Episode 3

"Men like me aren't born. They're molded in hell."

"Edward Salvatore"

It was a silent night. The moonless sky, the air heavy with storm, and Edward Salvatore's office plunged into darkness. He was sitting, alone, with his shirt sleeves rolled up and a file open on the glass table.

Inside it, there were photos. Records. Reports.

Information about a nineteen-year-old girl.

Name: Julia Ferraz.

Status: under observation.

Profile: perfect.

But to understand why Edward was there, planning to forge a marriage with a stranger, it was necessary to go back a little further in time — to the rubble of the man he used to be.

Three years before

Edward Salvatore was feared. No one dared to pronounce his name aloud within the criminal underworld. Leader of one of the most powerful families in the international mafia, he commanded illegal business between Europe and South America with an iron fist, absolute coldness, and a reputation for silent cruelty.

But even monsters fall in love.

And it was this weakness that almost killed him.

His mistake had a name and perfume: Chiara, a dazzling, sophisticated woman, sweet on the outside — rotten on the inside. She entered his life like a poison disguised as a cure. She infiltrated his world, his room, his heart. And when she had access to everything... she sold information to the enemies.

Edward narrowly escaped an ambush that would have left him dead and dismembered in an abandoned warehouse. The woman fled with millions in jewels and confidential data.

Since then, he made a vow:

"I will never again trust something too beautiful to be real."

He hardened. He killed without hesitation. He cleaned up the empire.

And he started solving everything with logic, numbers, control.

Present.

When his lawyers presented the need to stabilize his image to close a deal with Arab investors — who demanded morals, marriage, and a "structured" family — he didn't hesitate.

He needed a wife. But not just any wife.

"Choose someone without ties, without ambitions, without access to our world" he ordered Marco, his right-hand man. "I want someone I can control. Someone who needs me. Not someone who desires me."

Days later, Marco delivered the name.

Julia Ferraz.

"Lives in a forgotten favela. Works in a neighborhood grocery store. Raised by her grandfather. Her mother died young, her father disappeared. She has a history of rebellion, but she's clean. Never been arrested, never involved with drugs."

"And why would she accept?" Edward asked, without looking up.

"Because old Ernesto Ferraz is dying. And she would give her life to save him."

Edward closed his eyes for a moment.

The decision was quick. Cynical. Cold.

He had already been deceived by love. Now, he would use pain to buy silence.

Julia would be his wife by contract.

Nothing more.

Nothing less.

What he didn't expect — yet — was that this rebellious girl, with fire in her eyes and invisible scars, would be the only one capable of burning him from the inside out.

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