He needs a fiancée to save his empire. She needs a lifeline before her future flatlines. Twelve months. One contract. A fake ring that starts to feel dangerously real. Med student Claire Benson is drowning in debt and deadlines when an elevator stall drops her into the orbit of Grayson Hunt—Manhattan's most controlled billionaire and the last man who should notice a waitress with ink-stained notes and rent due. Grayson doesn't date; he negotiates. To secure his inheritance and silence the tabloids, he offers Claire the unthinkable: become his made-for-media fiancée for a year. Cameras flash. NDAs click shut. A penthouse, a glittering lie, and a calendar full of galas, fundraisers, and family interrogations turn "just business" into constant proximity—one bed at a retreat, one kiss for the press, one confession when no one's watching. But with a ruthless father to impress, an assistant who smells a scandal, and gossip sites hunting for cracks, the clean lines of their contract blur into something tender—and terrifying. If the truth explodes, Claire loses the future she fought for and Grayson loses the only woman who ever made him feel safe. If they bet on each other, they could have everything… as long as they stop pretending first.