He was my first crush.

He was my first fantasy.

He was my first love.

Now, he’s my last hope.

For years, I hid the bruises and absorbed the terrible tongue lashings. I cowed under the dark weight of my sister’s sins, soothed only by the sound of his music.

It had been my plan to wait for the day I turned twenty-one, for the inheritance my grandmother left me. If I could hold out until then. I could save myself.

But the sinister plans of my wicked mother had me engaged to the cruelest man I’ve ever known. A man whose eyes hold promises of pain, who smiles only at the thought of my discomfort. The brother of the only man I’ve ever loved.

On the day of my engagement party, I flee to the only place I can. To the only person in the whole world who might help me.

Only, the last time I saw him, I was a love-struck little girl—and my big sister had just shattered his heart in the worst abuse of trust possible.

I’m still in love with him. But he hates me, my last name, and everything he thinks I stand for.

It’s too bad for him, because I have the one thing he wants. The one thing he needs to take them all down.

We strike a deal. A dangerous deal where my poor, battered and bruised heart, is on the line.

If I can just hold out until twenty-one…

If I can ignore the way it feels when he kisses me—and the whiplash I get when he glares.

If he doesn’t see the scars…

Maybe we might not crash and burn in the secrets of our past.