Love - a feeling he had buried long ago, and she had never known. But destiny had its own plans - binding them together as each other's only desire. Advik Singh Malhotra - CEO of ASM Industries. A man shattered by loss, still mourning the death of his first love who battled cancer till her last breath. Grief turned him cold, ruthless - a shadow of the man he once was. When a scandal threatens to tarnish his reputation, Advik makes a decision he never thought he would - marry a woman he barely knows. But can a man who has forgotten how to love bring happiness to a heart that has only known pain? Or will he break her even more? Aakriti Pandey - A girl who fought fate with bare hands. Born into a patriarchal family where daughters were seen as burdens, sold into a forced child marriage at the age of three, her life was a prison built on fear and cruelty. Tortured, abused, and betrayed - when faced with being sold again, she chose the only way out: escape. Running away from her past, she crashes into a future she never imagined - a future that begins with marrying a stranger... a man with scars of his own. When two broken souls are forced into a bond neither asked for, will they heal each other... or destroy what little hope remains? Desire (Book 1) Aakriti Pandey × Aadvik Malhotra A story of shattered hearts, unspoken pain, and a love neither believed they deserved.

❛ 𝘚𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘳 ❜ ▪⬞▪ "𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘦𝘹𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘦, 𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦" ▪⬞▪ To him, she's merely a pawn and possession he acquired through marriage to ascend the brutal hierarchy of the mafioso. And to her, he embodies the fear she holds for her dear life. First, snatched away like a toy second, chained by a coerced marriage and the end? She does not know. Her life bears no worth beyond being a puppet wife to this ruthless beast. ➺ An innocent girl who knows the world only through her books ~ ➺ A sadist man who is obsessed only with his power and dominion ~ ▪⬞▪ ⚠️ Dark Romance with Toxicity and Triggering Contents. [Standalone book]