LOGINTatiana Kensington was never meant to matter. Traded into marriage with a comatose billionaire to save her family's crumbling empire, she was supposed to disappear quietly once her usefulness ran out. Her father, her stepmother, her own brothers — all agreed she was expendable. The daughter nobody claimed. The sister nobody wanted. But Rafael Moreira wakes up. And the girl he finds isn't the gold-digger his family warned him about. She's carrying his child, working to build a life of her own, and asking him for nothing — not his name, not his fortune, not even his love. She only wants to leave. For the first time in his life, Rafael has no idea how to hold on to someone he can't buy. As fragments of memory return — a voice that stayed with him through the dark, a woman who never once asked for anything — Rafael realizes the truth: he fell in love with Tatiana before he ever opened his eyes. But love is the easy part. Because the family that sacrificed her once will do anything to make sure she never lives to uncover the truth about her mother's death, her stolen inheritance, and the empire built on her silence. They made her the bride they were ashamed of. They're about to learn she's the downfall they never saw coming.
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“Sign it.”Oliver tossed a leather folder onto the table in front of Tatiana.
Tatiana frowned but made no move to open it.
“What is this?” she asked.
Not because she couldn’t read, but because she wanted her father to say the cruel intentions behind it out loud himself.
“It’s a marriage agreement between you and Rafael Moreira,” Clarisse, Tatiana’s stepmother, said coldly.
Rafael Moreira?
Tatiana’s frown deepened.
She had never even heard that name before. Who was he?
“And why should I marry him?” Tatiana shot back.
For a brief moment, Tatiana had thought her father had summoned her home because he missed her. Perhaps he had finally regretted what he had done and wanted her back in the luxurious Kensington estate.
But she had been terribly wrong.
They had called her back only because they wanted to use her.
“You need to do your duty, Tiana.”
Tatiana turned and saw her two older brothers, Ethan and Dylan, entering together with their stepsister, Oktavia.
All three looked as though they had just returned from some formal event, judging by their elegant and expensive attire.
“Do my duty for what?” Tatiana asked bitterly. “Didn’t you already throw me out of this house because you thought I was a jinx who could do nothing but hurt your precious little sister?”
Her gaze sharpened on Oktavia, who now clung to Ethan’s arm as though seeking his protection.
As if Tatiana’s glare alone could destroy her.
When, in truth, it had always been Oktavia’s manipulative tongue that had managed to turn Tatiana’s brothers and father against her, making them hate her and shut her out.
“That is precisely why we’re willing to take you back,” Clarisse said as she rose from her seat and approached Tatiana. “But only if you agree to this marriage.”
She stopped in front of Tatiana.
“The Moreira family needs a wife for Rafael Moreira. They also need a woman who can give birth to their heir. In return, they will provide your father’s company with a massive injection of capital.”
“Why me?”
Tatiana stared coldly at Clarisse.
Her brothers might have been fooled by that mother-and-daughter pair, but Tatiana wasn’t.
She hated them too much to fall for their act.
“Don’t you already have a ‘daughter’ who is so precious, respectable, well-mannered, and far more educated than I am?”
Her eyes flicked toward Oktavia.
“So why marry a worthless, ungrateful daughter like me to a billionaire?”
Tatiana gave a bitter laugh.
“Are you not afraid I’ll take advantage of him and make all of you miserable?”
Tatiana’s question only drew mocking laughter from Oliver and Clarisse.
“Did you hear that?” Clarisse turned toward Ethan and Dylan. “That’s how cunning your own sister is. I just told her we’re marrying her off to the man who’s going to inject capital into the company, and she’s already threatening to manipulate Rafael into refusing to give us what we need.”
Ethan stepped forward and grabbed Tatiana’s arm so tightly that she winced in pain.
“Why can’t you ever change, Tiana? Why are you still so selfish and shameless? We made this arrangement because we’re giving you a second chance!”
“A second chance for what?”
Tatiana yanked her arm away, breaking free of Ethan’s grip.
“Did I ever beg to come back? No!” she snapped, her voice just as harsh. “You’re the ones
who brought me here!”She glared at all of them.
