Chapter 1 Mia

Mia POV

"You should marry a foreigner who needs a green card. I can help you with that."

"What?"

"You heard me."

My mom had been in the hospital for years. It had been pure luck that the hospital found a kidney donor match recently, but we were in so much debt that getting another loan was almost impossible. I knew my best friend, Katie, was worried about us, but marrying someone who needed a green card for profit? Was she insane?

"Katie, that's-"

"What are your options?" Katie asked, leaning on the counter "The grant?"

"She's not eligible," I choked out.

"And... even if you started work tomorrow and took every shift available?" I grimaced at the thought. I didn't want to admit it, but I didn't have to. "You'd end up dead from stress in a month, and it still wouldn't be enough."

I nodded pitifully. I bit my lip. "I'm still waiting to hear back about the loan."

She lifted a shoulder. My phone buzzed, and hope filled me. I reached for it, and she placed her hand on mine.

"Before you look at... whatever that is. How are you going to pay back this loan? And all the others?"

I pulled the phone toward me. "I'll figure it out."

She rolled her eyes. "Mila, get real--"

"I am--"

"You'll be filing bankruptcy in a week, homeless soon after, and your mom will still need recovery."

"There are other ways---more legal ways, and as I said, I'll figure it out."

Katie scoffed. "At the rate you're going, you're going to end up in a bed right beside her."

I shuddered at the thought. "I... It won't come to that."

"Know any wealthy men? Got a rich uncle you can whack and get an inheritance from?"

I pulled my hand free. "You'll see. My application was stronger than a lot of people who get approved all the time."

Katie gave me a pitying look. I opened the email, and my blood ran cold.

Your loan application has been rejected.

I set my phone down, blinking back tears of frustration. I didn't even read the rest of the message. I knew what it would say. Then, I got another message from my landlord saying that my rent was going to go up when I renewed.

Mom wasn't going to make it without a new kidney. We were already drowning in debt between my student loans and all of Mom's medical bills. The time to say yes to the donor was running out.

I looked back at Katie, unsure of what to say.

"It's not the greatest path to being debt-free, but it's a path. Probably a lot faster than any other path you have."

I hesitated. Marrying someone to get them a green card was illegal. I could hear my mom telling me not to even think about it.

Crime is a slippery slope, my mom told me countless times growing up, but so was financial ruin and renal failure.

Crime was inevitable, especially in a mafia city, but her death and the suffering we'd already been enduring didn't have to be, and it didn't have to get worse either.

I was sure I would probably go to jail if I got caught, but if I didn't get caught, Mom would be okay.

I bit my lip. "Send me the information as soon as you can."

Katie whipped out her phone, dialed, and waited.

"Babe," Katie said, her voice turning flirty. "You know that favor you owe me... No, not that favor. The other one. Mm-hm. I need to cash it in... for Mia. As quick as you can."

Wait… Katie was clearly calling her new boyfriend, Ivan. She had been secretive about him.

"Thanks, babe!" She hung up and smiled at me.

“Was that Ivan? What does he do? This feels a little too convenient..."

“I was about to tell you… but you can't get mad about it."

"... and what's that?"

“Ivan is the underboss of a bratva."

"What?!"

Albert POV

"Your father is in your office, boss."

I stopped, glancing at the underling beside the door. He gave me a thin smile.

"Anyone else?"

"The underboss."

Ivan and my father in my office together? I pushed the door open to my office and scanned the room. Ivan was standing off to the side with a look on his face that said Dimitri, my father, was going to piss me off today, probably more than usual.

I didn't even glance in my father's direction. It would just play into his hand. I walked across the room and took a seat at my desk, not bothering to acknowledge him. If he was going to play power games, he was going to have to learn to lose.

I smirked at the thought. It would be good practice for the future.

"I had expected you to give in by now."

"I didn't realize that was the kind of successor you were aiming for."

Ivan's lips twitched into a little smile. Dimitri stood, finishing his drink and turning to me. He pulled a handful of photos from his jacket pocket and dropped them on the table in front of me.

"Here are your options," Dimitri said, his eyes cold. "If you'd like to continue this way, that's fine, but do not blame me for choosing the one that suits my tastes best."

I laced my fingers together, not even bothering to glance at the photos. It had been years of him trying to get me to marry the air-headed daughter of one of his old allies or subordinates. Years of him slowly trying to pin me down to this life he'd forced upon me. I'd resisted at every turn, but for some reason, my marriage was the hill he wanted to die on.

I'd like to crucify him myself, but the problem was that Dimitri, while no longer the boss, had enough friends in the right places that my name would end up on a marriage certificate with or without my signature, and I didn't have the time to fight for a divorce. Underground politics would only throw a wrench in my plans, and I was so close to having everything go the way I wanted.

Too close to let him ruin it now. Too close to let my anger take over either.

Dimitri turned to the door. "The wedding will be held within a week. This is a decision, not a negotiation."

He left then, leaving his used glass on the edge of my desk. Ivan's phone rang as I tried to tell myself why it was a bad idea to off my father, at least for right now.

How interesting that he'd chosen a week as a deadline. For a moment, I wondered if he'd been tipped off somehow of what I planned. It just meant I needed to move faster.

"Marriage, hm?" Ivan said.

I looked up. I knew Ivan was dating, but were they already planning to get married?

"Got it. Alright." He hung up with a sigh.

"When's the date?"

He flushed. "Not ours. She's... calling in a favor for a friend. A green card exchange."

"So?"

He winced. "Her friend's not really made for the type of guys on my usual list, so it's going to take some time."

I blinked. Like lightning, it hit me: even Dimitri's friends in legal places couldn't override an already-existing marriage certificate.

"Is she affiliated?"

He frowned. "Not that I know of. Sick mom. Drowning in debt. She just graduated nursing school."

On the right side of the law, a nurse, probably not interested in putting up too much of a fight: she was perfect.

"Arrange it."

"You have someone?"

"Me, but let her think I just need a green card."