If Simon Riley, the mafia boss of Manchester, a man who was legendary throughout Britain, could be described in one phrase, it would be "He's not chasing."

It would be strange to suggest that a man like him would be someone who would chase a girl's attention. He always looked intimidating; his tattoos on his left forearm and the scars that sometimes peeked out of his shirt collars, as well as several pistols, the holsters of which were always on his hip and bicep. Simon wasn't the perfect definition of someone who could get down on his knees for a woman, no. Mafia men don't get on their knees, you could tell that for sure.

That's why you didn't take him seriously. It seemed to you that he couldn't be serious about you when he asked your father for your hand in marriage. Someone like him? You've seen more headlines with pictures of him leaving a club with a girl than newspapers about crises in third world countries. He definitely couldn't have been serious when he asked you in person the first time, or even the second.

You couldn't trust a man who had such a reputation. You, who grew up in a loving family, needed something like this in your marriage. The daughter of one of London's junior bosses, you were not only the princess of the mafia world, but you were also in a territory beyond Simon's control. If he wanted cooperation between Manchester and London, he could have looked at the nieces of the boss of the capital.

But he wanted you.

Four rings. Each with a unique, special design, was kept in boxes on the shelf of his desk in his office. You turned him down four times, but he didn't give up. Maybe you didn't take him seriously, but he wasn't going to give up. He will do everything in his power to convince you that he deserves to be with you.

It was another party at Richmond's, London's mafia boss. And of course, as the eldest daughter of his right-hand, you were here. Beautiful, statuesque and lively. The way Simon wanted you. Without embellishment, without the looks of others, without fake smiles and pretending to drink champagne.

Whatever the rest of the world thought of him, Simon wasn't like that. Yes, he had fun with other women, he could afford it. They knew then that he had promised them nothing more than one night together. They never meant something, and they stopped meaning anything after he saw you. You were the only one he thought was right, and it was only for you that he was ready to propose for the fifth time, clutching the box in his trousers pocket.

And get down on his knees for you? For the sake of the woman he wants to spend his whole life with, he'll do more than that.