After the sudden departure of her previous bodyguard, Y/N Sinclair’s carefully controlled life takes an unexpected turn when her father hires Derek Hayes — a young man in his twenties who doesn’t seem prepared for the world he’s about to enter. Born into immense wealth, Y/N has lived a life shaped by privilege and quiet tragedy. Her mother’s death in a car accident when she was eight left a void that business deals and luxury could never fill. With a father constantly away, she and her twin brother Oscar Sinclair grew inseparable, relying on each other in a world where appearances matter more than truth. At college, even though it’s their first year, they are the golden pair—beautiful, charming, untouchable. Surrounded by an elite circle of equally wealthy and influential friends, they embody perfection. But perfection is a mask. Behind closed doors, their glittering world fractures into something far more dark. Beneath the polished smiles and designer clothes lies a culture of excess, secrecy, and indecent parties. Keegan arrives expecting to guard a spoiled rich girl. Instead, he steps into a labyrinth of lies, power, and hidden darkness—where the line between protector and witness begins to blur, and where Y/N may be far more complicated than she appears. And as the nights grow wilder and the secrets deepen, Keegan realizes one thing: He isn’t just protecting her from the world. He might have to protect her from herself or maybe even from himself…
In a kingdom ruled by tradition and appearances, the crown’s future depends on one decision: Prince Harold must choose a bride before his nineteenth birthday. To maintain the illusion of fairness, the royal family hosts the Selection, bringing one hundred girls to compete through months of trials and ceremonies. Five of them come from common families, a carefully staged exception to prove that anyone could rise… in theory. But everyone knows the truth: the crown was never meant to be touched by poverty. Among the chosen is Y/N, 17, one of those “common” girls. She has no interest in the prince or the palace. Known for his reputation as a womanizer, Harold is the least of her concerns. She is only here for the money promised to participants, a lifeline for her struggling family. Quietly defiant and uninterested in playing the role expected of her, she quickly becomes an outsider in the Selection. Harold has always been surrounded by people desperate to impress him. Y/N is the first person who doesn’t care who he is. Stubborn, sharp-tongued, and infuriatingly honest, she draws his attention in ways he doesn’t understand at first. Curiosity turns into tension. Tension turns into something far more dangerous. Because in this kingdom, no common girl has ever won the Selection… and the crown was never meant to change its rules.
In most stories, joining the circus is a dream. For these children, it was never a choice. Years ago, Phineas Salvatore, a mysterious ringmaster and former carnival owner, built his troupe from talented performers his own age. But as time dulled their novelty, he devised a chilling solution to revive his fading spectacle. Traveling from town to town, he began adopting children from orphanages, selecting only those who possessed a peculiar, almost uncanny spark of talent. One by one, they were taken in and reshaped into stars of his show. Charlie, chosen at seven for his unsettling presence, became a silent mime and Pierrot clown, mastering impossible feats without ever speaking a word. Scarlett, adopted at eight, grew into a mesmerizing contortionist, her body bending as if untouched by bone. Pablo, taken at nine, now strides above the crowds as a towering stilt walker. Alongside them is the ringmaster’s own daughter, Y/n Salvatore, a flawless flying trapeze performer, trained since birth to embody perfection. Her father’s greatest hope. But behind the dazzling performances lies something far darker. The carnival is bound by rigid rules and ruthless expectations. Perfection is demanded. Failure is punished. Escape is impossible. Stripped of their pasts, even their last names, the children belong wholly to the circus. Though the circus is filled with other performers, jugglers, dancers, illusionists, and lifers who have long since accepted their place, the children are kept apart. The ringmaster isolates them through most of their training, pushing them harder, expecting more, shaping them into something rarer than the rest. Only during final rehearsals are they allowed to perform alongside the others, like carefully guarded secrets unveiled at the last possible moment. 10 years passed, Y/n is now 16 and the children grow into skilled performers, bound not only by fear but by something deeper. The ringmaster, in his own unsettling way, becomes a twisted fathe