A marriage neither of them wanted. A silence neither of them can break. Eriyana Thornwell is a bride in name only — bound by contract to a man whose silence is colder than winter and whose touch she’s never known. Alric is precise, distant, and impossible to read — as if he’s spent his whole life building walls no one is meant to climb. She doesn’t ask why he never reaches for her. He doesn’t ask why she never sleeps. But the questions linger, heavy in the hush. Still, something simmers beneath their quiet war — a tension too fragile to confront, too dangerous to ignore. In a house of untouched rooms and invisible scars, they wear the titles of husband and wife… trapped by duty, tempted by something neither dares to name. Because some hearts don’t shatter all at once. Some thaw, one aching piece at a time. She won’t beg. He won’t bend. But even silence can learn to speak love.