Absence doesn’t make the heart grow fonder. It only fills it with resentment and regret. Nineteen years ago, I lost the love of my life for four dangerous reasons. Power. Control. Money. Love. These forces don’t just break hearts; they shatter lives, and mine was no exception. Left irreparably scarred, I vowed never to be vulnerable again. I fortified my defective heart against heartbreak while channeling my energy into amassing an abundance of power, mastering control, and accumulating wealth. Love? It’s a treacherous illusion, a game for fools; something I’ve become far too cynical to truly let it in. That, and time doesn’t heal all wounds. Far from it. What I am is defective and proud. Having embraced my flaws, I wear my scars and cynicism defiantly, determined to live my life on my own terms — the best revenge to strive for. Until an unconventional proposition slithers into my world, a dangerous and ill-timed offer in a treacherous game, but one impossible to ignore. Turning it down was the most gut-wrenching decision I ever had to make, but I did so anyway — for her. For the woman my defective heart still beats for. And the tsunami that shreds everything in its path, including the fragile threads holding my barely stitched-together heart. DISCLAIMER: Promise Me Forever is a dark contemporary romance novella with dark themes. It is a second chance, interracial, forbidden love, MMF, ménage / why choose, romantic suspense, dark mafia billionaire romance. It contains no cheating and a guaranteed HFN. It features a transgender main character. Note: This is a 32,000-word prequel to In Plain Sight, Book 4 in the Sin and Sinuosity series. It ends in a cliffhanger, and the story concludes in In Plain Sight. For an optimal reading experience, reading the first three books in the series (Taste Of Hell, Touch Of Heaven, and Six Feet Under) is suggested but not required.