The Egregious Effect.

(UNEDITED.)

****

Jade Dima spent twenty-three years fighting for a place in a world that never truly wanted her.

After a hospital switch scandal reveals she is the biological daughter of one of Lagos' most powerful families, Jade is pulled from the life she knows into a world of old money, political influence, and carefully hidden cruelty. But even in the Dima mansion, she remains an outsider. The daughter they lost can never compete with the one they raised.

Then everything changes overnight.

When a broken marriage alliance threatens to destroy years of political and business negotiations between two powerful dynasties, Jade is pushed into marrying the last man she ever expected, her boss, Robert Adeyemi.

Cold, calculating, and impossible to read, Robert is known for ruthless business tactics and a dangerous reputation that follows him everywhere. To the public, their marriage looks perfect. Behind closed doors, it is anything but.

Because while Lagos celebrates the union of two elite families, Jade and Robert are hiding a truth no one can know.

Their marriage was never supposed to happen.

Now trapped between family expectations, public scrutiny, jealous rivals, and secrets that could destroy both households, Jade and Robert are forced to navigate a relationship neither of them understands. And somewhere between silent dinners, explosive arguments, and the life they are pretending to build together, the line between obligation and something far more dangerous begins to blur.