Mary Ann Weston was raised knowing that gratitude is the price of belonging. So when her family’s future becomes tied to an aristocratic engagement, she accepts it quietly—along with the loneliness, the whispers, and the understanding that some women are loved while others are simply chosen. Then Roman Avery, the empire’s Marquess who has never cared for society’s rules, returns and begins pulling apart the life Mary Ann has spent years forcing herself to endure.