This isn’t a date. It is a setup—one with a ring, a contract, and blackmail dressed in a three-piece suit. He says it’s a marriage of convenience. She knows it’s a sentence. Emilia Fawkes has sworn off the corporate world after a messy relationship with a senior associate from one of the most powerful law firms in the city. She barely escaped with her pride intact—until a blind date throws her face-to-face with the man who sits at the very top of that food chain. Michael Rourke. Cold. Brilliant. Untouchable. The man every courtroom fears… and the man sitting across from her at a dinner arranged by meddling parents. But this isn’t about romance. He wants something. A scandal is brewing, and their unexpected connection is his cleanest fix. He wants a wife—for optics. She needs a miracle—for her brother. His offer? A ring in exchange for cooperation. Leverage disguised as partnership. A transaction in the form of vows.It’s a bargain born of desperation. Bound by contract and forced into a union neither of them wants, Emilia and Michael wage a war of wills. Every glance, every touch, every carefully measured lie blurs the line between punishment and passion. Because sometimes, the hardest sentence to serve… is the one you didn’t see coming.