Iris never dreamed of marrying for love. In her world, marriages were treaties, not promises and hers was sealed to the most feared man in the empire. Valerius. Cold. Unyielding. Untouchable. A ruler who could command loyalty from armies but not warmth from the woman who became his wife. Bound together by duty, they live as strangers beneath the same roof.. Two hearts moving in careful silence, Two souls refusing to surrender. Yet time has a quiet way of softening even the hardest walls. In stolen glances, unspoken care, and moments that neither of them dares to name, something fragile begins to grow where nothing was meant to exist. But love, once lost, does not fade easily and the past still holds a claim on Iris’s heart. When duty, memory, and desire collide, she must choose between the love she once knew and the man who is slowly, dangerously becoming her Home.