She was supposed to be invisible. Instead, she became a queen no one wanted. Celeste was the daughter nobody claimed , raised like a servant in her own father's house, unseen, unloved, easy to forget. Until the morning her half-sister vanished, pregnant and running from her own wedding, and left Celeste standing in her place. There was no time to refuse. No time to think. Just a veil, a stranger's dress, and a king who was never supposed to be hers. Roman didn't choose her. He didn't want her. And once the truth comes out ,that the woman he married isn't the bride he agreed to ,he makes sure she understands exactly how little she means to him. No warmth. No mercy. No place in his bed, his heart, or his life. But some cages don't stay locked forever. Behind these palace walls are secrets built to destroy them both , a prince hidden away with a truth that could ruin everything, a woman who won't let go of a bond already broken, and a king who swore, a long time ago, that he'd never let anyone in again. She was never meant to be his queen. She's about to become the only thing he can't live without.

Imani Guerrero has never had anything handed to her. Orphaned at seventeen, working three jobs just to keep the lights on in her Bronx apartment, she has learned one thing above everything else , survival doesn't wait for anyone. So when a temporary hotel gig lands her face to face with Alexi Moretti, cold, commanding and used to getting exactly what he wants, she does what comes naturally. She tells him exactly what she thinks of him and walks out. She doesn't expect him to come looking. Alexi Moretti has spent his entire life building walls. Born into a dynasty of old money and older expectations, scarred by his parents' hollow marriage and betrayed by the one person he let past his defenses, he has decided that love is a complication he doesn't need. But his grandfather has other plans. The Moretti clause is simple and brutal , marry and produce an heir within two years or watch everything he has built go to his jealous, scheming cousin Matteo. Alexi needs a solution. Practical. Fast. With no emotional complications. Then he remembers the woman who looked him dead in the eye and refused to apologize for it. What starts as a contract , a marriage of convenience, a child for an inheritance, money for survival quickly becomes something neither of them planned for. Imani didn't come to Italy to fall in love. She came to secure a future for herself and give her child a life she never had. Alexi didn't invite a force of nature into his carefully controlled world. He invited a temporary solution. But Imani is anything but temporary. What happens when a contract becomes the realest thing either of them has ever had? Some clauses cannot be negotiated.