The Black Table Bride

She went looking for her mother. She found the table that sells women. Fifteen years after Marianne Hart vanished, Evelyn Hart discovers her mother's name hidden inside a dead heiress's legal file—classified not as missing, not as murdered, but as an unrecovered asset of a secret society called the Black Table. By nightfall, Evelyn is invited to a private gala beneath New York City. By midnight, she is drugged, dressed as a bride, and placed on an auction platform before masked billionaires who believe bloodlines can be bought, women can be claimed, and old family sins should remain buried. Then Cassian Vale walks in. Dangerous, powerful, and tied to the night Evelyn's mother disappeared, Cassian buys her before another man can take her. He says he is not claiming her. He says he is buying time. He says the only way to keep her alive is to bring her inside Vale House, the gothic cliffside estate where her mother once ran for help—and where Cassian failed her. Evelyn does not trust him. She should not want him. But Cassian is the only man standing between her and the Black Table's bride claim, and every secret inside his house leads closer to the truth about Marianne. As Evelyn uncovers a hidden gallery of stolen brides, a living ledger of witnesses, and a dynasty built on silence, she must decide whether Cassian is another cage—or the first man willing to help her burn the cage down. The Black Table Bride is a dark gothic billionaire romantic suspense novel featuring a morally gray protective hero, a fierce heroine, secret society danger, forced proximity, family secrets, and a romance that must be chosen—not claimed.