She was thrown out like garbage. She built herself into gold. But the past doesn't let go easily. Nova—once Zara—has survived everything. Celeste's abuse. Lyra's attempted murder. Four years alone in a foreign country, rebuilding herself from nothing. She returned as a woman transformed. Strong. Confident. Ready to take back her inheritance as Julian Hartwell's only biological daughter. But there are wolves at the gate. Leo Covington is young, handsome, and relentless in his pursuit of Nova. He brings her flowers. He remembers every detail she mentions. He looks at her like she hung the moon. He also wants the Hartwell empire. Her inheritance. Her father's company. And Nova knows it. So she uses him. She lets Dax see them together. She lets jealousy eat him alive. She wants him to hurt the way she hurt. She wants him to understand what it cost her to love him. But Leo is not a patient wolf. When he realizes Nova will never truly want him, he stops pretending. He kidnaps her. Locks her away. Demands the company as ransom. Dax finds her. He fights through Leo's men. He takes a bullet for her. And as he bleeds on the floor, he whispers: "Please. Let me see Iva. Just once. Please." He doesn't know Iva is his daughter. He's never been told. But something in his blood knows. Something in his soul has been calling him to that little girl for four years. Nova tells him the truth. "She's yours. She was always yours. I was just too scared to tell you." Dax cries. Then he passes out from blood loss. He survives. He recovers. And then he stands outside Nova's house in the rain—all night, then all day, then all night again. His family joins him. Sera. AJ. Even Celeste, broken and remorseful, holding a sign that says: "I'm sorry. Please forgive us." Nova watches from the window. Her heart cracks open. She forgives him. But Tessa—Dax's college lover, Celeste's preferred daughter-in-law—has been watching from the shadows. She left once. She's not leaving again. And she knows exactly which wounds to cut. She didn't survive everything to lose him now. But Tessa has never lost anything in her life.