Description: On her wedding night, Clara Hale is sent into a marriage that was never meant to be hers-and by morning, she makes a horrifying discovery. The man who came to her bed was not her frail new husband, Edmund Ashford, but his brother Adrian. Clara is only a servant girl forced to stand in for a noble daughter, and in Riverside Market Town, she has no power to protest, no name to protect, and nowhere else to go. She tries to bury the truth and endure her cold, humiliating marriage, but Adrian makes that impossible. Again and again, he steps between her and danger, shielding her with a devotion too fierce to mistake and too forbidden to accept. As Edmund's selfishness drags the household deeper into misery, Adrian rises from an overlooked younger brother to a celebrated general, and Clara is pulled into a world far more dangerous than gossip. In the Imperial Capital, whispers follow her, servants test her place, and Princess Lilianne sets her sights on Adrian with the full weight of royal favor behind her. Clara was never supposed to be a bride, much less the woman at the center of a scandal that could cost a hero his future. But when love grows in the shadow of duty, shame, and power, walking away may be more impossible than surrendering her heart. And in a world where one wrong step can ruin everything, Clara must decide whether she can fight for a love that was doomed from the very first night. Author Biography: Harper Clarke is a contemporary romance author known for emotionally rich stories of love, longing, and second chances.