She was drowning in poverty. He was paralyzed by grief.

Emily Greene is barely surviving, working multiple jobs to care for her sick mother and seven-year-old daughter. When billionaire Victor Hawthorne offers her an impossible salary to be his caregiver, she can't refuse. Even if the wheelchair-bound recluse treats her like the enemy.

Victor Hawthorne spent five years building walls no one could breach. The last thing he needs is a compassionate woman who sees past his cruelty to the broken man beneath. 

But when his company's board demands they need stability by him getting married or lose everything, he makes Emily an offer, become his wife in name only. Three years. No emotions. Just business.

What begins as a cold transaction transforms into something neither expected. 

As Victor learns to walk again, both physically and emotionally. Emily discovers a strength she never knew she had. But when shadows from his past supposedly return and betrayal threatens to destroy them, Emily must build her own empire and Victor must prove he's worthy of a second chance.

Because real love is never just business.

I don't know how long I sat there in the wreckage of my study. Time had lost all meaning. The whiskey bottle lay shattered near the door, amber liquid seeping into the expensive rug. Books lay where I'd swept them off the table in a moment of rage.


My hands had stopped shaking. That was something, at least. Now they just felt numb. Dead weight at the ends of my arms.


Now I just sat slumped in my wheelchair, my head hanging forward, my arms dangling uselessly at my sides. The exhaustion was bone-deep, the kind that made even breathing feel like too much effort.


I'd drunk myself past anger, past pain, into this numb void where I couldn't feel anything anymore. Couldn't think. Couldn't...


I didn't move. Didn't respond. Just sat there, hoping whoever it was would go away.


Chapter 52 - Anyone But Her