"I need a wife."" I need salvation. Not a cage." "It's a cage gilded in gold. Sign the contract, or lose everything. "Elena’s life collapsed with the slam of a prison door. Reduced to ruin and hunted by the city’s worst, she is desperate, with only her terrified sister left to protect. Salvation arrives in the form of a devil tailored in a bespoke suit. Adrian Blackwell. The notorious billionaire CEO is a fortress of ice, power, and secrets, a man haunted by the ghosts of his past. He sees her vulnerability and offers a lethal transaction: a one-year, fake marriage contract. The terms are brutal, stripped of humanity: “No emotions. No questions. No touching.”/ Elena trades her freedom to become his wife, a silent, beautiful prop in his high-stakes world. But the moment Elena steps into his dark, sprawling mansion, the line between pretense and perilous desire dissolves. Adrian’s iron rules are the first thing they’ll both be desperate to break. Every shared glance, every jealous defense in public, every accidental touch ignites a fire they can no longer suppress.As a dangerous enemy from Adrian’s shadowy past resurfaces, seeking revenge for a murder tied to his empire, Elena realizes she is falling for the man who saved her—a man who might be responsible for destroying the woman who came before her. Adrian claimed her with a contract, but can he fight the darkness threatening to consume them both before his possessive desire becomes her final ruin? And when the lie of the marriage becomes the only truth she wants, how far will she go to claim the cold heart of the man who owns her?