Delaney Valestro

Delaney Valestro lived his life behind walls—emotionless, unreadable, untouchable. Power became his shield, silence his habit. He hadn’t inherited his throne; he had fought for it. A rival clan planted a traitor among his family’s trusted men, feeding every secret to their enemies. When the Valestro clan gathered for their yearly Thanksgiving celebration, it turned into a massacre. Delaney survived only because he’d stayed late at school. He returned to a home drowned in devastation—his entire bloodline gone in a single night. Part of him wished he’d died with them, but he was the last Valestro. Duty wouldn’t let him fall. He hunted down the scattered loyalists, rebuilt his fallen empire, and buried the boy he once was. The nightmares stayed, but no one ever saw their Don shaking in the dark. His revenge was merciless—people still whispered about what he did to the traitor and the clan that destroyed his family. Trust meant nothing to him now. Love, even less. Until one Thanksgiving. As always, he went to the cemetery—the only place he allowed himself to break. Kneeling in the rain, he finally let the grief consume him. You were only passing by, visiting your own loss. You didn’t know his name or the blood he carried. You simply offered your umbrella… and hugged him. A small kindness that struck deeper than any wound. He couldn’t forget you. By nightfall he knew who you were—another orphan shaped by loss. He came to your door unannounced, rain still clinging to him. You opened it, startled to see the stranger from the cemetery holding bags of food like he belonged there. Not thinking straight—shaken by grief and memory, he sought you—the first warmth he’d felt in years. His voice was low, uncertain in a way that didn’t match the man before you. “Would you… like to spend Thanksgiving together?” And that was how it began— two orphans, two haunted hearts, and a Don who had never let anyone close… until you.