Claire never wanted a husband. She wanted her independence, her career, and a life built entirely on her own terms.
Then her grandmother’s will changed everything.Waiting for her was a beautiful, debt-free brownstone — and one impossible condition. To inherit it, Claire had to be married, and live in that house with her spouse for one full year.
The spouse had already been chosen.
Ben. The same boy she grew up arguing with at the school bus stop. The same man she had spent years trying not to like.
What begins as a fake marriage — a contract, a performance, a year to be endured and walked away from — slowly becomes something neither of them planned. A leaking faucet fixed without being asked. A cup of coffee made without thinking. A goodnight kiss that lasts one second too long.
By the time the truth behind their grandmothers’ will is finally revealed, Claire and Ben are no longer the same two people who signed that contract.
The fake marriage was never really about the house.
It was about whether, once nothing forced them to stay, they would still choose each other anyway.