A Vow in the Fog

Nives Corvo only wants one thing: to open a sanctuary for the forgotten street urchins of Illicia. But when she refuses to surrender her inherited building to her cruel ex-fiancé, Teodoro, she finds herself fleeing his goons through the eerie, fog-choked cobblestones. Ducking into a civic registry office to hide, a lazy clerk's careless stamp accidentally binds her in marriage to Faro, a seemingly timid dockworker who smells of sea salt and poverty. Fiercely loyal, Nives vows to protect her gentle husband from Teodoro's wrath, fighting to build her orphanage while Teodoro maliciously shreds her cheap charity gala dress - only for a breathtaking, million-dollar midnight silk gown to mysteriously arrive in its place. Told in alternating third-person perspectives, the story reveals what Nives doesn't know: Faro is actually the phantom billionaire and ruthless boss of the Abyssal Hand mafia. Worse, Nives completely misunderstood Illicia's marriage laws. She thought her union voided Teodoro's legal claim on her; instead, it triggered an ancient underworld blood-rite, giving the city's deadliest kingpin the legal right to slaughter her enemies. As Teodoro's shipping empire mysteriously crumbles in the shadows, how long can Faro hide his bloody hands from his fiercely protective wife?