The Secret We Shared

Rowan Alias Vieira has the perfect life-if you ignore the part where perfection is a performance. At seventeen he's handsome, wealthy, and impossibly merciless, a senior who rules the hallways with a smile that breaks hearts and a reputation that keeps girls at arm's length. His father's business bankrolls everything Rowan could want-except a father who's actually there. When his mother's matchmaking becomes unbearable, Rowan hatches a plan: find a believable girlfriend to quiet her worries and keep his private life private.

Irene (Ivy) Luciana Cortez can't afford to say no. Seventeen, breathtaking, and built of quiet grit, she supports her mother through chemotherapy, waits tables at a diner, and grows her online nail-art following between shifts-clawing toward a dream of her own salon while holding their fragile home together. She doesn't need charity. She needs cash.

So when Rowan offers her money to play the part of girlfriend, Irene takes the deal-on one hard, necessary condition. It's a fake relationship with a clear end date, and two people on opposite sides of the high-school power map who should never, ever fall for each other.

But the thing about pretending is that lines blur. Late-night drives, forced family dinners, and the small mercies Rowan never shows anyone start to fill the gaps between them. Irene sees the boy beneath the smirk; Rowan sees the woman he's never been brave enough to keep. And what began as a transaction quietly becomes something far more dangerous: real feeling.

A tender, sharp enemies-to-lovers romance about the cost of keeping secrets, the courage to choose yourself, and the messy, beautiful work of learning to love someone who sees you. Who will break the arrangement first-Rowan's carefully constructed armor, or Irene's hard-earned defenses?