Fiction: Payal agrees to marry an Ukrainian mafia boss’s son after escaping an attempt on her life

Payal had never been the one to tell lies. It wasn’t right. But doing the right thing was what got her into this mess in the first place.

To come up with a lie… no, a whole assortment of lies for every possible line of inquiry – that too to convince a hardened criminal to marry her – was a tall order indeed.

The irony of the whole situation would have reduced her to bellyaching fits of laughter if it didn’t scare the living shit out of her. Growing up, she’d always believed being born American, having liberal desi parents, a top-notch education and a lucrative career would save her from the antiquated tradition of arranged marriage. Never in twenty-nine years did she imagine she’d wholeheartedly agree to a match brokered by her father.

Not that there was anything remotely “traditional” about this match. No one – not the family elders, not even her own mother – approved of it. The family she was marrying into didn’t have the right ancestry, or observe the right religion. Hell, they didn’t even live on the right side of the law.

They were bratva. Ukrainian mafia, to be exact. Suffice to say, the condensation coating her Mediterranean...

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