ririfranx

Promises are heavy things. They cling to your shoulders like wet lead, sinking deep into your bones until every breath feels earned. For Charlotte, promises were the only currency she had left. On the day her parents died, she made a promise to her two younger sisters: You will never go hungry. I will make sure of it. On the night she caught the man she thought she’d marry wrapped in another woman's arms—after she had poured four years of her life, savings, and trust into his hands—she made a promise to herself: Never again. Love is a luxury for people who can afford to be broken. When she walked across the graduation stage of an obscure, nameless college with a diploma that corporate recruiters threw straight into the trash, she held onto those promises. She didn't care about prestige, ambition, or her own shattered dreams. When the offer letter from the industrial manufacturing plant arrived—offering long hours, blistered hands, and minimum wage on an assembly line—she accepted without a single second of hesitation. Pride couldn't buy groceries. Pride couldn't keep a roof over her sisters' heads. She was ready for the grueling noise, the grease-stained aprons, and the relentless hum of heavy machinery. She was ready to harden her heart into an unyielding fortress, untouched by romance, tenderness, or desire. What she wasn't ready for was her. She was supposed to be just another corporate executive inspecting the factory floor. Cold, elegant, and impossibly out of reach. Charlotte wasn't supposed to look up. She wasn't supposed to feel her pulse race at the subtle scent of sandalwood, or freeze under the weight of dark, penetrating eyes. And above all, Charlotte wasn't supposed to fall. Not for a stranger. Not after everything she’d survived. And certainly not for another woman. Charlotte knew she couldn't afford this. She tried to fight it, tried to bury the terrifying warmth blooming in her chest, tried to remind herself of every reason why this was impossible. But feelings, once rooted, do not care about promises. And Victoria Vance had no intention of letting her go. lg...