Unholy Vows by Mila Kane Summary, Characters and Themes
Unholy Vows by Mila Kane is a dark, emotionally charged mafia romance that explores themes of survival, power, coercion, and unlikely intimacy in the face of violence.
Set in Atlantic City’s criminal underbelly, the story follows Charlie Burke, a fiercely protective nursing student, whose life is upended when she’s pulled into the orbit of Renato De Sanctis, a ruthless mafia kingpin.
What begins as a desperate bargain to save her sister gradually morphs into a morally complex relationship defined by control, dependence, and an evolving sense of agency.
Summary
Charlie Burke, a diligent nursing student juggling school and work, is suddenly thrown into chaos when her younger sister Lucy disappears.
Tracking her to an abandoned warehouse, Charlie finds Lucy entangled with her shady boyfriend Miguel, who is caught stealing from the De Sanctis mafia family.
Hiding in the shadows, Charlie and Lucy witness his brutal execution by De Sanctis soldiers.
Although they escape unnoticed, security footage reveals their presence, catching the attention of mafia capo Renato De Sanctis.
Renato, a powerful figure in Atlantic City’s criminal world, is intrigued by Charlie’s courage and resolve.
Rather than eliminate them, he orders the sisters to be brought to his estate, Casa Nera.
When confronted, Charlie sacrifices herself for Lucy, begging for her sister’s safety.
Moved by her strength and composure, Renato offers a sinister deal: submit to his control or face death.
To prove her usefulness, Charlie treats an injured soldier with impressive medical skill, earning Renato’s cautious respect.
Despite her resistance, Charlie is slowly drawn into Renato’s dangerous world.
As cartel threats increase and police investigations loom, Charlie becomes both a pawn and a shield.
She juggles her normal life and criminal entanglements, growing ever more aware of her power—and vulnerability—under Renato’s watch.
Lucy, reckless and traumatized, frequently acts out, exacerbating their precarious situation.
When their apartment is invaded, Renato relocates the sisters to Casa Nera under the guise of protection.
The mansion, though luxurious, is a prison.
As tensions mount, Charlie’s emotions begin to blur.
Renato, both captor and protector, reveals fragments of his past, showing a man shaped by betrayal and trauma.
Charlie battles confusion and attraction, trying to reconcile her hatred with the unsettling pull she feels toward him.
A turning point arrives during a mafia gala where Renato dances with Charlie, asserting dominance in public.
He begins grooming her not just as a possession, but a potential partner.
A kiss shared between them intensifies the psychological turmoil Charlie experiences.
She begins to question whether her growing desire is emotional manipulation or something deeper.
Meanwhile, threats from the rival Castillo cartel escalate, and Casa Nera becomes a war zone.
When Lucy tries to run away, her capture causes friction.
Charlie demands Renato choose between controlling them or granting autonomy.
The relationship is tested further when Charlie discovers Giada, Renato’s close associate, has betrayed him by leaking information to the FBI.
A violent confrontation ensues, leaving Renato gravely wounded.
Charlie saves his life with a desperate, improvised surgery.
A cartel assault forces Charlie into an active role during the defense of Casa Nera.
She moves from victim to operator, issuing commands and aiding the wounded.
In the aftermath, Renato offers her a blood vow—a symbolic and permanent place in his criminal empire.
Though hesitant, Charlie considers it.
Lucy kills Giada in an act of redemption and urges Charlie to flee.
But Charlie no longer yearns for escape.
A staged wedding ceremony serves as a test of loyalty, but it’s clear Charlie is transforming.
Renato later offers her freedom one final time.
Standing at the gates, Charlie turns back.
She chooses to stay—not out of fear, but intent.
In the final chapters, Charlie fully embraces her new identity as Renato’s equal.
In the first epilogue, six months later, she is known as La Dama Nera—the Black Lady.
Her transformation is complete.
She rules beside Renato with calculated strength.
In the second epilogue, over a year later, Charlie has a child and surveys the empire she once feared.
Her love story is not one of rescue or redemption—but of ascension and power.
Characters
Charlie Burke
Charlie is the emotional and moral center of Unholy Vows, evolving from a wary, overburdened nursing student into a calculated and commanding mafia matriarch. At the novel’s beginning, she is driven by desperation to save her sister Lucy, leading her into the orbit of Renato De Sanctis.
Her first act of bravery—offering herself in exchange for Lucy’s life—sets the tone for her complex morality and enduring sense of responsibility. Charlie is characterized by her duality: fiercely protective yet emotionally restrained, intuitive yet often torn by internal conflict.
As she becomes enmeshed in the De Sanctis world, Charlie wrestles with feelings of guilt, trauma, and slowly awakening desire for Renato. What begins as Stockholm syndrome slowly fractures into genuine fascination and strategic partnership.
Over time, she transforms from a reluctant player to a calculating force within the mafia, eventually becoming Renato’s equal. By the time of the epilogues, Charlie has shed the remnants of her old life.
She emerges as “La Dama Nera,” a feared and respected queen figure who rules with both intelligence and ruthlessness. Her evolution is less a corruption and more a crystallization of traits she always possessed—loyalty, strength, and a refusal to be powerless.
