She woke up back in the storage room—the same cramped, windowless box where she was treated like a servant, where her "family" arranged her life like a ledger entry. The last time she obeyed, she married the wrong man, was beaten, used and finally killed. This time she remembers everything. With a calm smile and cold patience, Juniper Ishikawa turns every plot against her into leverage. She sells the father's secret to neighbors, twists a staged scandal into public humiliation, and forces money and favors out of the men who expected to treat her like property. She learns to fight, builds a tiny business from bean sprouts, and draws a silent, dangerous protector into her orbit: Tristan Bush, a hard, ex-B detachment security chief who refuses to be manipulated—or show his soft side. They thought they could pawn her life away. They thought she would cry and obey. This time she walks away with their jobs, their reputations, and their control—and she is just getting started.

12 Chapters