A legacy of lies. A pact born of desperation. A love neither dared to want.

In the quiet halls of Belmont House, scandal arrives with the morning post.

For Poppy Hartwell, duty to her family means confronting the dangerous secrets her father took to his grave.

Her only recourse lies in the formidable Edward Taverner—a man whose reputation is as ruined as her own might soon be.

Posing as his fiancée to investigate her late father's secrets, Poppy enters the decaying splendour of Taverner Hall—a house haunted by loss and cloaked in silence. But as Poppy and Edward draw closer to the truth—and to each other—they awaken enemies who will stop at nothing to keep the past buried

What begins as a desperate pact soon spirals into a dangerous game of deception, desire, and deadly secrets. In a world where power is protected by lies and loyalty can prove fatal, will love be her salvation—or her undoing?