Romans Contemporary Romance & Histoires Intelligent Second Chance

Six years ago, Venice nearly died saving Soren Malcolm from a fire. She lost half her face, her promising career, and the future she had dreamed of. Soren repaid her by making her Mrs. Malcolm. But in six years of marriage, he has never touched her. Never introduced her as his wife or taken her out in public because her scars embarrass him. Never looked at her the way he still looks at Elizabeth, the woman he has never stopped loving. On their sixth wedding anniversary, Elizabeth returns and Venice finally sees the truth. He would never truly love her. Then an opportunity arrives to reclaim the career she abandoned years ago, and Venice makes a decision. Thirty days. Thirty days to quietly rebuild her life. Thirty days until she leaves Soren Malcolm behind forever. He doesn't believe she'll actually go. After all, Venice has always loved him. But when Day Thirty arrives and his obedient wife disappears, Soren finally discovers the one thing he never expected. He can't live without her. And now he'll do anything to get her back.

On the night Victor won "Most Devoted Husband" on live television, his wife Claire found a second phone hidden in his gym bag. It was not even locked. Three years of messages. Hundreds of photos with another woman. Voice notes that made Claire's stomach turn. Three years of lies wrapped in public declarations of love. Claire had given up everything for this marriage. Her brilliant architecture career. Her independence. Her name in the industry. In return, Victor gave her a golden cage and paid her dying father's hospital bills, making her believe she could never survive alone. He thought wrong. Victor controlled her finances, her father's medical care, and the architectural designs she created before marriage. Designs now worth millions, credited to his pregnant mistress Felicia. When Claire walked away, she didn't disappear. She returned as the anonymous genius architect the entire industry had been hunting for three years. The mysterious designer behind towers that reshaped the city skyline. The man who discovered her secret identity? Raymond. Victor's billionaire uncle. Cold, ruthless, and completely consumed by the woman his nephew threw away like garbage. When Victor came crawling back, begging on his knees, Raymond stepped in front of Claire. His voice dropped low and dangerous: "Call her your wife one more time. I dare you. That woman wears my ring now."

Maren Vass runs the world's most ruthless reputation-and-crisis empire. The firm billionaires, politicians, and dynasties call when a scandal could vaporize their fortune or destroy them. She doesn't do PR or fix reputations, She manufactures consent: buries stories, rebuilds images, rewrites reality, decides who the public gets to forgive. She is the most powerful person almost no one has heard of, by design. So when disgraced tech billionaire Theo Kashner is forced to hand over control of his collapsing public image to Vass & Cole, the most feared crisis management firm in Manhattan, Maren expects another damaged rich man begging to be saved. Instead, she finds a man whose ruin feels disturbingly familiar. Theo lost everything three years ago after a scandal destroyed his company, his marriage, and his name. Now he’s desperate for one last chance to rebuild. The board funding his comeback imposes one condition: submit completely to Maren’s control for 18 months. This includes total control of his public life, his words, his appearances, his entire constructed self. But while rebuilding his life, Maren discovers something horrifying. The scandal that destroyed Theo… was created by her own firm. And she was the one who signed off on it. Now every moment between them becomes poisoned by the truth she cannot confess. Every touch feels like theft. Every act of repair becomes an apology he cannot hear. Because if Theo ever discovers that the woman he’s falling for is the architect of his destruction, it won’t just destroy their love, It will destroy her entire empire. And this time, there will be no narrative left to hide behind. Read on to see what happens next.