The Temporary Wife

The second installment in the Windsors series, this contemporary romance follows Luca Windsor, CEO of Windsor Finance, and Valentina Diaz, his executive secretary of eight years, as their contentious professional relationship transforms into a marriage of convenience that becomes real.

Luca's grandmother, Anne Windsor, the family matriarch and company chairwoman, hired Valentina as a young college dropout despite her lack of experience. Luca has never understood why, and his suspicion fueled years of attempts to make her quit. Nothing worked. Over time, Valentina became his indispensable right hand, known around the office as "The Ice Queen" for her cold professionalism, though she is warm and genuine with Luca's family.

Valentina's home life is strained. Her mother, embittered after being abandoned by Valentina's wealthy father for the woman his family originally chose for him, constantly warns Valentina never to trust rich men. Valentina's grandmother, Abuela, who raised her, is her only source of unconditional love. Valentina channels all her energy into work, supporting her family while suppressing personal desires.

Everything shifts at the wedding of Luca's brother Ares. When Luca sees Valentina dancing with Joshua Rivera, a business competitor, he is seized by jealousy. He carries her to a moonlit gazebo and kisses her passionately, then lashes out, accusing her of being a gold digger seeking to become a rich man's mistress. Valentina walks away in tears, devastated that the first time she let her guard down, he used the moment to humiliate her.

Months of estrangement follow. Valentina replaces her teasing rapport with rigid formality, withdrawing from Luca and his entire family. The situation worsens when Grandma Anne announces Luca's arranged engagement to Natalia Ivanov, daughter of an oil magnate. Valentina consoles him privately, but the engagement forces her to confront feelings she has been suppressing. When Natalia visits the office and dismisses Valentina as a mere employee, and Luca asks Valentina to arrange dinner reservations and send roses to his fiancée, the accumulation of pain becomes unbearable. Valentina submits her resignation, telling Luca she has outgrown the position and wants a life of her own.

Luca is blindsided. He rips up her letter, offers to double her salary, shows up drunk at her apartment confessing he cannot stop thinking about her, and implements a company-wide no-fraternization rule when she goes on a date with a colleague. He even blacklists her across the industry, ensuring she cannot find new employment. Valentina confronts him, pleading for him to stop controlling her life.

The crisis point arrives when Valentina's mother reports that Abuela has gone missing and reveals that Abuela has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, which the family had hidden from Valentina. Desperate, Valentina returns to Luca and offers to retract her resignation if he uses his resources to find her grandmother. Luca, who has already dispatched his head of security to search, counteroffers: if Valentina marries him, he will provide the best possible care for Abuela, freeing himself from the unwanted engagement while keeping Valentina by his side. With no other options, Valentina agrees.

They negotiate a handwritten contract. Valentina demands round-the-clock care for Abuela that continues after divorce, Luca's support for her candidacy as Chief Operating Officer (COO), and absolute secrecy to protect her professional reputation. Luca requires that they share a home and bed, remain faithful, and that Valentina help realize his late father's vision of transforming Windsor Finance into a firm that serves everyday people through accessible banking, loans, and support services. Valentina insists they must not fall in love and must divorce after three years. They marry that evening.

Early married life is uneasy. Valentina wears her ugliest pajamas as armor; Luca reveals unexpected tenderness, buying her pink slippers for cold floors and attempting to cook Abuela's recipes. He delivers a thorough apology for his jealousy, his cruelty after the wedding kiss, and the blacklisting. Valentina grants him a clean slate but warns him never to take her for granted again. Their physical relationship deepens alongside genuine emotional intimacy.

They inform their families. Grandma Anne imposes strict rules: the marriage must last three years, they cannot spend more than three consecutive nights apart, and infidelity will cost Luca his inheritance and Valentina her job. Valentina's mother reacts with hostility; Abuela is delighted. Valentina confides her full history to Luca. Her father, Miguel Garcia, CEO of a company called ReInsure, abandoned the family and later refused to acknowledge her when she tracked him down as a teenager. A college boyfriend named Ben Harris cheated on her after she dropped out of school to care for her family. These betrayals explain her deep resistance to love.

Complications multiply. Ben Harris, son of the outgoing COO, returns as Valentina's competitor for the COO position; the board decides that whichever candidate brings in the largest new client wins the role. Luca encounters Miguel and wages war against ReInsure, withdrawing all Windsor business and triggering investigations that devastate the company. When Valentina discovers Luca's actions, she is moved that someone finally stood up for her.

Encouraged by Elena Kennedy, a client whose own marriage began as one of convenience, Luca confesses his love. After a moment of fear, Valentina reciprocates: "I think I love you, too" (259). Valentina secures a major investment, wins the COO position, and Luca sends a company-wide memo announcing their marriage.

Then Abuela passes away peacefully. Valentina sinks into a deep depression, barely speaking and pushing Luca away. She tells him she wants to end the marriage, convinced he is better off without her. Luca, heartbroken, leaves. Grandma Anne enforces her rules, freezing Luca's assets and banning him from Windsor properties. Dion, Luca's brother, drives Valentina to find Luca at his hotel and urges her to seek help. Valentina begs forgiveness, admitting she was spiraling. Luca confesses he feared she only wanted him for his wealth. They recommit to each other, recognizing that the crisis has stripped away every external factor and left only love.

Luca later takes Valentina by canoe to a solitary tree on a lake she has admired since childhood and that he secretly purchased. Hundreds of lanterns float on the water, each bearing one of the pink sticky notes she wrote him over the years. He proposes with a new ring, asking her to forget the contract. She says yes.

As they prepare to relocate to Canada after being apparently blacklisted, they discover the Windsor private jet filled with their family. Grandma Anne confesses the full scope of her manipulation: She engineered the engagement to Natalia knowing it would push Luca toward Valentina, and the eviction and blacklisting were orchestrated to force them to choose each other freely. She reveals that Luca's late parents were friends with Valentina's father and that his mother once wished for their children to marry, a wish Grandma spent years quietly trying to fulfill. Valentina urges Luca to forgive his grandmother, and he reluctantly does.

On a family trip to Hawaii, they hold a proper beach wedding. Luca asks for "a minimum of three lifetimes" with Valentina (369), and her mother walks her down the aisle. In the epilogue, set 10 years later, Valentina is CEO of Windsor Finance and Luca is chairman. Hugo Garcia, head of the Garcia family, arrives with Valentina's half-brother Mateo to offer her rightful shares in the family empire and ownership of the diminished ReInsure, which she plans to rebrand as Windsor Insurance. With two children and a love that has only deepened, Luca fulfills a long-ago promise, telling Valentina, "I told you so."