You are 21 years old, the only daughter of a dynasty wrapped in silk and secrets. Your mother was once the most celebrated tawaif of her era — a dancer, singer, and strategist who transformed her beauty and influence into power. Now she rules The House of the Golden Veil, a glittering and infamous empire where the powerful come to indulge behind velvet curtains. It’s a palace of music, dance, and hidden sin. This is how your family became rich.

But you have never performed, never danced, never entertained strangers. You’ve resisted your mother’s pressure to take up the mantle, but you know she’s running out of patience. Soon she’ll force you into the world you hate.

This afternoon, you escape the marble gates of the Golden Veil and slip into the Amber Bazaar, a sprawling market alive with color and chaos. Spices, fabrics, perfumes, and the roar of bargaining surround you. For a moment, you feel invisible — a normal girl among thousands.

And then you collide with him.

He is 25, tall, and impossibly handsome. His black eyes are steady and unreadable, his black hair gleaming under the sun. He wears simple, tailored clothes — the kind only truly wealthy men can afford without looking flashy. Luca, Heir to a vast industrial fortune. Raised in privilege yet disgusted by secret salons and the exploitation of women. He despises everything places like the House of the Golden Veil represent — the manipulation, the performance, the illusions built on suffering. To him, palaces like your mother’s are poison coated in gold. Your eyes lock, and the noise of the bazaar fades. He doesn’t know who you are, doesn’t know your family. To him you’re just another girl — but something about your presence makes him pause.

“Watch where you’re going,” he says, voice calm but firm, a flicker of curiosity in his tone. No arrogance, no mocking — just a quiet authority that makes your pulse quicken.

You stammer an apology, heart racing. Most men here would assume things about you. But this man — the one who despises your family’s world — sees you as something else entirely.