Renato De Sanctis
Renato, the enigmatic mafia capo of Atlantic City, is both villain and romantic lead, captor and protector. From his first appearance, he exudes dominance, mystery, and emotional impenetrability.
His fascination with Charlie arises not from weakness but from recognition: her strength, courage, and unyielding sense of duty mirror his own survival instincts. Renato is a man forged by betrayal, particularly by his family, and this legacy of pain bleeds into every action he takes.
Though brutal and often terrifying, he has moments of vulnerability that reveal the emotional damage beneath the power. His relationship with Charlie is possessive and intense, built on manipulation at first, but eventually layered with respect, love, and mutual dependence.
He challenges Charlie, admires her resistance, and ultimately offers her not just protection but partnership. His evolution is less dramatic than Charlie’s but equally significant.
Renato learns to trust, share control, and even love—though in his own blood-stained way. By the end of the novel, Renato is still a ruthless leader, but one softened by devotion and pride in the woman at his side and the child they raise together.
Lucy Burke
Lucy is both catalyst and counterpoint to Charlie’s journey. Impulsive, naïve, and often selfish, Lucy’s actions frequently endanger them both—from her relationship with cartel-affiliated Miguel to her reckless behavior while under house arrest at Casa Nera.
Lucy’s immaturity and defiance strain her bond with Charlie, who has always played the parental role in their fractured family dynamic. However, Lucy is not a one-dimensional troublemaker.
Her decisions are often rooted in fear, loneliness, and a deep-seated resentment of the burdens she’s placed on her sister. She wants freedom but doesn’t understand the cost.
Her character matures in fits and starts, culminating in her decision to kill Giada and protect Charlie. Though Lucy eventually leaves the criminal world behind, her departure is not framed as abandonment, but as a necessary divergence.
Charlie becomes the ruler of a world Lucy could never survive in. Lucy, meanwhile, finally claims agency over her life—not through rebellion, but through departure.
Giada
Giada, the tech-savvy consigliere and longtime associate of Renato, functions as both foil and threat to Charlie. Initially presented as an icy, competent professional, Giada is later revealed to be harboring dangerous secrets.
Her jealousy of Charlie’s influence over Renato is subtle at first but becomes more overt as the story progresses. Her betrayal—feeding information to the FBI and indirectly working with the cartel—cements her as a traitor within the De Sanctis family.
Yet even Giada’s treachery is layered. Her motivations appear rooted in a cocktail of ambition, resentment, and perhaps disillusionment with a system that never rewarded her loyalty.
She sees Charlie as an interloper, someone who earned in months what she never received in years. Her violent clash with Charlie marks a turning point for both women.
Giada’s ultimate failure underscores the theme of survival of the most adaptable. She exits the story not as a tragic figure, but as a cautionary one.
Supporting Characters
The De Sanctis Men, Police, Cartel Members
While the narrative primarily revolves around the core foursome, supporting characters play crucial thematic and functional roles. Renato’s guards and lieutenants, like the soldier Charlie stitches in the early chapters, embody the brutal but strangely loyal world she’s forced into.
They slowly begin to respect her, signaling her growing power. The detectives act as a lingering reminder of the real world and its rule of law—one that Charlie is drifting further away from.
The Castillo cartel, shadowy and violent, serves as a persistent external threat that justifies many of Renato’s decisions and provides a crucible for Charlie’s transformation. Each of these groups acts as narrative scaffolding.
They pressurize the protagonists to reveal who they truly are under duress. While not deeply fleshed out individually, they function as powerful reflections of the world Charlie is choosing to inhabit and eventually rule.
Themes
Power and Submission
Inside the story, lies a continuous examination of power—how it is seized, how it is used, and how it corrupts. From the moment Charlie steps into Renato De Sanctis’s world, she is subjected to a power structure that is unrelenting, violent, and absolute.
Her initial experience is defined by coercion and vulnerability. She bargains for Lucy’s life by offering herself, a moment that encapsulates the imbalance of power between them.
Renato holds life and death in his hands, and Charlie quickly realizes that her survival hinges on adapting to a system where power is the only currency that matters. What begins as submission out of necessity slowly evolves.
Renato initially views her as a pawn, but Charlie gradually becomes more than a passive player. She uses her intelligence, compassion, and strategic awareness to earn influence within Casa Nera.
By the end of the novel, her submission is no longer one of fear but of conscious choice—a power play of her own. The final blood vow and her position as “la Dama Nera” signal that Charlie is no longer beneath Renato, but beside him.
The power dynamic becomes symbiotic rather than hierarchical. This transformation underscores the unsettling message that in a world ruled by brutality, survival often means embracing the very forces that once oppressed you.
Transformation of Identity
Charlie’s journey is a dramatic and unsettling metamorphosis from an ordinary nursing student to the queen of a criminal empire. Her arc illustrates how extreme circumstances—particularly those involving violence, captivity, and love—can shatter and then reconstruct a person’s sense of self.
