Romans & histoires Aph America Jacket

She was broken. He was inevitable. Seraphine Ashton Academy Award-winning actress and America’s Sweetheart thought she’d survived the worst when she finally escaped her toxic, controlling boyfriend. But when Derek Castellan orchestrates her public humiliation at a film premiere, flaunting his new relationship in front of cameras and the world, Seraphine’s carefully rebuilt confidence shatters. Forced to attend an exclusive charity gala just days later, the last thing she expects is an encounter with a mysterious stranger on a shadowed terrace. He’s intensely private, dangerously perceptive, and sees past her celebrity facade to the wounded woman beneath. For fifteen minutes, Seraphine feels truly seen for the first time in years. What she doesn’t know is that the stranger is Damien Hale the world’s richest and most powerful man, a ghost in the business world who controls empires from the shadows and never, reveals himself to the public. And in those fifteen minutes, Damien makes a decision that will change both their lives forever: Seraphine Ashton is his to protect. He doesn’t ask for her permission to destroy her enemies. He doesn’t seek her approval to clear obstacles from her path. He simply declares with absolute certainty that she belongs to him and he’s willing to wait for her to realize the same truth he knew from the moment he saw her. Now Seraphine must navigate a world where the most powerful man has decided she’s his, where protection feels like possession, where surrender might feel like redemption. Damien Hale doesn’t do relationships. He doesn’t compromise. He doesn’t fail. But for Seraphine, he’ll learn. Because when a man who controls everything meets the one woman he can’t control, the only question is: who will surrender first?

Bella’s life takes a dark turn when her father’s debt to the Jacksons falls on her shoulders, and the price is paid in blood. Lucas, one of the Jackson brothers, steps in, claiming her as his wife to save her. But before the wedding, Bella finds herself drawn to Damon, Lucas’s enigmatic brother. The ceremony shatters when gunfire erupts, leaving Lucas critically wounded. As he lies in a coma, Bella and Damon grow closer, crossing a line they can’t undo. When Lucas finally wakes up, shaken by his brush with death, he pleads for a chance to make their marriage work. Damon, however, drops the bomb about their affair. Lucas whisks Bella away, determined to salvage what’s left, but secrets and unfinished business loom. Will Damon fight for her, or will Lucas prove he’s the one who can truly win her heart? While traveling through Europe, Lucas discovers Bella is pregnant, with Damon’s child. It’s a gut punch, but he decides he’s got to step up if he’s going to keep her. Just as things start looking up for them, life throws another curveball. A freak accident sends them tumbling down a flight of stairs, Bella breaks her leg, and Lucas fractures his spine, leaving him wheelchair bound. Determined to see him recover, Bella throws herself into rehabilitating him while secretly using her father’s hidden Swiss funds to build a company. Back in America, the family drama kicks into high gear. Bella’s accused of shoving Lucas down the stairs to get rid of him, because, of course, she’d risk breaking her own leg for that. Damon’s met with a version of Bella he doesn’t recognize, convinced she’s only staying with Lucas out of pity.