LOGINIn a desperate bid to save her father's failing company, Anna is forced into an arranged marriage with the wealthy and charming playboy, Jonathan Clarkson. With her family's financial future hanging in the balance, Mr. Clarkson strikes a deal: he'll bail out Anna's father's company if she marries his son. As Anna embarks on this unexpected journey, she must navigate the complexities of their arrangement and discover whether true love can blossom amidst the constraints of a forced marriage. Will Anna's heart find its way in this high-stakes union, or is it destined to be a loveless transaction driven by financial necessity?
View MoreANNA'S POV Three years later, I stood in the same kitchen where Isabela's threat had first landed on my phone, watching Grace chase her younger brother across the backyard in the late afternoon sun, both of them shrieking with the particular delighted chaos only small children seem capable of producing. The kitchen looked different now, warmer somehow, crayon drawings taped haphazardly to the refrigerator, small handprints pressed permanently into a clay dish Grace had made at preschool the previous spring, the entire room reshaped, gradually and completely, into a space that belonged to a family rather than simply a house two frightened people had once tried to defend. "Slow down before someone falls," Jonathan called from the porch, though he was laughing as he said it, entirely unconvincing as an authority figure to either of our children. Theo had arrived eighteen months earlier, loud and stubborn from his very first breath, and I still found myself, some mornings, simply watc
JONATHAN'S POV Grace was teething, which meant neither of us had slept properly in nearly three days, and I found myself, at six in the morning, standing in the kitchen in yesterday's clothes, bouncing her gently against my shoulder while Anna measured coffee grounds with the particular slow precision of someone running on fumes. The kitchen still smelled faintly of last night's dinner, dishes stacked in the sink neither of us had managed to finish before exhaustion won out over tidiness, and I found myself, standing there in the grey early light, thinking how strange it was that this particular kind of ordinary chaos felt like the greatest relief imaginable after everything the past year had actually demanded of us. "Your turn to actually shower," Anna said, reaching for Grace without looking up from the coffee maker. "I've got her for the next hour. Go. You look like you haven't slept since the trial." "I haven't, really," I admitted, handing Grace over carefully, watching her i
ANNA'S POV I hadn't been back to the cemetery since the funeral, and I stood at the entrance for a long moment that Saturday morning, working up the courage to actually walk through the gate rather than turning back toward the car the way I'd nearly done twice already that week. Grace had stayed home with Jonathan that morning, and I found myself grateful for the quiet drive alone, the radio off, nothing but my own thoughts keeping me company through streets I'd deliberately avoided for the better part of a year. Jonathan had offered to come with me. I'd asked him not to, gently, explaining that this particular reckoning felt like something I needed to face alone, the way I'd finally learned to face the hardest things this year, present and honest rather than avoiding them or asking someone else to carry the weight for me. The path wound through familiar rows of headstones, quiet under the pale winter sun, and I found Lucas's grave exactly where memory told me it would be, simple
ANNA'S POV The car ride home from the gala felt nothing like the one I remembered from our wedding night, though some small, unexpected part of me thought of it anyway, the silence of that first drive, staring out the window while Jonathan sat beside me lost in his phone, both of us strangers pretending to be something else for an audience that had already gone home. I remembered every detail of that night with a clarity that still surprised me, even now. The unsteady walk down the aisle, my father's arm the only thing keeping me upright. The particular dread of standing across from a man I barely knew, reciting words that felt like a sentence rather than a promise. The strange woman who'd pulled me aside during the reception, her voice all false warmth and careful menace, the memory of her now recontextualized entirely by everything we'd learned about who she actually was and what she'd already begun setting into motion that very day. I hadn't understood, standing in that reception
JONATHAN'S POV We kept kissing as we made our way into a room in the VIP section. A place I made reserved personally for myself whenever I need to dig into something warm. I grabbed her ass violently and she moaned unbuttoning my shirt.She finally made her way with the buttons and pulled my shir
"I see that you like her." My dad commented on the drive back home. "She is beautiful." I shrugged, going through my phone. I was letting Lucas know to hold down the VIP slot at the club tonight. "Well, hopefully, this alliance brings more money to the family." My dad smiled at my mom. I was sil
JONATHAN'S POVMy lips curved in a smile as I glanced at the pretty young lady before me. Hell, those hips were great. I wanted to tell her so, but I knew better than that. Women tend to take compliments into their heads. With a courtesy nod, I shrugged past her and walked into the house. I sat
"Anna, are you okay?" My mom asked carefully."Are you trying to force me to get married to someone?" I asked pained by their words. "Yes!" They both chorused.God, the shamelessness of my parents. "Mom, Dad, I just returned from school yesterday. Heck, I am supposed to be having some respite her






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