A contract marriage story where every trope is earned through character choice and consequence. The pregnancy is not a plot device—it is an irreversible entanglement. The antagonist is not evil—he is a person making terrible choices for understandable reasons. The romance is not based on chemistry—it is based on recognition. Readers who love emotional, character-driven stories will find something real here.

​"Thirty days, Little Viper. If your poison stops my heart, you walk free. If you fail, you become mine."​To the ruthless underworld of Sicily, Christian Conti is the untouchable Don—the man who controls every drop of blood and contraband flowing through the Mediterranean ports. To Valeria, he is merely a contract with an eight-figure payout, the ticket to buying her crippled sister’s freedom from the syndicate that owns them both.​Disguised as Clara, a timid ballroom dancer hired for his annual gala, Valeria slips a drop of odorless, invisible belladonna extract into his bourbon. She expects him to choke on his own blood within seconds.​Instead, Christian catches her wrist, downs the glass without breaking eye contact, and pins her to the balcony railing with a loaded Beretta pressed to her ribs.​He doesn't execute her. He proposes a sick, intoxicating game.​Thirty days under his roof. Thirty days where she can use every blade, poison, and trick in her arsenal to kill him. If he dies, his empire falls. But if she fails to end his life before the clock strikes midnight on the thirtieth night, she surrenders her body, her soul, and her blade to the king of Palermo.​In a palace where every silk sheet hides a stiletto and every kiss tastes of lethal venom, the line between predator and prey shatters. Because the deadliest weapon isn't the blade hidden in her garter—it’s the man who dares her to strike.

Nina signs a one-year marriage contract with Markus Hale—the ruthless billionaire whose company could save her family’s dying business. The rules are simple: no love clauses, no secrets, public appearances only when required. But when blackmail, tabloids, and past betrayals crash into their fragile arrangement, the line between contract and desire blurs. To protect what they built, they must choose whether to keep playing their parts or risk everything for something real.