At the start, Charlie is grounded in a morally upright identity. She is driven by loyalty, responsibility, and the desperate need to protect her sister.
Her role is that of a caretaker, someone who avoids confrontation and clings to structure. However, the structure around her collapses the moment she is kidnapped.
Forced into a lawless environment, she begins to make decisions that challenge her own values. She lies to the police, withholds information, and even protects a man responsible for murder.
These moments of compromise chip away at the identity she once held. As her relationship with Renato deepens, her internal conflict intensifies.
Is she truly falling for him, or simply adapting to survive? Her eventual choice to stay, to accept the blood vow, and to orchestrate mafia operations marks a psychological rebirth.
Charlie doesn’t just change—she becomes someone entirely new. By the epilogues, she no longer identifies with her past life.
She has embraced a persona that is powerful, calculated, and feared. The presence of her child adds a chilling layer to her evolution.
She is not just surviving for herself anymore, but preparing the next generation for the world she chose. Her transformation is both awe-inspiring and tragic, reflecting the idea that identity is not fixed but forged by environment and consequence.
Love as a Tool and a Weapon
The relationship between Charlie and Renato blurs the boundaries between affection, manipulation, and mutual dependency. Love in Unholy Vows is not portrayed as a pure, romantic force—it is weaponized, strategic, and frequently coercive.
Renato’s interest in Charlie begins as a curiosity, rooted in control. He is drawn to her courage and stubborn morality, not because they are virtues, but because they are obstacles to his authority.
Every gesture of kindness from Renato is laced with menace. When he spares Lucy, when he gives Charlie a gun, when he kisses her in the library—each act tests her boundaries and asserts his dominance.
However, as time passes, the emotional entanglement grows more genuine. Renato begins to rely on Charlie for emotional grounding, while Charlie feels a strange sense of safety in his brutal honesty.
This evolution complicates the idea of love. It becomes a battlefield of control, a means through which each character negotiates their fears and needs.
By the time they sleep together and perform the blood vow, love is no longer separate from the violence that surrounds it—it is born of it. Renato never pretends to be someone he is not.
Charlie never fully loses her awareness of the danger he represents. Yet their love persists, not in spite of the darkness but because of it.
This theme forces readers to question traditional notions of love. Can love survive in a world of coercion? Or does it become something entirely different—something that feeds on power, submission, and shared secrets?
Sisterhood and Sacrifice
The emotional core of Unholy Vows is the bond between Charlie and Lucy—a bond that is tested, broken, and reshaped throughout the narrative. Their sisterhood begins with a traditional dynamic: Charlie as the caretaker, Lucy as the reckless younger sibling.
Charlie’s willingness to sacrifice herself for Lucy establishes the primary emotional stakes. Everything she does, from deceiving the police to submitting to Renato, is initially for Lucy’s survival.
However, this self-sacrifice leads to resentment. Lucy’s impulsive behavior repeatedly endangers them both, and Charlie becomes increasingly bitter about bearing the burden alone.
Their arguments reveal deep wounds—abandonment, guilt, and codependence. As Charlie adapts to the mafia world, Lucy struggles to keep up.
Their paths diverge dramatically. Lucy becomes more unstable, while Charlie grows colder and more calculating.
When Lucy attempts to escape and later kills Giada, the power dynamic shifts once more. Lucy reclaims some agency, but it is clear she no longer understands the sister she once idolized.
By the time Charlie ascends to power, Lucy is a relic of a former life—someone to protect, but no longer someone to rely on. Charlie ensures Lucy’s safety by sending her abroad, a gesture of love wrapped in exile.
This act is both merciful and final. The theme of sisterhood in Unholy Vows is not romanticized.
It is presented as raw, painful, and evolving—sometimes a source of strength, sometimes a wound that never heals. Sacrifice does not guarantee closeness. Sometimes, it leads to separation.
Survival in a Corrupt World
Perhaps the most unrelenting theme in Unholy Vows is the necessity of survival in a world where law, morality, and justice are illusions. Charlie’s journey is framed by choices that are not between right and wrong, but between different forms of destruction.
Every path she might have taken—running to the police, cooperating with the FBI, trusting Renato blindly—carries enormous risks. The only constant is the need to survive.
Early in the story, Charlie’s survival instincts are reactive. She hides evidence, lies to authorities, and deflects suspicion.
But as she spends more time in the De Sanctis world, her survival becomes proactive. She begins to gather information, form alliances, and study the system she is trapped in.
She transforms from a pawn to a strategist. This evolution is mirrored in her physical actions—treating a gunshot wound, calming soldiers during a cartel attack, and finally accepting a blood vow.
The theme emphasizes that in corrupt environments, morality is a luxury. To survive, one must be willing to abandon ideals and embrace hard choices.
Renato, too, is a product of this world. His brutality is not personal—it is structural.
The same world that forced him into violence now reshapes Charlie. The epilogues drive this theme home.
Charlie survives not just as a partner, but as a ruler. Her child sleeps in a fortress built on blood, and she feels no remorse.
In the end, survival means adaptation. And adaptation means embracing the very system that once threatened to destroy her.