What if the life everyone envied… was the one you wanted to escape most?
In Washington, every deal has a price. Emilia Langford just never thought she’d be the one sold to pay it.
When her father’s empire begins to collapse, she becomes the currency in a bargain designed to save his legacy — and erase his mistakes.
Her new fate is Nikolai Volkov, the cold, enigmatic heir to a Russian dynasty whose motives are as murky as his reputation. The marriage is called protection, but Emilia knows the truth. It’s betrayal masquerading as duty.
Trapped between the image she was raised to uphold and the cracks forming beneath it, Emilia begins to learn that survival in a city built on secrets demands calculation, not compliance — and that sometimes, even a pawn can decide when the game ends.