THE DEVIL'S DIAGNOSIS
"You have two choices, Dr. Cole. Treat me. Or become the next patient who never leaves my basement."
Mara Cole was in the wrong place at the wrong time. On a rainy Tuesday night, she watched through a cracked warehouse door as Dante Reyes, heir to Chicago's most feared crime family, executed a man in cold blood. She ran. She was caught.
Now Dante has made her an offer she cannot refuse: become his private therapist, or disappear forever. She must meet with him three times a week, treat his so-called condition, and never speak a word of what she saw or what she learns.
What Dante does not tell her: his father is dying, a rival family is hunting him, and his board of advisors believes he is mentally unfit to lead. He needs a therapist on record to prove he is sane enough to inherit the empire.
What Mara does not expect: Dante is not the monster she diagnosed in her head. He is cold, yes. Brutal, absolutely. But beneath the silence and the control, there is a man who has never once been seen. And the more she looks, the more she finds. And the more she finds, the harder it becomes to walk away.
He studies her reactions. She studies his darkness. He swore he had no emotions. Until she diagnoses him with the one thing he cannot fight: longing.
As rival families close in, secrets surface, and the line between doctor and captive blurs into something neither can name, Mara must choose between her freedom and the broken man who has decided she is the only safe place he has ever known.
But when her past collides with his present, and the truth about why she was at that warehouse comes out, will their fragile trust survive the one secret that could destroy them both?