Is 'Cold Palace' Based On A True Story?

Vanessa Brooks was the kind of woman the world bowed to. Old money. Chandeliers. Every circle worshipped her—until Julian Frost decided she was guilty. He had loved her once. Or so she believed. But when murder by jealous rage became the charge, he didn't defend her. He testified. He stood in that courtroom and watched them drag her away in chains, his eyes colder than the steel on her wrists. Three years inside. Concrete walls. Thin blankets. Fists in the dark. They broke three ribs. Split her lip so many times she forgot how to smile. The magazine-cover beauty learned to sleep with her back to the wall, one eye open. When the gates opened, Vanessa walked out with nothing but the clothes on her back and a heart too dead for hatred. She left. She buried the name Julian Frost like a corpse. But Julian wasn't done. The moment he saw her on another man's arm—a ring that wasn't his—something inside him snapped. Cold indifference curdled into obsession. He tore her engagement apart. Dragged her back. Forced a ring onto her finger and built a prison from a marriage certificate. Vanessa endured in silence. No tears. No screams. Just divorce papers, slid across his desk, again and again. The third time, Julian ripped them in half. His voice was ragged—a king reduced to begging. "Divorce? Over my dead body."

One punch turned the campus “Ice King” into a national pariah, and now the only person who can save his career is the girl who wants to see him fail. Leo Thorne had it all: captaincy, NHL scouts, and a reputation as untouchable. But when a rival player targets the one wound that never healed, Leo snaps. The viral footage labels him violent, unstable, and dangerous, and suddenly the future he built on the ice begins to collapse. Maya Ellison, a sharp-tongued film student, wants nothing to do with athletes, especially Leo. To her, he’s arrogant, spoiled, and worshipped for all the wrong reasons. But when her scholarship and senior project funding are threatened, she’s forced into an impossible deal: direct a reality-style redemption series designed to fix Leo’s image. The catch? The university announces that Maya is Leo Thorne’s secret girlfriend. Now they’re trapped in a fake relationship built for cameras, clicks, and damage control. Between staged dates, scripted interviews, jealous rivals, and producers hungry for drama, Maya and Leo spend more time fighting than flirting. “I can’t stand you,” Maya snaps after another disastrous shoot. Leo smirks, stepping closer. “Funny. I was about to say the same thing.” But somewhere between the lies and the spotlight, the act starts feeling dangerously real. Maya begins to see the grief Leo hides behind the Ice King mask, while Leo realizes the only person who refuses to worship him might be the only one who truly sees him. In a world where every touch is staged and every kiss is content, falling in love could ruin them both. Or it could be the one thing that finally saves them.

Alexander Harris has always been cold and indifferent—a ruthless CEO who values power over love. Haunted by a dark past and unable to bear a woman’s touch, he vowed never to fall for anyone. Until he met Everette Carson. From the moment their paths crossed, Everette challenged everything he believed in. When his grandmother threatened to give 15% of the company’s shares to his estranged father unless he marries, Alexander saw an opportunity. Everette’s fire, defiance, and beauty made her the perfect pawn for a marriage of convenience. Silencing his grandmother and putting Everette in her place? It was supposed to be the perfect plan. But nothing about her was ever simple. The more time he spent with her, the harder it became to keep his walls up. Everette’s warmth began to melt the ice around his heart—awakening memories of a mysterious girl from his past—the only soul who had ever touched his own. When the truth of their first meeting comes to light, Alexander realizes their bond was never coincidence. It was fate. Just as love begins to take root, long-buried secrets resurface. Dangerous enemies rise. And betrayal strikes from within. When Everette finally walked away to protect them both, Alexander broke—his desperation unraveling as he threatened to end his life. “Evie… if you walk away today, you will never have the chance to see me again in this life.” But she didn’t stop walking. The gunshot echoed across the runway. And nothing was ever the same again. Now, with everything on the line, fate brings them back together one last time. Will love be enough to heal what was broken, or are they destined to fall apart… all over again?

Sky Wilson is the NHL’s unbreakable “Ice Wall”—the goalie who never cracks, never fails, and never lets anyone see behind the mask. Until a public panic attack during a championship game shatters his reputation and puts his starting position at risk. Forced into mandatory therapy with the team’s brilliant new sports psychologist, Dr. Amira Frank, Sky expects another person trying to fix him. He doesn’t expect the only woman who sees the man behind the Wall… and refuses to look away. As the playoffs approach and someone inside the organization leaks his private struggles, Sky must decide how much he’s willing to risk to save his career—and whether the one person who can help him is the one who could destroy everything he’s built.

Meera Rathore has spent her life fighting against the future others chose for her. Forced into an arranged marriage with the heir of a powerful dynasty, she finds herself trapped within the walls of the Singh Palace—a place of wealth, tradition, and unsettling silence. Beyond the palace lies a forbidden forest where, during a monsoon storm, Meera encounters Laila, a mysterious woman whose beauty is rivaled only by the sorrow she carries. Drawn together by an undeniable connection, Meera soon discovers that Laila is tied to the palace's darkest secret. As forgotten histories resurface and long-buried truths emerge, Meera uncovers the stories of women erased from memory and silenced by generations of power. But some names refuse to be forgotten, and some loves refuse to die. *The Palace of Buried Names* is a haunting gothic romance about forbidden love, forgotten women, and the secrets that survive long after death.

All because I opened a window to air out the room, my husband’s childhood sweetheart, Celine Ashcroft, caught a cold. In a fit of rage, my husband, Ronan Blackwood, had his men bind me and drag me down to the ice cellar despite my being five months pregnant. "Don’t think that just because you’re carrying my child, you can bully Celine. If even a single hair on her head is harmed, I’ll make you repay it a hundredfold!" Shivering violently from the cold, I knelt through tears, begging for forgiveness. I promised that from now on I would serve his precious sweetheart well to atone, that I would never again let her suffer even the slightest harm. He only gave a cold order to seal the cellar, saying I needed to be taught a lesson so it would be burned into my memory. A week later, when Celine finally recovered from her cold, he finally remembered me in the cellar. "Vesper, have you truly realized your mistake? As long as you agree to kneel and apologize to Celine immediately, I’ll spare you." What he didn’t know was that by then, I had already frozen stiff in that ice cellar. And the child he had treasured so dearly no longer showed even the faintest sign of life.