My family sold me to a monster to settle their debts.
The whole country knows the rumors. Nicholas Sterling is a hideous, reclusive beast who shuns the light, a man whose face was ruined in a fire and whose heart was twisted by cruelty. They say he buys beautiful things—especially women—just to break them.
I was delivered to his cliffside manor with nothing but the clothes on my back and a heart full of dread, a sacrificial lamb to keep my sister alive.
I expected a grotesque tyrant. I was not prepared for him.
A man with the face of a fallen angel and the presence of a king. His eyes aren't cruel; they're haunted by a grief so deep it steals my breath. His touch isn't violent; it’s a question that terrifies me even more.
He calls me his wife. He gives me the run of his castle. But he also watches me with an intensity that feels like possession. And the one rule he gives me is the most chilling of all: Never go into the west wing.
But in a house built on lies, how can I resist? The truth is waiting behind that door. And it’s more beautiful, and more terrible, than any beast.

Liam's words play in my head like a song I can't turn off. He was there. He left them. Ask him where he really was.


I know Nicholas told me the truth. I know he was just a boy who made a mistake. But the doubt is still there, scratching at the back of my mind like a mouse in the walls.


What if there's more? What if Liam knows something I don't?


What if the man I'm falling in love with isn't who I think he is?


I turn over in bed, staring at the ceiling. The fire has burned down to embers. The room is cold. Empty.


Nicholas is in the west wing. He offered to stay with me tonight, but I said no. I needed space. Time to think.


But thinking isn't helping. It's just making everything worse.


I drag myself out of bed, dress in the same gray dress, and walk to the conservatory. The orchids are still dying. The ones that survived the storm are pale and weak, their petals drooping.


Chapter 39 - The Test of Faith