“If this marriage is really that valuable, then why don’t you marry off your precious little sister
instead? Why does it have to involve me?!”“Because we can’t ruin Oktavia’s future!” Dylan shot back firmly.
Tatiana’s eyes widened.
Inside, she cursed the sheer injustice of what she had just heard.
CHAPTER 44.The next morning, the sun came early to the Moreira dining room, as if it, too, were pleased with the mood inside.Its light spilled across the white tablecloth, the silver teapot, and the toast no one had touched. At the far end of the long table, Viviane sat with a cup of coffee and a newspaper she wasn’t reading at all. She was watching her son.Rafael sat across from her, pouring coffee into a cup that was already full.“Rafael.”“Mm?”“Your cup is overflowing.”Rafael looked down. The coffee had indeed spilled into the saucer. He set down the pot, picked up a napkin, and wiped up the mess with great calm, as though nothing out of the ordinary had just happened.Viviane lowered her newspaper.“I’ve seen you sulk. I’ve seen you furious. I’ve seen you in a coma. But I have never seen your face look like that.”“Like what?”“Radiant.”“I’m not radiant.”“You’re lit up like a Christmas light.” Viviane took a sip of her coffee. “Claire, isn’t my son radiant?”In the corner
CHAPTER 43.The box of invitations was still in Oktavia’s closet, on the upper shelf, right next to a pair of white shoes she’d never worn.She’d been staring at it from her bed for a full half hour.Hundreds of cards in gold ink, with the names of two people who might never stand in front of the same altar. She’d tried calling Matthew three times that afternoon. Twice it went to voicemail. The third time he picked up, and his voice sounded like it was coming from the bottom of a really deep well.“I’m busy, Oktavia.”“Busy with what?”“Work.”“And your mom said we’d wait until things calmed down, and you said okay, and now it’s been three months and you never ask if I’m okay anymore.”“Are you okay?”“Don’t use that tone with me.”“What tone?”“The tone of someone asking because he was told to.”Silence. Then Matthew let out a breath, long and tired. “I’ve got to go.”The line cut off.Oktavia stared at her phone. The screen had gone dark. She didn’t throw it. She knew exactly how mu
CHAPTER 42.“Let me go,” said Tatiana, in a voice that was not convincing at all.“No.”“Rafael.”“I’m enjoying the view.”“What view? I’m wrapped in a blanket like a pastry.”“A very appealing pastry.”Tatiana shut her eyes, hoping the floor beneath her feet would open up and swallow her whole. It wouldn’t. She opened her eyes again and found Rafael still smiling, still sitting on the edge of the bed with the blanket tangled carelessly at his waist and his hair a mess, still holding her wrist in a grip she could break out of anytime, and that was the most annoying part of all.“The door’s locked,” said Tatiana, trying to get back to a safe topic.“I know. I’m the one who locked it.”“The key’s under the wardrobe.”“I know. I’m the one who threw it.”“Claire has a spare key.”“True.” Rafael nodded, very seriously. “Do you want me to call Claire now? So she can open this door and see us, you in a blanket, me with no shirt, clothes scattered all the way to the legs of the vanity?”Tatia
CHAPTER 41.Tatiana finally closed her eyes completely.She was no longer thinking about the locked door, the key lost under the wardrobe, or all the reasons she had prepared earlier to chase this man out. In her head there was only warmth left, and the sound of Rafael’s breath mingling with her own.One of Rafael’s hands rose from her waist, traced up her back, then touched the back of Tatiana’s head very gently. His fingers slipped into her hair. He held her head there, and the kiss grew deeper.Too deep.Tatiana blinked, her eyes opening. Her breath caught. There was a small, wary voice in her head, the one that had been with her since the day at the golf course, whispering that this was too fast, that she wasn’t ready, that she didn’t know whether she had the right to feel this warm. Her hand, still resting on Rafael’s chest, pushed. Not hard. Just enough to say wait.Rafael let go at once.No protest. No last pull. He only drew back the distance of one breath, his hand still behi






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