Chapter 1: Just Another Perfect Morning

Alina Vale was born to be perfect.

Perfect grades. Perfect future. Perfect daughter of one of the most powerful doctors in the country.

But behind the mansion walls, she's just a girl controlled by a father who thinks love is earned through obedience-and failure is punished. Her only escape? The housekeeper's son, Noah, who sees the real her when no one else bothers to look.

As med school pressures mount and her future specialty becomes the next battleground in her family's quiet war, Alina reaches her breaking point. And this time, she's done being quiet.

She's not a legacy. She's not a pawn. She's not his.

And if it costs her everything to be free-then so be it.