The Don's Kept Woman

Cleo, an illegitimate daughter, gets handed to New York mafia don Damien Shaw when her father's business tanks. She resigns herself to three years as his kept woman. When she gets pregnant, her first move is a secret abortion, she's terrified her kid will carry the same bastard stigma she did. Just as her family pressures her to admit the baby has no father, Damien walks through the door: I'm the father. Turns out he's loved her since he was eight, under the orange tree, quietly protecting her mother, standing below her window for three years, never pushing. From "I don't deserve love" to "I do," Cleo climbs from debt collateral to Mrs. Shaw, earning the family's respect with grit and grace.