She had already fallen one year behind. Once determined to become a college professor, Mariana Isabel Fiel, from a modest family in the province, is forced to leave university when her family's finances can no longer keep up. Returning home, she watches her former classmates move forward while she stays behind, carrying the quiet shame of wondering whether her dreams were ever practical to begin with. Then, exactly one year after she left university, a stranger offers her an impossible way back. A few years older, impossibly wealthy, and strangely interested in her, Rafael Andrei Monteverde offers her a deal she can't afford to refuse: he will give her everything she needs to resume her studies, finish her degree, and live the student life she thought she'd lost. In exchange, they will remain secretly engaged for five years, after which they will marry. No romance required. No love expected. She is free to love whoever she meets during those five years. And she does. There is only one thing she cannot escape: the promise she made. And then she meets Sebastian "Baste" Flores-a newfound friend who makes falling in love feel effortless. Somewhere between late-night conversations, quiet dates, shared laughter, and years of unspoken feelings, their friendship becomes something neither of them has the courage to name. Meanwhile, the five years continue to pass. When the promise she made finally comes due, Mariana must face something she never prepared herself for: What happens when the future she once believed was impossible is finally within her reach?
More details