The Healer's Bargain

Amara Whitlock loses her mother, and before the funeral ends, her father, stepmother, and stepsister have her committed to an asylum - a convenient way to erase an inconvenient heir. Ten years inside, she's mentored by the asylum's healers and cooks, emerging not broken but formidable: a master herbalist who can heal what doctors have given up on, and a woman who runs a kitchen like a command post. Released at last, she finds her family waiting at the gate - not from guilt, but need. Her stepsister was set to marry a feared mafia don, and now they want Amara to take her place. She agrees, on her own terms: her mother's stolen inheritance returned, and total, permanent severance from the family. Then she walks into the Cross household and finds two boys running the house like feral little tyrants - one of whom hasn't walked in years. She didn't come here to fall in love. She came to reclaim her life. But putting this family back together might do exactly that anyway.