Make Sure You Regret It

For Olivia Madeleine, life as the illegitimate daughter of a duke has always been a study in quiet endurance. Born into a household that views her very existence as an inconvenience, she has spent her years navigating the cold indifference of her family, clinging to the only thread of hope dangled before her: her arranged betrothal to Crown Prince Leoford Franz. Arrogant and self-absorbed, he is hardly the stuff of fairy tales, but Olivia has long accepted that survival rarely comes wrapped in romance. That fragile illusion shatters, however, when whispers of Leoford's clandestine affair with another debutante reach her ears—a betrayal that stings far less than she expected, yet finally clears the fog of resigned acceptance from her eyes. Refusing to waste another breath on a man who never deserved her loyalty, Olivia takes a perilous gamble and turns to the one person in the empire feared enough to grant her freedom: Edwin Lowell Vikander, the ruthless Grand Duke of the North. War-hardened and notoriously unyielding, Edwin is no savior—he is a force of nature, and striking a bargain with him is akin to dancing on the edge of a blade. As she steps into this dangerous new alliance, Olivia knows she is trading one cage for another, but this time, she intends to hold the key. Her quiet vengeance will not be delivered with a scream or a blade, but with something far more devastating: the gift of a broken engagement and a future he can never touch, leaving her former fiancé to stew in the bitter dregs of his own regret. Yet as her waltz with the northern duke grows increasingly perilous, Olivia must wonder whether she is orchestrating her own liberation—or walking willingly into a far more consuming fire.