Seraphina Veyra has never believed in forever.She knows how to read a lie before it is spoken, how to stay calm when everyone else is losing control, and how to walk away before anyone gets close enough to hurt her.What she doesn't know is why she was taught to survive.Or why so much of her childhood is missing.When Lucien Ardent, heir to one of the city's most powerful families, offers her a contract marriage, Sera sees an opportunity she cannot afford to refuse.Lucien needs a wife who can help him survive a ruthless battle for control of the Ardent family.Sera needs access to the Ardent archives, where she believes she may finally find answers about the parents she lost twenty years ago.The arrangement is supposed to be simple.No love.No unnecessary questions.No interference in each other's lives.But Lucien quickly discovers that his new wife is nothing like the harmless outsider his family expected.Sera notices everything.The hesitation before a lie.The hand that moves toward a hidden weapon.The board member who smiles when he should be afraid.And someone is willing to kill to keep her past buried.As Sera steps deeper into the Ardent family, strange fragments of a forgotten life begin to surface—a melody she cannot remember learning, habits she cannot explain, and a name that feels both unfamiliar and terrifyingly familiar.Aurelia Veyr.Twenty years ago, her parents discovered something powerful enough to threaten some of the most influential people in the city.Then they disappeared.Now, someone is searching for what they left behind.The closer Sera gets to the truth, the more dangerous her marriage becomes.Because Lucien has secrets of his own.And the man she was never supposed to trust may be the only person willing to stand beside her when everyone else wants her gone.Their marriage began as a contract.But the truth has a price.And some forgotten things were never meant to be remembered.