face, streaked with tears, the ruined blush of my cheeks, the shaking velvet box open in the palm of a stranger I didn't even know... it was all being captured.

And then before I could think about how to react about it, I heard the ragged, panicked footsteps pounding toward us.

"Bella!"

I looked around to see that it was Ethan. He had run out of his office looking for me. His face was pale, his eyes wide, his chest heaving and his coat flapping against his back like wings desperate to catch me.

Immediately, I took a step back. I didn't want him anywhere around me. After what he just did to my heart, I wished for only one thing: that we were miles apart.

But then something strange happened.

Ethan looked at who was with me and his eyes widened in panic.

"Boss?" he blurted when he finally stopped just a few feet away from the stranger who had my hand in his and had found his voice.

Boss? I thought as I blinked rapidly in shock.

The stranger tilted his head slowly, his storm-gray eyes locking onto Ethan with that same unreadable calm.

"Ethan. What a coincidence," he said, his voice lazy but edged with a subtle menace, the kind that made your stomach churn and your instincts scream danger.

I stumbled back, clutching the ring box to my chest. "Wait... you know each other?" My voice cracked as I spoke.

The stranger's lips curved faintly. "Yes. He's... an employee."

My brain hit pause. My hands felt suddenly too heavy as the realization sank like ice water through my veins.

What the hell?I had just proposed to my ex-boyfriend's boss.

The man standing in front of me, impeccably dressed in a black coat tailored to his impossibly broad shoulders, with hair slicked back like he was carved from shadows, was none other than Luciano Moretti.

The Devil himself!

Oh my God! I thought in horror.

OH MY GOD! I thought again, my head spinning.

I wanted to run. And so I grabbed the ring from Luciano's hand, turned around and did just that.

"I... I'm so sorry," I stammered, my words stumbling over themselves like frightened animals even as I began to run. "I... I didn't... I didn't mean..."

Luciano didn't move, didn't even blink. His eyes tracked me as I pivoted, heels clicking rapidly against the wet concrete as I fled.

Behind me, Ethan shouted, calling my name, but I didn't look back. Not once. The bastard was the last person that could stop me right now.

By the time I made it back to my apartment, my lungs were burning, tears streaked down my face and my cheeks were numb from the cold.

Ava was waiting, arms crossed, pacing like a storm contained within the small living room. I had called her on my way home, telling her that I needed her to be at my place. And like the best friend that she was, she had said yes to my request without asking questions.

"Bella, talk to me!" she demanded immediately she saw me, her voice a mixture of concern and exasperation. "What the hell happened out there?"

I sank onto the couch, dropping the ring box onto the coffee table with a hollow clink. "It... it's a disaster," I whispered, burying my face in my hands.

Ava crouched in front of me, gripping my shoulders. "Start from the beginning. What happened?"

"Ethan...Ethan cheated on me with Camilla."

Anger exploded on the features of Ava's face. "That bastard! Why am I not even surprised?"

I continued to shake even as I said, "Yeah, you warned me. I should have listened."

Ava wrapped her hands around me. "Look, it's not your fault. You just happened to fall in love with someone who does not deserve you at all. It's really not your fault."

I wiped tears from my eyes with the back of my hand even as I murmured almost inaudibly, "That is not all."

Ava furrowed her eyebrows in concern as she said, "What else?"

"I stumbled into a stranger."

"A stranger?"

I nodded.

"Well, what then happened?"

I lifted my head. "He... he's... I don't even know how to explain it." My voice trembled, and I hated how small I sounded. "I... I proposed to him and he said yes."

Ava's eyebrows shot up. "You... proposed to the stranger?"

"Yes. And he... he said yes!" I buried my face again. "And the worst part... the absolute worst part... he's Ethan's boss. Ethan was there. He had ran out and he called the stranger, 'boss'."

Ava froze for a moment, processing. Then she exhaled sharply. "Wait. Wait, wait, wait. Hold on a minute. You... you proposed to your ex's boss while your ex was... what? Watching?"

I groaned, pressing my palms against my temples. "He... he saw me after I had proposed. Someone filmed it. The entire city probably knows by now. Oh, my God, Ava. I checked my phone while coming back home. They're calling me the... the Valentine's Bride online. Can you believe that? I... I can't... I can't even..."

Ava flopped beside me, hugging me tight. "Okay. Okay. Breathe, Bella. First, calm down. Second, I swear, we will survive this insane... very insane mess. But you need to tell me...how do you even know this man? You just saw him and propose to him?"

"I don't know him at all," I said through gritted teeth. "I... I literally just... proposed on impulse because I... because I... felt like... felt like everything else in my life just exploded and..." My voice cracked, and I buried my face in Ava's shoulder.

