Every pawn knows her role. Irina spent nineteen years in the shadows of Moscow, overlooked and unwanted-a ghost behind velvet walls while her sister glittered as the Bratva's prized jewel. Forgotten by her father, scorned as a secret, Irina never asked for a fairytale. Instead, she learned to survive. On the night her sister should have sealed a powerful alliance, the unthinkable happens. Aurelio Bernardi-ruthless Italian mafia heir-demands Irina at the altar instead. With bloodlines shaken and old loyalties splintering, Irina is thrust into a marriage forged by secrets and vendettas. She's hunted by the ghosts of her own family, bound to a husband she cannot read, and forced to wear a queen's crown cut from cold metal. But underestimating Irina comes with a price. Behind her bruised silence lies a mind sharpened by pain, and vengeance as cold as the Russian winter. The men who tried to bury her never asked what she'd do when she finally found her voice. She will trade her chains for chaos. They wanted a pawn. Irina's about to set the board on fire.