She thought he was just another rich boy. He thought she was just another barista. They were both wrong. Vivi Chen has twenty-four hours to find her family's rent money or watch her grandmother's pharmacy disappear into the gentrification machine devouring Chinatown. Her economics degree means nothing when she's slinging lattes and dodging creepy customers who think a twenty-dollar tip buys them her attention. Alex Morrison sketches blueprints for affordable housing by day and sells his family heirlooms by night. When the gorgeous, sharp-tongued barista mistakes him for some trust fund brat, he doesn't correct her—because the truth is so much worse. One water-damaged business card. One moment of mistaken identity. One spark that could burn down everything they think they know about each other. But someone else is watching. Someone powerful enough to buy buildings, manipulate media, and destroy lives with a single phone call. Someone who sees Vivi's viral TikToks and Alex's community activism as threats to his empire. In a city where every brick tells a story of displacement, can two people from opposite worlds build something real? Or will the forces trying to tear them apart succeed in reducing their love to just another casualty of New York's ruthless transformation? "Every brick they throw, we build a castle."