A Verdict of Forever

She's spent three years building a case against him—and five minutes in a room together destroying it.

Criminal defense attorney Sloane Mercer lives by one unbreakable rule: never trust a prosecutor. Especially not Callum Reid, the sharp-tongued, infuriatingly brilliant ADA who has made it his personal mission to dismantle every argument she presents. In the courtroom, they're opponents. Outside it, they're nothing at all.

Until a high-profile murder case forces them to the same side of the aisle.

Working together means long nights, closer quarters, and the unsettling discovery that the man Sloane has despised for years sees her more clearly than anyone ever has. Callum doesn't just challenge her arguments—he challenges *her*, pushing past the careful armor she's spent a lifetime constructing. And she hates him for it. Almost as much as she hates the way her pulse betrays her every time he walks into a room.

But they're playing for higher stakes than either of them expected. The case is crumbling. Secrets are surfacing. And somewhere between their razor-sharp sparring and stolen moments neither of them planned, the line between rivalry and something irreversible begins to blur.

Sloane built her career on reading people. She just never prepared herself for the verdict that matters most.

*The one written in her own heart.*