Emma Rhodes has been dead before. In another life she was Celeste Laurent, a famous actress drowned by her fiancé. But death wasn't the end. She woke up in a child's body, trapped in a family that would become her prison.

For sixteen years, Emma watched her stepmother Juliette poison her mother, push her down the stairs, and marry her father. She endured the cruelty of her stepsister Evelyn. She learned to be invisible.

Then her father's debts caught up with him. The man who owns the debt is Nicholas White, a billionaire CEO of the largest entertainment empire in the city, and the most dangerous man alive. He doesn't want money. He wants Emma.

The marriage contract is signed. Emma becomes Mrs. White, a pawn in a game she doesn't understand. But Nicholas has secrets too. He is the Ghost, a shadow king who controls the underworld. And for fifteen years, he has been hunting the man who murdered his mother, the same man who killed Celeste Laurent.

He doesn't know Emma is Celeste reborn. He only knows that when he looks at her, something in him recognizes something in her.

As Emma steps into the spotlight, building an acting career that terrifies her enemies, she and Nicholas are drawn into a war against Juliette, her mysterious backer Viktor Cross, and a criminal organization called the Consortium. Trust is earned in blood. Love grows in the darkness between revenge and survival.

But Viktor knows what Emma really is. He calls it the Echo Phenomenon. And he doesn't want her dead,he wants to own her.

Emma died once. She won't die again.

The headlines hit the next morning like a bomb.


Emma sat in the kitchen, scrolling through her phone, her coffee growing cold. Nicholas stood behind her, reading over her shoulder.


Emma Rhodes: The Next Big Thing or Just Another Nepotism Hire?


White Entertainment's Newest Star: Talent or Transaction?


From Obscurity to Empire: How Nicholas White's Fiancée Plans to Conquer Hollywood


"I think they're curious." Emma set down her phone. "And curious is good. Curious means they're watching."


"Let them try." She stood and walked to the window. The city stretched below her, glittering and dangerous. "I've survived worse than bad reviews."


Nicholas followed her, his hands finding her waist, his chest pressed against her back. "You're not going to let any of this get to you?"


"I'm going to use it." She turned in his arms. "Every article, every interview, every camera pointed in my face… It's all a stage. And I know how to perform."


He studied her face for a long moment. "You really are something else."


Her phone buzzed on the counter. She glanced at it, and Evelyn's name flashed across the screen. She let it ring.


"What if she keeps calling?" Nicholas asked.


Emma's jaw tightened. "Juliette is going to do what Juliette always does. She's going to smile in public and sharpen her knives in private. But she can't touch me anymore."


"Let her." Emma pulled away from him, walking back to the counter. She picked up her phone and silenced it. "I'm not the same girl who lived in her house, Nicholas. I'm not afraid of her."


"You should be." His voice was low, serious. "Juliette is connected to Viktor Cross. And Viktor…"


"I'm not a weapon, Emma. I'm a man who's spent fifteen years trying to avenge his mother. And now I have you to protect too."


Emma covered his hand with hers. "Then stop protecting me and start trusting me. I'm not going to break."


He stared at her for a long, aching moment. Then he kissed her… hard and desperate, his hands fisting in her hair.


"Never," he said against her mouth. "You're never going to break."


Chapter 19 - Chapter Nineteen