Ava Marcellus was never meant for glass towers and binding contracts. Her family was poor — basic workers just scraping by. Her mother was a matron at the community hospital until pneumonia took her strength. Her father was a construction worker who turned gambler and drunkard, drowning his sorrows until he vanished without a trace.Ava was close to graduation when it all fell apart, but she walked away from school to hold her family together. Her little brother was in seventh grade — lucky for them, he was smart enough to earn a scholarship. That meant Ava only had to cover the rest: food, her mother’s medicine, her brother’s daily needs. So she took up work in a cafe. Every shift, every tip, went to keeping them afloat. But it was never enough. She was running short, running low.Years later, her father returns. Not with apologies, but with debts — massive debts owed to Alexander Veyron, a man whose name alone commands fear. He begs Ava for help.Two days later, a letter arrives from Alexander’s company. His office. Fifty floors up.The terms are simple: sign the contract and become his wife. In exchange, he’ll erase every debt Marcus Marcellus incurred, and cover her mother’s treatment.What Ava doesn’t know is why. Alexander needs a wife and an heir to unlock the rest of his grandfather’s inheritance — billions locked away until he marries and produces a successor.She’s poor, desperate, and uninformed. He’s cold, calculated, and out of time.One signature binds them. But in a marriage built on debt and secrets, the price of the truth might be higher than either of them can afford.