A marriage built on lies. A love that defied blood. And a billionaire who gambled everything for a second chance. Alexander Blackwood’s empire hangs by a thread. With days until his 30th birthday, the ruthless CEO must marry to claim his inheritance or lose it all to the board’s cutthroat schemes. Enter Juliette “Jules” Carter: a sharp tongued artist with a reckless past and a price tag on her heart. Desperate to fund her sister’s life-saving surgery, she agrees to his cold, clinical contract: Six months. No intimacy. Three million dollars. But their carefully crafted facade shatters when Xander’s estranged half-brother, Damian, emerges from the shadows, hungry for vengeance. Armed with secrets from their father’s scandalous double life, Damian allies with Victor Drake to manipulate Juliette and get their revenge on Xander and he also allies with Jules’ vengeful ex, Travis, to expose the marriage as a fraud. As paparazzi swarm and blackmail threats escalate, Xander and Jules find themselves trapped in a gilded cage of their own making until a sizzling kiss blurs the lines of their contract, and sparks a desire neither can control.   Now, with Damian’s sabotage threatening to dismantle Xander’s empire with Victor Drake and Travis’s tabloid schemes endangering Jules’ sister, their fake marriage becomes a battlefield. Xander must choose: protect his legacy, or risk it all for the woman who taught him love isn’t a transaction. And Jules discovers the billionaire’s icy heart hides scars deeper than her own scars only she can heal.