Chapter 1

At the Harbor City flower gala, a dozen young women stood beneath the ballroom lights while the heirs of the city’s old families chose a bloom to offer. It looked like a party. Everyone knew it was a matchmaking ritual. A flower meant a family was willing to discuss marriage.

I was the ninth daughter of casino magnate Victor Chu—and the only one born to his first mistress. If no one chose me tonight, my stepmother would send me to the capital to marry into the powerful Qin family. I had begged my childhood friend, Adrian Huo, for three years to help me build enough leverage to escape that fate. He’d promised.

Then the host announced the first choice.

Adrian walked past me and placed a gold-edged orchid in the hands of Lillian Hsieh, the scholarship student he’d sponsored through college.

“Let her have one night in the spotlight,” he murmured near my ear. “No one can force you into anything while I’m here.”

The cameras caught his arm around her. They caught my empty hands, too.

“Lillian has grace and a distinguished background,” he told the crowd. “She deserves an orchid.”

People laughed. They heard the insult in the word *distinguished*.

By the end of the night, I had no flower and no way to refuse the capital.