Emma Rhodes has been dead before. In another life she was Celeste Laurent, a famous actress drowned by her fiancé. But death wasn't the end. She woke up in a child's body, trapped in a family that would become her prison.

For sixteen years, Emma watched her stepmother Juliette poison her mother, push her down the stairs, and marry her father. She endured the cruelty of her stepsister Evelyn. She learned to be invisible.

Then her father's debts caught up with him. The man who owns the debt is Nicholas White, a billionaire CEO of the largest entertainment empire in the city, and the most dangerous man alive. He doesn't want money. He wants Emma.

The marriage contract is signed. Emma becomes Mrs. White, a pawn in a game she doesn't understand. But Nicholas has secrets too. He is the Ghost, a shadow king who controls the underworld. And for fifteen years, he has been hunting the man who murdered his mother, the same man who killed Celeste Laurent.

He doesn't know Emma is Celeste reborn. He only knows that when he looks at her, something in him recognizes something in her.

As Emma steps into the spotlight, building an acting career that terrifies her enemies, she and Nicholas are drawn into a war against Juliette, her mysterious backer Viktor Cross, and a criminal organization called the Consortium. Trust is earned in blood. Love grows in the darkness between revenge and survival.

But Viktor knows what Emma really is. He calls it the Echo Phenomenon. And he doesn't want her dead,he wants to own her.

Emma died once. She won't die again.

She was dressed in emerald green, her hair piled high, her smile sharp enough to draw blood. She looked like a woman who had spent the entire evening waiting for this moment.


"Well, well," she said. "The consolation prize."


"I heard you threatened Marcus Webb at the last party." Evelyn stepped closer. "Bold move for someone who was bought like livestock."


Nicholas moved to step forward, but Emma held up her hand.


She walked toward Evelyn, her heels clicking on the marble floor.


"You know what I've realized, Evelyn?" Emma said. "All those years you spent making my life miserable… the comments, the rumors, the little cruelties… I thought it was because you hated me."


"No." Emma shook her head. "You hate yourself. You always have."


Evelyn's face flushed. "How dare you…"


"You're beautiful. You're rich. You could have anyone. But you've spent your whole life chasing men who don't want you, because you don't believe you deserve to be loved." Emma stepped closer. "And now I'm marrying the one man you've been chasing since you were sixteen, and you can't stand it."


Evelyn's hands curled into fists. "You think he loves you?"


"You think this is a choice?" Evelyn laughed… a high, brittle sound. "You think Nicholas White marries for love? He bought you, Emma. He bought you like a piece of meat, and when he's bored, he'll throw you away."


"Maybe." Emma smiled. "But at least I got bought. You couldn't even give yourself away."


She walked past Evelyn before her stepsister could respond, Nicholas falling into step beside her.


" You couldn't even refute her when she said I was bought" she playfully, unconsciously flicked his hair.


He gasped helplessly " You said you got it and I respected that" He gave her his arm.


Evelyn watching from a distance, gritted her teeth in anger.


He opened the front door. "But now she's going to want revenge." He thought it out.


Emma stepped out into the night air. " Then let her try."


Chapter 14 - Chapter Fourteen