She died once at his feet, poisoned by the man who wanted him broken. He never knew her name. Now she’s back—younger, sharper, carrying every memory of the love she never spoke and the death she never forgave. Aria returns reborn at twenty-four, slipping into Blackwood Enterprises as a quiet junior analyst with one goal: make Victor Hale choke on the same poison he fed her. But revenge requires proximity, and proximity means Damon Blackwood—the thirty-two-year-old CEO who once looked through her like she was invisible, and now looks at her like she might be the only thing that can save him. A dying grandfather’s will forces a contract marriage: six months of public perfection to secure custody of Damon’s orphaned nephew and keep control of the empire. She signs for access to her killer. He signs for survival. Neither expects the fire. The nights where pretense burns away and bodies speak truths words can’t touch. The way his hands learn her scars—both the visible ones and the ones no one else can see. The quiet mornings when a little boy’s laughter stitches two fractured people back together. But Victor knows she’s alive. And he’s not finished. One wrong move and the board will oust Damon, custody will be ripped away, and the man who murdered her once will make sure she never gets a third chance. Revenge was supposed to be cold. Love was never part of the plan. But some poisons taste like promises and some promises are worth dying for twice.

She only wanted a chance at love. She never expected that the one man who truly saw her, challenged her and lifted her higher would be the person she was never meant to meet. Twenty-four-year-old Janyia Hefling enters Peryn City’s most competitive career program hoping to escape the weight of being the eldest of six, the expectations of her quietly struggling family, and the constant pressure to prove she’s more than her circumstances. She wasn’t expecting him. Eric Dusine—calm, brilliant, effortlessly playful, a tech CEO who neither looks nor acts the part. A man who notices things he shouldn’t: her humor, her fire, her ambition… her. Their connection is instant. Their chemistry is sharp enough to cut. But neither of them knows the secret powerful enough to unravel everything they’re building—before it even begins. When a long-buried truth surfaces, it doesn’t just endanger their growing bond, it shakes the foundation of who they believe they are. Heartbreaking yet meaningful. Emotional with threads of humor. Intense enough to ache. This is the story of two souls drawn together by fate only to discover that fate came with a warning label.