Bound by Vow

Emotions are currency. Literally bought, sold, and taxed. Elara's family is drowning in debt. Her father is dying. The collectors knock twice a week, patient as executioners. There is one way out. The Vow Market. She signs a binding contract with Lucien Draeve. Heir to one of the wealthiest houses in the city. Cold. Controlled. A man who has spent his entire life suppressing every emotion because in this economy, feeling something is the fastest way to go bankrupt. He needs her for political leverage. She needs his money to keep her father alive. The terms are clear. One year. No attachment. No breach. But contracts don't account for proximity. For the way someone moves through a kitchen at dawn. For the conversations that happen after midnight when the terms feel like paper and the silence between two people starts to feel like something neither of them can afford. She was supposed to be a transaction. He was supposed to be a signature. Neither of them read the fine print. Content note: forced proximity, emotional suppression, slow burn, dark world-building.