She had not married him for love. Nor had it been a marriage born of tradition, arrangement, or even choice. When Navya Sharma, a naïve young woman of barely twenty-two, stood before the world as the wife of Advait Rathore, she stepped into a bond that was nothing less than a transaction. For him, it was profit-a move calculated, cold, and beneficial to his empire. For her, it was destiny's cruelest twist. Advait Rathore-twenty-eight years old, sharp-minded, ruthless, and carrying the weight of maturity and sin in equal measure-was no ordinary man. He was a king of shadows, a ruler of the underworld. And Navya? She was a lamb led into a lion's den, handed to him under the guise of a marriage that was never meant to bloom. All she had ever wished for was a husband she could call hers-a man who belonged to her alone. But destiny, merciless as ever, bound her to a man whose heart had already been claimed. His first wife was still alive. And worse-he loved her. For Navya, the truth was more bitter than betrayal. She was not a beloved wife; she was a replacement. A second choice. Perhaps even nothing more than a vessel-brought into his life to give him heirs, to strengthen his lineage, to serve a purpose. Yet beneath her quiet demeanor stirred a storm. Perhaps she was destined to be nothing more than a surrogate for his children... or perhaps fate had far greater designs. Because sometimes, in a world of power, blood, and betrayal, the one who enters quietly, unnoticed, can end up stealing the most precious thing a man possesses-his very soul.