Rukmini Devraj has spent her whole life being told she is worth less than the sons in her house. When her stepbrother's gambling debts bring the Rajvardhan family's black cars to her village, she learns exactly how little say she has in her own future — she is the price of her family's survival. Yuvraan Rajvardhan doesn't want a wife. He wants the Devraj family to pay for what they took from him twelve years ago, and marrying their daughter is the cruelest, quietest way to do it. Cold, controlling, and untouchable, he expects nothing from Rukmini but her silence — and her eventual, contracted departure in exactly one year. He doesn't expect her to become the only person in his gilded, guarded house who isn't afraid to look him in the eye. As the walls of Shauryagarh close around her and a dangerous cousin's obsession grows, Rukmini uncovers a truth that could unravel everything — including the fragile, forbidden thing growing between her and the husband who was never supposed to want her back. One year. One contract. One impossible, consuming love neither of them signed up for.