She rubbed my back soothingly. "Bella... hey. Look at me. You are not a disaster. You are... you're chaotic, sure, but... also brilliant in a way that makes men like him say yes. You didn't plan this, and that's okay. Sometimes, crazy, unplanned stuff... it changes everything."

I shivered, thinking about his gray eyes, the calm, unflinching way he'd said yes. A shiver of something... unnameable ran down my spine.

Ava pushed her body back while pinching the bridge of her nose. "Alright. But this isn't just... cute drama. He's... clearly powerful. That's... that's dangerous, Bella. Danger comes with this kind of man."

I nodded, swallowing the lump in my throat. "I know. I know. And... I don't even know what to feel anymore. Humiliated, angry, scared...everything."

Ava sighed and gave me a pitying look. "We will figure things out. Don't fret."

CHAPTER FOUR

Bella's POV

By nightfall, my phone was an explosion of notifications I couldn't bear to look at. Messages from friends I hadn't talked to in years, news outlets tagging me, strangers posting the video on every platform imaginable.

The title was mostly, "Valentine's Bride: Manhattan's Most Impulsive Proposal."

I didn't know what to think about all of it.

One minute, I was trying to propose to a man that I thought was my boyfriend. The next minute, I was going viral as somebody else fiancee.

I locked myself in my apartment, hiding in the dark with only the glow of the city through my window for company. Even though Ava was sleeping on the couch, couldn't sleep.

And then, at midnight, a knock, sharp and insistent, sounded on my door.

I froze. My heart slammed against my ribs like a trapped bird.

Ava, who was still around, whispered, "Who... who would knock at this hour?"

I didn't answer. I crept to the door, peeking through the peephole.

Then my heart stopped at what I saw.

Luciano Moretti.

He was there on my porch.

He had a black coat with his hands in pockets and he was standing with that impossible, composed posture that seemed to mock the chaos I felt right now upon seeing him.

His hair was perfectly in place despite the night wind. His eyes-gray storms-pierced through the glass, unmoving, unreadable.

There were some men, dressed in black suits behind him.

I swallowed hard when I saw a black limousine behind them.

I swallowed, trembling.

How the hell had he known where I was staying?

Only a few hours ago, the only thing I knew about him was that he was the lord of the underworld and Ethan's boss. Nothing else.

He didn't know me.

So how did he know my place? How?

Just then, a voice in my head answered me, "That's why he is the king of the underworld. He knows how to get information in a matter of seconds."

Knowing that the voice was right, I sighed deeply and then I opened the door.

"You made me a public figure," he said evenly, stepping inside without waiting for an invitation. The apartment seemed too small for the space he took up, the quiet authority he radiated. "Now we fix it."

Glad that Ava had gone inside my bedroom, I gaped at him, frozen. "Fix... what?"

He closed the door with a calm, deliberate click, his coat brushing against the floor like silk. "This," he said, nodding toward the scattered glow of my phone screen, notifications buzzing endlessly. "The... spectacle you created. My face, my name... your 'proposal.' Everything."

I could barely speak. "I... I'm sorry. I didn't-"

"You didn't think," he said, cutting me off smoothly. "I know." He stepped closer, and the apartment seemed to shrink further, the air thickening around us. "But thinking doesn't matter anymore. What matters is that the world has now seen this, and my business interests... my privacy... are compromised."

I swallowed hard, feeling the chill of the apartment mix with the heat of his presence. "So... what... what do you want me to do?"

Luciano's gray eyes softened fractionally, just enough to make my stomach quiver. "We pretend it's real. Our engagement should be made real until the story dies. Public appearances, posts, interviews... we do all of it to control the narrative. In exchange," he paused, letting the weight of his words land, "I guarantee your safety. Nobody interferes with you. Nobody harms you."

I blinked, the words sinking in.

Safety. Protection...I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

My heart thudded. "You... you want me...you want us to... fake it?"

He nodded once. "Exactly. The world is in a frenzy and wants us to be engaged right now. You say yes to the world. I say yes to you staying unharmed. Simple."

This was ridiculous, I thought.

I wanted to laugh, scream, cry, collapse all at once. Everything was ridiculous right now. So ridiculous.

"And... what if I say no?"

Luciano's expression hardened, the storm in his eyes sharpening in a way that caused chills to run down my spine. "Trust me, darling, you don't want to find out."

A cold shiver ran down my spine again and yet in a surprising manner, the raw, reckless part of me that had proposed earlier stirred again.

This man in front of me wasn't just dangerous. He was... magnetic. Dominant. A storm I might willingly step into.

And as he leaned slightly closer, the air between us charged with a tension that made my breath hitch, I realized one thing: my life had just spiraled into chaos, and there was no turning back.

Not from him.

Not from what had happened.

Not from the world that was now watching me as Bella Hart, the Valentine's Bride.