The Bride Bought in Blood

Some marriages are made in churches. Some are made in marble hallways where someone is always lying over champagne. Zoya Voronina enters the Orlov estate dressed in ivory and armed with a single purpose: survive the marriage her uncle traded her into, and find proof that Grigori Orlov framed her father. Maksim Orlov is not the husband she expected. Cold, watchful, precise, and dangerous, he is heir to one of Moscow's most feared bratva families. Zoya expects a cage. Instead, Maksim gives her information, space, and a locked door that opens from both sides. He knows his family is built on secrets. He knows his father is hiding something. And he knows his new wife is far more than the obedient bride everyone expects her to be. Their marriage begins as strategy. Then the bullets start flying. As Zoya searches the Orlov estate for the truth about her father's death, Maksim is forced to confront the rot inside his own empire. Every secret pulls them closer. Every public performance becomes more dangerous. And every private moment makes it harder to tell where loyalty ends and desire begins. Zoya came to destroy the man who ruined her family. She did not expect his son to become the one man willing to burn everything for her.