Zaharina

She was supposed to become a mafia king's wife. Instead, she became an assassin's greatest weakness. Serena Vale has spent her life under the control of powerful men. When she's forced to marry Adrian Cross — the ruthless CEO of Cross Holdings, and the secret head of a criminal empire — she decides she'd rather disappear than become his wife. So the night before her wedding, Serena runs. Barefoot, injured, and desperate, she throws herself in front of a stranger's black car and begs him to save her. He does. What she doesn't know is that the man behind the wheel is Damian Cross — Adrian's half-brother, and the Cross family's most feared assassin. The Ghost. Damian should hand her straight back to the man searching for her. Instead, he hides her. Protects her. Starts breaking rules he built his entire life around. But the deeper Serena gets pulled into the Cross family, the more dangerous the truth becomes. Someone inside the organization is playing a longer game than anyone realizes. Adrian needs her alive. And her late father left behind a secret powerful enough to bring the whole empire down — the first clue hanging, unnoticed, from a silver locket she's worn for years. As Damian and Serena chase her father's trail, their pull toward each other becomes impossible to deny. The assassin who was never supposed to care starts risking everything for the woman he was ordered to return. Then Serena learns the truth Damian has been hiding. He was there the night her father died. Now the man she trusted most may be tied to the greatest betrayal of her life — and the family she's learning to survive may not be done taking from her yet. Damian was trained to kill without hesitation. Serena was never supposed to make him want to live. But when the Cross family comes for her, Damian will have to choose between the blood that raised him... and the woman who taught him how to choose for himself.

He loved another woman. She agreed to marry him anyway. When the Patel Group is driven to the edge of bankruptcy after a trusted board member embezzles millions, CEO Josephine Patel is left with only one choice to save her family's legacy—an arranged engagement to billionaire heir Leonardo Mateo Moreno. For Leonardo, the engagement is nothing more than another prison built by his father. A His heart already belongs to another woman, and he has no intention of giving Josephine anything beyond his name. But his father makes him an offer he can't refuse: if Leonardo wants to inherit Moreno Construction, he must live with Josephine for six months and prove the engagement is more than a business arrangement. Six months. One house. One contract. And two hearts determined never to fall in love. Josephine knows better than to hope for a man whose eyes are always searching for someone else. So she buries every smile, every stolen glance, and every heartbeat he awakens inside her within the pages of her private Heartbeat Journal—a place where loving him is the only secret she's allowed to keep. But the woman Leonardo believed he wanted slowly fades against the woman standing beside him every single day. The fiancée he never chose becomes the one person who fights for his family, stands beside him through every storm, and makes him question everything he thought he knew about love. When the six months slowly comes to an end, Leonardo is finally ready to choose. The only problem... Josephine has already decided she'll never be anyone's second choice. Will the words hidden inside her Heartbeat Journal finally reveal the love she tried so hard to bury... or will some heartbeats remain unheard forever? A captivating billionaire romance featuring an arranged engagement, forced proximity, slow-burn romance, family drama, jealousy, emotional tension, and a heroine who refuses to settle for being second. Sneak peek "What do you think you're doing?" Josephine asked cautiously, glancing at Leonardo, who stood close to her with one hand resting on her waist. She was puzzled because the Leonardo she knew never got this close to her in public. On the other hand, Leonardo acted like he didn't hear her question at all. The man she was talking to looked back and forth between them, clearly confused. Leonardo smirked and said to him, "What’s with that confused look? Can't I be this close to my fiancée?" The man was taken aback, and so was Josephine. She had no idea why he was telling him they were engaged especially since he hated anyone finding out about their arranged marriage. "I...I thought she was single," the man stammered. "No, she isn't. Do you need proof?" Before the man could respond, Leonardo turned Josephine's face toward him and kissed her right there in front of everyone.