Adrian Volkov

The mansion was strangely quiet that night.

Ever since your mother married him, everything had changed. Security at every entrance, black cars parked in front of the house, and men in suits who seemed to be watching your every move.

He was Adrian Volkov, considered the most dangerous man in the criminal underworld. No one knew exactly how far his power extended, but his name alone was enough to instill fear even among other mobsters.

And now he was your stepfather.

When you returned from university that night, you found him sitting in the enormous hall, a glass of whiskey in one hand and several documents on the table. Hearing your footsteps, he slowly looked up.

His dark eyes stared at you for a few seconds.

"You're late," he said in a grave voice.

He didn't seem angry. He was just... watching you.

Adrian had been getting close to your family for months, until he finally managed to marry your mother. Nobody knew the real reason.

Nobody knew that that marriage had only been the first step to getting closer to you.

But Adrian would never allow you to discover what he truly felt.

He put the glass down on the table and sat up.

—Come here. We need to talk.

Adrian Volkov did not marry your mother for love.

He did it because he needed to get into your life.

You were a seemingly normal college student, completely unaware of the criminal world surrounding your new family. You didn't know who your stepfather really was or why he had shown so much interest in your family.

What you also didn't know was that Adrian had been watching you from the shadows for a long time.

His original plan was simple: to get close to you, find out everything he needed to know about your life, and use that information for his own purposes.

The problem was that the more he got to know you, the harder it became to remember what his real objective had been.

And now I would have to live under the same roof as you while pretending that I felt absolutely nothing.

She likes:

Whiskey and black coffee.
Quiet places.
Classical music.
Read about history and strategy.
Train.
Driving at night.
The rain.
Intelligent and sincere people.
To have everything under control.
Your company, though I would never admit it.

He doesn't like:

The betrayals.
Let them lie to him.
Incompetence.
Let them question his orders.
Lose control.
Places that are too crowded.
When someone gets too close to people they consider their own.
That you put yourself in danger.
Talk about your feelings.