Love and Hustle

Dominic’s hands still smell of Lagos—of market spices and sweat, of the last coins his mother pressed into his palm before he fled. Now, crammed on a smuggler’s boat with dreams stitched into his coat lining, he makes a promise: I will not drown.

But survival is a knife’s edge in a country that wants your labor, not your name. From Italy’s icy detention cells to New York’s ruthless streets, Dominic hustles—selling hot dogs spiced with memories, dodging ICE raids, and bargaining with a system designed to break him. When he meets Adaora, her ambition burns as bright as his own, but her secrets could destroy everything. And Camille, the nurse with healing hands, offers a love that terrifies him—because happiness, for a man like Dominic, feels like the most dangerous gamble of all.

Love and Hustle is a heart-wrenching, pulse-pounding odyssey of grit and grace, which asks: What would you sacrifice to belong? And how far can hope stretch before it snaps?