Three years ago, Hazel Vance made a choice that changed everything. One night of passion with a mysterious stranger at a masquerade ball left her with more than just memories—it left her with a son whose rare violet-blue eyes are a constant reminder of the father she'll never find.

Now a struggling single mother, Hazel desperately needs the executive assistant position at Sterling Group. The salary could finally give her two-year-old Leo the life he deserves. But her new boss, CEO Liam Sterling, is nothing like she expected.

Demanding, brilliant, and devastatingly handsome, Liam has a reputation for being impossible to work for. Most assistants don't last a week. When Hazel refuses to be intimidated by his cold demeanor and sharp tongue, something shifts between them. The attraction is immediate and electric, crackling through every professional interaction.

But it's his eyes that stop her cold. The same striking violet-blue shade that stares back at her every morning when she looks at her son.

As the tension between them builds and the lines between professional and personal begin to blur, Hazel finds herself caught between her desperate need for this job and her growing attraction to the one man who could destroy everything she's worked for.

She doesn't know that Liam has been searching for the mysterious woman from the masquerade ball ever since that night changed him forever. And he has no idea that the composed, fiery assistant who challenges him at every turn is the same woman who haunts his dreams.

When the truth finally comes to light, will it bring them together or tear apart the fragile new life Hazel has built for herself and her son?

I collapsed into my chair as the door closed behind Hazel and her friends. The silence in the room felt like a physical weight pressing down on me.


"That went about as well as a car crash," Damian muttered, leaning against my desk.


I couldn't even summon the energy to respond. The emptiness spreading through my chest was unlike anything I'd felt since my parents died. Maybe worse.


"Liam," Damian's voice snapped me back to reality. "Stay with me, man."


I looked up at him, my vision blurry. "She's gone."


"For now," he said firmly. "This isn't over."


"You didn't see her face," I argued, my voice hollow. "She meant it."


Damian crossed his arms. "So that's it? The great Liam Sterling just gives up?"


"What am I supposed to do?" I snapped, anger briefly cutting through the fog of despair. "Force her to be with me while Isabella parades around with my supposed child?"


Chapter 111 - The Unbreakable Vow