Brenna Frye 
The Gilded Cage [EPUB ebook] 
A Venetian Art Thriller

Aria Sterling, a world-renowned art authenticator, lives for the hushed reverence of museums and the thrill of uncovering the secrets hidden within brushstrokes. But her controlled world shatters in a Venetian palazzo when she encounters a Vermeer of impossible luminescence.  A masterpiece of light and shadow, it whispers of deception, of the phantom forger known only as Marcus Shadow.
That night, amidst the glittering elite of the Venetian art scene, Aria meets him. Marcus, a figure as enigmatic as the pigments he commands, ignites a dangerous curiosity within her. Their first conversation is a delicate dance of veiled meanings, a silent acknowledgment of the game they both play.
Aria’s investigation intensifies, revealing a breathtakingly perfect forgery and a coded message hidden within the canvas itself. The message leads her to The Atelier, a clandestine organization that exploits the emotional vulnerabilities of art experts, using manufactured love to create flawless replicas imbued with the very soul of a masterpiece.  And Aria, with her impeccable reputation, is their next target.
In Florence, the city of Renaissance splendor, Aria shadows Marcus as he prepares to forge a legendary Caravaggio. Their late-night conversations along the Arno River blur the lines between professional rivalry and burgeoning intimacy. Is he a master manipulator, or is there genuine connection beneath the surface? As Aria delves deeper, she uncovers Marcus’s own shrouded past, a history intertwined with the dark secrets of the art world.
The heist of the Caravaggio is a meticulously orchestrated ballet of deception, and Aria, trapped in a gilded cage of her own making, finds herself at the heart of it.  Torn between her duty and her growing affection for Marcus, she must choose: expose The Atelier and betray the man she has come to love, or sacrifice her principles for a love born of artifice.
In a heart-pounding climax, Aria confronts Marcus, the lines between love and manipulation, authenticity and forgery, irrevocably blurred. The ensuing confrontation shatters illusions and exposes a web of betrayal that reaches the highest echelons of the art world. Aria, her heart scarred but her spirit unbroken, must redefine her relationship with art and love, forever changed by the gilded cage of deception she dared to enter.