Crowned with Lies

Three years ago, Ava Reilly lost everything in a single night—her mother, her fiancé, and her future. When Julian Harlan, the powerful heir to a Texas oil empire, stepped out of the shadows to offer her a marriage of protection, she thought he was her savior. She believed their union was a peace treaty designed to end a decades-long blood feud. But behind the gilded doors of their sham marriage lies a devastating revelation: Julian didn’t marry Ava to protect her; he married her to shield the woman who killed her mother. While Ava played the role of the grieving wife, Julian was secretly bankrolling his mistress—Ava’s own best friend—in a life of luxury built on blood money. The ledger is open, the "peace pact" is a lie, and the man Ava trusted with her life is about to realize that the woman he betrayed has been planning her escape all along. Some secrets are worth a fortune, but this one will cost Julian Harlan his empire.