The Stepfather's Forbidden Claim
I didn't just buy your debt, Elara. I built it. I sculpted your ruin so that when you finally fell, mine would be the only hands there to catch you."
After her mother’s sudden, tragic death, art student Elara Vance inherited a legacy of shadows and a $50 million debt she couldn't hope to pay. She thought her billionaire stepfather, Julian Vane, was her only sanctuary, the man who stepped in to save her father’s legendary art gallery from the auction block.
She was wrong.
Julian isn't a savior; he’s an architect. Behind the cold, grey eyes and the custom-tailored suits lies a man who spent three years systematically destroying Elara’s life from the inside out. He bankrupted her mother, sabotaged her future, and waited for the exact moment the trap would snap shut.
Now, Elara is a prisoner in a gilded cage of obsidian marble and glass. To keep her father’s soul from being incinerated, she must follow Julian’s rules.