“I regret ever loving you.”Vanessa meant every word.Two years ago, Mark walked out of her life without explanation, apology, or remorse, leaving behind a shattered heart and a ruined future. She rebuilt herself from the ground up, pouring her pain into her restaurant and turning survival into strength.Then he came back.Unapologetically. Unashamed. And determined to reclaim the woman he abandoned.Vanessa knows better than to trust him again. Loving Mark once nearly destroyed her, and this time she refuses to be weak. But unresolved desire is dangerous, and the feelings she buried refuse to stay dead.As their past reignites, Vanessa begins to realize that Mark’s return isn’t fueled by love alone. Secrets shadow his every move, and the truth behind his disappearance threatens everything she has rebuilt.Torn between the man she once loved and the woman she fought to become, Vanessa must decide whether to risk her heart again or walk away before history repeats itself.Because this time, losing Mark may hurt…but trusting him could destroy her.

One night was all it took to shatter Elara Moore’s carefully planned future.Fresh out of college, hopeful and naïve, she gives herself in a one night stand to a stranger who is unexpectedly gentle and caring. He left that morning leaving nothing behind but silence and $10,000 she never asked for. This stranger is Adrian Blackwood, a billionaire CEO born into a ruthless dynasty, power is his inheritance and control is his language. Elara tells herself it was just a mistake, one night she can bury and forget easily.Until weeks later, when she discovers she’s pregnant.When Elara confronts him, he refuses to accept, he shuts her out, reminding her she has already been paid. Worse, he soon realizes she works in a subsidiary of his own empire, and without hesitation, he erases her from his world once again, by terminating her appointment.But fate is not finished with them.When the Blackwood dynasty demands a successor, Adrian finds himself trapped by an ancient condition: the heir must have a wife and a legitimate child. With enemies circling and his throne at risk, Adrian makes a choice as cold as it is calculated, he binds Elara to him in a contract marriage. No love. No affection. No expectations beyond duty.Through a loveless marriage and a lonely pregnancy, Elara endures a man who offers her protection but not his heart, Adrian remains distant and controlled. Yet when their son is born, something in Adrian begins to fracture. Small gestures replace indifference. Silence softens. The walls around him begin to crack.Just as hope starts to bloom, everything shatters.A DNA test claims the child is not his.Betrayed and broken, Adrian turns his rage on Elara, unaware that the truth has been manipulated by a rival lurking within his own bloodline, one willing to destroy them all to claim the throne. As assassination plots emerge and danger closes in, Adrian uncovers the truth too late: the child is his. The family he almost destroyed is the one thing worth fighting for.Torn between power and love, Adrian must fight for his throne while protecting the woman and child who changed him forever.