“My family's business was on the brink of collapse, and our only lifeline was my forced marriage to Alaric Roy, the city's most ruthless billionaire heir. I tried to sabotage the arrangement by acting like a vulgar gold digger in front of his grandfather, but the old man saw through my act and forced the wedding anyway. On our wedding night, I expected cold indifference, but instead, I got a warden. Alaric threw a fabricated background check at my feet, his eyes full of absolute disgust. He accused me of being a manipulative predator who conspired with his grandfather to trap him. To teach me a lesson, he called his assistant right in front of me and ordered the immediate, hostile takeover of my family's company. "Now do you understand your place?" he sneered. I was humiliated and terrified. I didn't want this marriage any more than he did, yet I was the one paying the price. He abandoned me that night, and the next morning, his past lover crashed the family breakfast. She waved a cufflink around, crying that Alaric had spent the night with her, waiting for me to break down in tears in front of his smirking relatives. Instead of crying, I took a calm sip of my black coffee and turned to the furious family patriarch. "Grandfather, your guest appears to be unwell. The family breakfast table is not the place for a psychiatric evaluation." If they thought I was just going to be a victim in their twisted family drama, they were dead wrong.”