Length7h 30m
About this audiobook
Flour hangs in the April light at Bitter and Sweet - on the glass case, on Lena's sleeves, on the receipt she is trying to make legible for a tax guy who stopped returning her calls. Her grandmother Rosa is shouting from the back about the price of all-purpose. The weekly order for the law firm on Atlantic pays exactly enough to keep the lights on for one more month. Maybe two.
The bell chimes an hour before opening. Jasper Choi walks in with an attorney behind him carrying a leather folder like a weapon. There is a standing offer of two point four million for the building. It has not been formally declined.
Lena declines it, out loud, and hands the business card back.
A week later Rosa opens a letter on heavy paper. The bakery's commercial loan has been sold to Red Rock Acquisitions, and the full balance is due by May 3rd or the foreclosure starts. The figure at the bottom of Lena's spreadsheet stops changing no matter how many times she refreshes it.
Jasper's second offer is not a purchase. He needs a partner to believe he can hold a relationship together, because his deal is contingent on it. So: fourteen days. A written, signed, notarized contract stating in Section 1 that no romantic or physical intimacy is required or implied. Two hundred and forty-seven thousand dollars into escrow, releasing to the bank at midnight on the third.
Lena adds a condition of her own. He tells her the truth - about the loan, and about why he killed her launch, the one that cost her a business and a reputation she had spent years building.
What neither of them has accounted for: Jasper's prospective partner, Harrison Croft, has his own reason for wanting Lena close, and it runs back to the boss who fired her weeks before her flagship opened. Her cousin Tia, who has never wanted the bakery and has always wanted the building, has a friend at the bank who can read a wire transfer. And a real estate reporter is assembling a story around the one document Lena should never have signed.
A fake-engagement romance about a family building, a bought loan and a contract with a confidentiality clause - closed-door by its own written terms, with a grandmother who sees more than she says, a deadline that does not move, and a grand gesture that costs the man in the suit absolutely everything he came in with.
Audiobook details
GenreRomance
Length7 hrs 30 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateSep 15, 2026
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Chapter 1 - The Offer I Refused
2Chapter 2 - The Dinner I Didn’t Want to Attend
3Chapter 3 - The Bargain I Swore I Wouldn’t Make
4Chapter 4 - The First Public Lie
5Chapter 5 - The Practice That Felt Real
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6Chapter 6 - The Vulnerability I Didn’t Expect
7Chapter 7 - The Dinner That Changed Everything
8Chapter 8 - The Kiss at the Festival
9Chapter 9 - The 5 AM Confession
10Chapter 10 - The Ex-Boss Who Knew Too Much
11Chapter 11 - The Commitment I Never Expected
12Chapter 12 - The Document I Shouldn’t Have Seen
13Chapter 13 - The First Real I Love You
14Chapter 14 - The Tenant I Saved
15Chapter 15 - The Truth I Didn’t Want to Hear
16Chapter 16 - The Chance I Gave Him
17Chapter 17 - The Night Before the Fall
18Chapter 18 - The Goodbye I Meant
19Chapter 19 - The Fall I Had Coming
20Chapter 20 - The Price I Paid Willingly
21Chapter 21 - The Grand Gesture I Couldn’t Refuse
22Chapter 22 - The Beginning I Never Expected
23The End
24About the Author
25Also by Adrienne Cole
26Acknowledgements
27A Note from the Author
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