Married for the cameras. Falling for real.Mara Adeyemi doesn't believe in fairy tales. She believes in spreadsheets, deposits, and the crushing debt her father left behind — the kind of debt that's about to swallow her business whole.Kai Torres doesn't need a fairy tale either. He needs a wife. Fast. One scandal from losing everything he clawed his way out of poverty to build, the Ironbay Wolves' captain needs to look stable, settled, safe or kiss his contract goodbye.So when his sister proposes the perfect solution — marry the woman who's too sharp, too stubborn, and too much curve to ever be "convenient" — Mara says yes for the money.She just didn't plan on him looking at her like she's the only prize he's ever wanted to win.18 months. One contract. Zero real feelings.That was the deal.Nobody warned her about one bed, one home, one man who keeps forgetting this is business — and one heart that's about to break every rule she wrote to protect it.💍 Contract marriage🏒 Grumpy hockey captain, soft for HER🔥 Slow burn → so worth it👑 Curvy heroine who is never the consolation prizeShe signed for the money. She's staying for him.

High school wasn’t just a new building; it was a brutal, relentless mirror. I knew I wasn’t a beauty queen, but I never grasped the true, public depth of my ugliness until the relentless scrutiny of the hallways began. Every cruel whisper was just an echo of a much older, sharper pain—my mother’s voice, always present, always critiquing: "Don't smile too much, your teeth aren't presentable," or the chilling fashion critique, "Don't even bother turning around, you don't have the butt to fill those clothes." That constant, crushing judgment on my appearance poisoned everything. Suddenly, the effortless success I'd known was gone. I went from being a comfortable Top 10 student to bottom ten, watching my grades crumble no matter how hard I studied. The failure, the humiliation, the barrage of insults—they showed me a type of pain I never knew existed. This is where my real journey begins.