"Marry him, and your fairytale continues."

That’s what Arabella Quinn’s father told her.
And for most of her pampered, glitter-dusted life, Arabella believed fairytales were real. After all, she lived one.

Daughter of a powerful billionaire. Owner of a walk-in closet bigger than some apartments. Pink convertibles, private island holidays, champagne breakfasts. No bills, no heartbreak, no effort.

Arabella never worked a day in her life.
She never had to.

She was pretty, privileged, polished—and perfectly content being the center of her own glamorous, soft-lit world.
Until one conversation flipped everything.

To honor a decades-old promise between two powerful families, Arabella is forced into marriage with the last man on Earth she ever imagined she'd say "I do" to:

Cassian Vale.

Her cold, unreadable childhood friend turned ruthless young CEO.
The boy who once crowned her with daisies and called her "princess."
Now the man who won’t even meet her eyes as he slides a wedding ring onto her finger.

At 23, Cassian is the youngest and most feared executive in the city. With a mind as sharp as his suits and a heart frozen in secrets, he doesn’t want love. He doesn’t believe in it. And he certainly doesn’t care about the silly little girl who once trailed after him in pigtails.

But Arabella isn’t a child anymore.

And she refuses to let the boy who gave her her first fairytale become the man who ruins all the rest.

Thrown into a marriage where feelings are forbidden and affection is cold currency, Arabella must learn how to survive in a world with no silk cushions and no one to catch her when she falls.

For the first time in her life, she’ll have to earn something.

But Cassian isn’t the only one hiding secrets.
And Arabella isn’t as breakable as she seems.

As she begins working—secretly—under a different name in one of his companies, she discovers the ice surrounding her husband might not be eternal…
And the prince she loved as a child might still exist beneath the frost.

But in a world full of public scandals, ex-lovers, family expectations, and whispered betrayals, one question keeps Arabella up at night:

Can a girl built to be admired ever be loved for who she really is?

And will Cassian Vale ever see her as more than a favor…
...but as the one woman who could melt his frozen world?

"CEO's Barbie Bride or Backstabber? Arabella Quinn Linked to Tragic Ex."


Grainy shots of Arabella entering the late ex-girlfriend's apartment.


A close-up of her holding the red journal.


Zoomed-in screenshots from her childhood — and Cassian's.


Arabella woke up to her phone buzzing nonstop.


Voicemails. DMs. Emails from PR. Calls from her father.


She sat upright in bed. Cassian was already gone.


The TV in the living room played on low volume.


> "—new sources claim the young socialite married Cassian Vale under a fabricated love story. Allegedly, the real drama ties back to Vale's deceased girlfriend, who left behind cryptic notes implicating Arabella Quinn."


> "This brings into question: was this a fairytale romance — or a calculated move to replace the woman before her?"


Arabella's hands shook as she clicked on the leaked letter online.


"No," she whispered. "That's not mine. That's not me."


Cassian stormed into the apartment an hour later.


"Someone used your initials to leak private company footage. Office security. My meetings. Even us. There are clips trending everywhere."


"I know," he said quickly. "But the world doesn't."


"They're calling for my resignation. The board is panicking. And your father… he wants to issue a statement pulling you out of this marriage completely."


Arabella's voice trembled. "He wants me to leave you?"


"He thinks I'm ruining your reputation."


She laughed bitterly. "Funny. I thought I was ruining yours."


Then Cassian said it — the one thing that terrified her most.


The cameras. The pressure. The whispers that she'd never be anything more than a fake princess who stumbled into a king's warpath.


"No," she said. "You don't get to decide if I'm in this."


"I've been underestimated my entire life. Called shallow, stupid, spoiled. But if they want to see what a girl with pink heels and a black heart can really do…"


Chapter 15 - CHAPTER 15: Paparazzi Poison