The Don's Decoy Bride

Synopsis

"Karen was an orphan—until the don’s son, Lucien, chose her. Not for love. As a stand-in. She was meant to take the three death curses meant for Seraphina, the woman Lucien believed he owed his life to. For a time, she almost believed the marriage was real. She fell for him. She bore his child. Then she discovered the truth: she was never his wife. She was his sacrifice. When the curses turned on her, when the betrayal cut deepest, she did the only thing she could: she died. Years later, Dr. Karen Marino returned to the city that had buried her—not as a victim, but as a woman who had rebuilt herself from the ashes. The international medical expert no one could touch. The mother who had protected her son in secret. And the one person Lucien had never stopped searching for. When he finally finds her, he no longer wants her to stand in anyone’s shadow. He wants to trade his life for hers. When the explosion comes, he throws himself into the fire—and presses his don’s ring into her hand before he falls. Now Karen holds the ring. Not as a stand-in. Not as a wife. As the one who decides who lives, who dies, and who finally controls their own fate. A story of sacrifice, survival, and a woman who refused to be anyone’s shadow."