The shadow of a monster is no place for a soulmate-unless you're the one he's been obsessed with for a decade.
Elita Vance is a world-class art restorer who hides her sins behind layers of fifteenth-century gold leaf. But her carefully reconstructed life in Florence is shattered when Caspian Thorne, the ruthless head of the Veridia Syndicate, comes to claim a debt.
He doesn't just want her signature; he wants her life. Caught on camera at the scene of a murder, Elita is blackmailed into a marriage contract with a man she rejected ten years ago. But the horror goes deeper: Caspian's late fiancée, Vera, was surgically altered to look exactly like Elita-a "template" created to replace the girl who got away.
Now, Elita is no longer just a restoration of paintings; she is an infiltrator in a glass fortress. To survive the wolves of the Syndicate and the ghost of the woman she was meant to be, she must become more dangerous than the monster who owns her.
In a world where love is forged in blackmail and vows are signed in blood, can the "Original" burn down the empire to find her absolute truth?