The Escondido Clause

An inheritance. A condition. One estate neither of them can walk away from.Daphne Ferraro built her empire by never needing anyone.As a Southern California real estate billionaire with a reputation for getting exactly what she wants, Daphne knows how to read a contract, control a room, and walk away before anything gets personal. She does not share property. She does not share power. And she definitely does not share the carefully protected life she rebuilt after divorce.Then she loses the bid.Half of it, anyway.When the eccentric owner of a forgotten coastal estate refuses to choose between Daphne and Leo Blackwood - a newly divorced community college professor with boxes still unpacked and a life still coming apart - he leaves them with one impossible condition: if either of them wants the property, they have to share it.Daphne needs the estate for her next major development. Leo needs it because it may be the only place that still feels like a beginning. Neither of them expected late-night arguments over renovation plans, coffee rings on mahogany tables, or the unsettling comfort of being seen by someone who refuses to be impressed by money.But the closer Daphne and Leo get, the more dangerous the estate becomes.A board vote is circling. A leaked email threatens everything Daphne has built. And the one man who makes her feel less alone may also be the one complication she cannot afford.Some properties are meant to be developed.Some are meant to become home.The Escondido Clause is Book 1 in The Blackwood Legacy Series, a luxury contemporary romance filled with forced proximity, emotional walls, family legacy, coastal secrets, and a billionaire heroine who finally meets the man she cannot control.