Born of Scandal

She was never meant to be anything more than a stain on a noble name.

A bastard.
A scandal.
A woman whispered about in drawing rooms and dismissed in polite society.

Nalaya Viremont learned early how to make herself smaller. Quieter. Easier to ignore. Because in a world where lineage is everything, she is the mistake no one lets her forget.

Unmarried. Unwanted. Nearly a spinster.

Until The Ashbourne chooses her for their son. Dr Jude Kane.

The Duke of Ashbourne-brilliant, feared, and disturbingly precise. A doctor with a reputation for saving lives as efficiently as he ends conversations. A man so controlled, so calculated, that people question if there's anything human left in him at all.

He doesn't court her.
He doesn't charm her.
He's not even there for their wedding.

No love. No softness. Just a contract wrapped in cold authority.

And yet...

He watches her too closely.
Corrects her like she's something to be studied.
Protects her like she belongs to him.

In a society that already devours her, Nalaya tells herself this is enough. Because love is unreliable. Love abandons. Love is almost nonexistent.

But control? Control is safe.

Except Jude's version of control doesn't feel safe.

It feels consuming.

Because the more she tries to remain untouched by him, the more he observes... adjusts... intervenes.

And the more dangerous it becomes to ignore the truth:

The man who feels nothing is starting to act like she's his.

And Nalaya, born of scandal, raised on disdain, may be walking straight into something far more unforgiving than society's cruelty.

Something that doesn't just want to control her.

Something that might ruin her completely.