Carmilla Varno
Maren Ashford is the best deposition attorney at Whitfield, Crane and Associates, precise, unflinching, and willing to break any witness to find the truth. But when a high-profile client demands a late-night session, she has no idea she's walking into the center of someone else's game. Her witness is Carmilla Varno, a woman whose name echoes through the city's oldest fortunes and darkest secrets, and whose presence ignites something in Maren that no courtroom ever has. Surrounded by powerful figures, Etienne Marlowe, whose charm masks lethal ambition; Julian Thorne, a partner whose loyalty is a moving target; Victor Kane, a client with everything to hide; and Sloane Kessler, the only person Maren trusts completely, Maren is pulled into a case that blurs the line between legal warfare and personal seduction. Even Raphael, a man from her mother's past, surfaces with warnings she cannot ignore. As the deposition stretches past midnight and the truth becomes more tangled than the lies, Maren must choose between the career she's built on control and the dangerous woman who offers her something far more real. One signature, one secret, one confession could destroy them both, or set them free.