The Contract Kiss

She sold herself to the most dangerous man in the city—to save her father. Ava, 22, grew up in an orphanage and was adopted by Henry, a secondhand bookseller. She worked three jobs to scrape together the $1 million surgery fee for her dying father. Desperate, she applied for a hotel cleaning job—but was drugged and sent to the penthouse suite as a “gift” for the mafia king. The drug hit her hard. With her last shred of clarity, she slapped him. No one had ever dared hit Dante. He said, “Interesting. Take it off.” She thought that night was over—until she witnessed him executing a traitor in an alley during a delivery run. Three guns pressed to her forehead. Then the hospital gave her an ultimatum. Dante’s man showed up and paid the bill. The price: one year. Her body and soul belonged to him. Then he dug into her past. The old watch on her wrist engraved “HENRY.” Orphanage records. A fire report from ten years ago. He confirmed it: she was the girl who dragged him out of that burning factory. Ten years. He had been searching for her. Thirty episodes. From coercion to care, from captivity to proposal. He taught her how to shoot. She charged into gunfire with a fire extinguisher to save him during a raid. She uncovered a traitor, saved herself with Morse code, and fought alongside him to destroy the Blackwell family—the ones who murdered her parents. She took a bullet for him. He stayed outside the ICU for three days, unshaven, eyes bloodshot. In her hospital room, with no ring, he knelt.