The Tenement Vow
By @john1208
Oletta plays the perfect, dizzy housewife in the smog-choked, industrial city of Velmoth. No one knows her airheaded smiles hide razor-sharp combat instincts - not even Oletta herself. When a strange brass delivery tube arrives containing forged marriage papers and a letter in her own handwriting, it issues a dire warning: marry Haldon, a local factory mechanic, or she and her little sister will be drafted to the deadly Munitions Front. Haldon desperately needs a two-parent household to keep custody of his orphaned nephew; Oletta needs a roof and a rationing permit. It is a perfectly practical, emotionless lie. But Velmoth’s tenement blocks are a fast-paced warzone of violent rationing enforcers, syndicate thugs, and venomous neighbors eager to sabotage the newlyweds. As Oletta and Haldon fight back-to-back - dodging shrapnel and neighborhood gossip alike - their domestic alliance forges a bittersweet, unspoken love. When Haldon is publicly framed for factory sabotage, Oletta drops her cheerful facade to fiercely, violently defend his honor. But who was she before her amnesia, and what happens when her lethal past finally catches up to her new family?
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