Time is fast running out for Clara Bennett. At twenty-four, she is struggling to keep her family together. With mounting debts, an eviction notice and a sick father depending on her, she has nowhere left to turn. Then an unexpected offer arrives from Adrian Blackwood, one of New York's most powerful billionaires. Adrian needs a wife. Clara needs money. His proposal is simple: marry him for twelve months, play the perfect wife in public, and receive enough money to save her family. There will be no demands for love, no interference in his private life, and absolutely no falling in love. Desperate, Clara agrees. But living with the cold, arrogant billionaire proves more difficult than she imagined. Past the veneer of designer suits and fortifications stands a man tortured by an unspeakable family secret. And the more Clara learns about him, the more she begins to question why he chose her. A photograph. A hidden letter. A mother's forgotten past. Soon, Clara discovers that her connection to the Blackwood family may be far more dangerous than either of them expected. As the business relationship blossoms into an undeniable attraction, Adrian is faced with the decision on whether to protect his empire or gamble everything for the one he should never have fallen for. Clara entered the marriage to save her family. She never expected the greatest threat to her heart to be her own husband. And when the truth finally emerges, she may discover that their marriage was built on a secret capable of destroying them both.