Don't mess with the stepmother. She's a spy

Erin was a decorated military intelligence scout who'd earned her discharge — until a rogue private defense firm confiscated her exemption file and handed her an order: pose as a demure socialite, sign a contract marriage with Thomas Vance, the heavy-shipping tycoon of the Great Lakes, and infiltrate his sealed Firwood Estate to steal the family trust's port franchise documents locked in the vault. She set foot in the manor on day one — and walked straight into a deadly game. Three hostile stepchildren saw her as a fortune hunter and waged a relentless war on her with modified air rifles, attack dogs, and frame-ups. Thomas's brother quietly conspired with the local port inspector, using a fake romance staged with the eldest son to swallow the family's dock assets. And Thomas himself — iron-fisted, watchful, impossible to read — had already spotted the special-ops soldier in her through his estate-wide surveillance, and was using the marriage as bait to purge the traitors in his own bloodline. With the defense firm's deadline counting down, relatives circling to seize control, and three rebellious kids closing in, Erin took command of the estate the way only a soldier could — juggling an assassination mission, a family to defend, and a chess match with the man who owned the board. The woman they all thought they were using? She lit the fuse on a full-scale war for her freedom — and her survival.