Forced into a debt-clearing marriage and seated beside a groom who wouldn’t kiss his bride, Lila learned the truth the night she stumbled: Ethan could stand. The wheelchair was a shield—against gold-diggers, against a stepfamily hungry for his inheritance. Her anger cooled when she overheard Helena planning a fire to finish the “helpless” heir. Lila slipped Ethan a warning, and when flames ate his empty room, the masks burned too. Arrests followed. In the smoke’s afterglow, he stood before her—no tests, no lies—and asked to start again.
Continues…
