Bygone is a historical dark romance novella of 19,700 words, set in the sun-scorched hills of postwar Sicily, where lemon groves perfume the air and ancient stone towns guard secrets darker than any shadow. This intense marriage of convenience story immerses readers in a world of omertà—the code of silence—where beautiful terraced vineyards and vibrant tile workshops mask the brutal reality of mafia violence.

*

Rosalia believed her father when he said the meeting was about business. Instead, she finds herself seated across from Salvo—the dark-eyed mafia heir who controls the province through fear and contracts—while a single bullet rests in an open drawer beside him. Her father's debts have made her vulnerable, and Salvo's proposal is simple: marriage to him, or Don Giovanni's version of protection. She accepts the marriage, because time was never hers to take.

Within weeks of the church ceremony, Rosalia witnesses the violence that underpins her new husband's world—a man's wrist broken in the lemon grove, threats delivered in a voice gone soft. She defies him anyway, refusing to be paraded like a prize. Instead of punishment, she wakes to find an embroidered handkerchief on her dressing table, unused, confusing her with its tenderness.

He watches her from the terraces. She watches him back. In a tile workshop behind the piazza, his hand brushes hers over bowls of cobalt pigment, and the electricity between them ignites something neither expected. But when Don Giovanni makes a predatory comment at the town fountain, Salvo's lethal response makes Rosalia the enemy’s target. Chili peppers torn from her door scatter like blood. Men follow her in the streets.

Then they come for her.

Salvo finds her in an abandoned farmhouse, hiding from his enemies. In the adrenaline-charged aftermath of violence and rescue, months of tension explode into passion on the packed earth floor.

But searching for stamps in his office, Rosalia discovers letters hidden behind a loose board—correspondence between Salvo and her father, dated months before her wedding. Terms. The price of her hand. Don Giovanni's offer arrived first. Salvo's came hours later, slightly better. She was auctioned.

But will the truth behind those letters destroy everything they've built? And if it does, will there be anywhere left for her to run?

*

If you love marriage of convenience with a hero who kills without hesitation but falls apart at her touch, this novella is for you. Rosalia enters Salvo's world as a transaction but she refuses to remain one. Their story moves through defiance, obsession, betrayal, and a final choice that will leave you turning the last page twice. For readers who crave intense emotional stakes, possessive heroes who kill to protect, and heroines who discover their own fire in the most unlikely places, Bygone delivers a complete, devastating, and ultimately redemptive love story. With over 19,700 words of Sicilian heat and hidden truths, this is the one dark romance you cannot miss.

Read Online:

• Free Sample

• Bygone