Elias Montgomery has been told his future is measured in months. Clara Whitmore has already rejected one of his unexpected proposals, but this time he is not asking for romance. He is asking for a wife before time runs out. They have known each other for most of their lives without ever truly knowing each other at all. Elias is brilliant, wealthy, reclusive, and convinced that practical arrangements are easier than emotional promises. Clara has plans of her own, including a doctorate, a career, and the hope that when she marries, it will be for love. Yet his diagnosis changes the shape of every argument, and a carefully defined marriage offers a way to settle the future he believes he will never see. Living as husband and wife proves far less simple than signing an agreement. Shared rooms, private fears, family expectations, and the relentless countdown strip away the distance between them. Clara begins to see the vulnerable man beneath Elias's intensity, while Elias discovers that wanting her happiness is dangerously close to wanting a lifetime he never planned to ask for. Their marriage was built to end. Falling in love was never part of the terms, and now every day makes the cost of that mistake impossible to ignore.
Elias Montgomery has been told his future is measured in months. Clara Whitmore has already rejected one of his unexpected proposals, but this time he is not asking for romance. He is asking for a wife before time runs out. They have known each other for most of their lives without ever truly kno...