

Lorna Grant is brought into the household as a child bride, raised under their roof and worked to the bone by the very family she is meant to belong to. What they intend as submission becomes something else entirely. By accident or by design, they sharpen her. A twist of fate pulls her into an assassin organization where her instincts, honed by years of surviving the wrong people, turn out to be exactly the right currency. She rises quietly and then all at once, becoming the most formidable blade in the guild. The men who once ignored her, dismissed her, looked through her now compete fiercely for her attention. The household that broke her in never imagined it was building a weapon.

My mother-in-law and I were traveling together. We'd just checked into the Solenne Hotel in Rivera City and decided to hit the pool. Then this woman—dressed like money and attitude—pinched her nose like we stank. "This is a luxury hotel. How did you people even get in? Sneak in just for the pool? Ugh, I need a test after this." Buzzkill. I snapped, "It's a hotel pool. Guests swim. If that's a problem, go build your own." Her face twisted. "Excuse me? Do you even know who I am? My husband owns this place. We always stay in the top suite. So get out. You reek of broke. You're contaminating the water." Georgina and I traded a look. Ice cold. This was her son's hotel. My husband's. Since when did he come with a second wife?

Leo, a convicted felon, took the blame for stabbing his stepfather to protect his underage sister and was sent to Blackstone Prison. There, he encounters the prison's attending physician, Adrian. Leo mistakenly believes that Adrian has designs on his female lawyer and ex-girlfriend, Natalie, and treats him with open hostility. In reality, from the very beginning, Adrian has harbored an intense possessiveness and deep infatuation for Leo himself, secretly filling sketchbooks with drawings of him. Using his authority, Adrian forcibly binds Leo to the infirmary, locking him by his side under the guise of "medical custody." As they clash, Leo gradually discovers that Adrian's protection is not feigned, while Adrian constantly tests the boundaries between control and restraint. Amidst crises involving his sister, a prison riot, and the emergence of evidence to overturn his case, the two evolve from sworn enemies into ones who entrust themselves entirely to each other. In theend, Leo is exonerated and released; Adrian waits for him outside the prison gates to take him home.