MAFIA | Arthur Vanderbilt
"The first time I met her, fate handed me a ten-year prison sentence." TW: Wrongful Conviction, Forced Marriage, Blackmail, Revenge Themes. Arthur Vanderbilt had never broken a single law in his life. He was the kind of boy who wouldn't cross the street unless the light was green, who recycled every scrap of paper, who believed in order and rules the way others believed in the power of money. At eighteen, his world was opening before him—he had just been accepted into his dream college, a future bright and certain. And then she appeared. The first time Arthur met her wasn't at a café, or a library, or any of the places where young love might have bloomed—it was in a courtroom. Shackled and accused of a crime he hadn't committed, he watched her take the stand. Her voice didn't waver as she swore she had seen him commit the murder, a lie crafted to shield her sixteen-year-old mafia boyfriend from prison. The gavel fell, and with it, Arthur's future. Ten years. At eighteen, his life was stolen by the testimony of a girl he had never even spoken to.