My father built his empire on a dead man's silence. Now that dead man's son owns everything we have left — including my hand in marriage. Damon Ashford was supposed to be family. The uncle who taught me to ride a bike. My father's best friend for twenty years. Instead, he's the man who watched my father destroy his — and spent two decades building an empire for one purpose: taking it all back. The deal is simple. I marry him. Three hundred employees keep their jobs. My father keeps his house. And I become collateral in a revenge plan twenty years in the making. I tell myself it's just a transaction. Then his hand finds my back at our engagement dinner, and I forget every reason I have to hate him. Then I overhear the real plan — and realize the wedding was never going to be the end of it. I say "I do" anyway. Because some debts can only be paid in blood, in vows, or in me. A forbidden marriage. A twenty-year vendetta. A wedding day that ends in handcuffs — and a husband I still can't tell is my ruin or my rescue.