Cassandra Blackwell never would have thought her life auctioned off like a commercial transaction. Growing up in a strong family that never values her, she is compelled into an arranged marriage with Dominic Hale, the most hated rival of Hale Industries. For Dominic, the marriage serves just as a calculated action, a means of gaining ground in the corporate world collapsing under his feet. Cassandra does not know, nevertheless, that the marriage is for survival rather than only power. Her own family provides the first blow: the debt-ridden Blackwells have surreptitiously bargained for Dominic in exchange for a bailout meant to prevent financial disaster. With his cold, analytical gaze, Dominic sees her as only a pawn in his struggle against a competitor company endangering his empire. If either family inherits a multi-billion dollar windfall that might permanently alter their fortunes, a legacy buried deep within a century-old mandates their unity. Dominic, however, is unaware that Cassandra has a secret of her own—a kid from their careless meeting years ago, buried from the world and from him. Cassandra, forced into a loveless marriage, must negotiate the perilous waters of dishonesty, power maneuvers, and treachery while safeguarding the truth that might wipe both of them out. The line separating friends from lovers blurs as tensions rise and passion fires. Cassandra has to choose if Dominic is merely another villain in her narrative or the only man capable of enabling her to take back her life. Will their marriage mark the end of them, or the unanticipated start of something real?