When Roses Bleed

THEY BURIED HER ONCE. SHE GREW BACK WITH THORNS.

Talia Valencia remembers the way she died. She remembers the cold marble of her family's hallway. She remembers the scent of her sister's perfume-peony and venom. And she remembers the gunshot that ended her life on the night of her twenty-first birthday.

But when Talia opens her eyes, there is no blood. No bullet wound. The calendar reads exactly one year before her murder.

Given a second chance, Talia isn't interested in forgiveness. She's interested in demolition. To the world, she is the quiet, disgraced daughter of the Valencia billionaire dynasty, studying fashion at Edenhart University. But in the shadows, she is Rosebud-the leader of the White Roses, an elite underground network of female operatives she built and buried long ago.

Now, the Roses are waking up.

As Talia weaves a web of corporate sabotage, high-couture traps, and digital warfare to destroy her sister Celestine's reputation, she uncovers a rot in the family tree far deeper than sibling rivalry. A secret laboratory. A history of erased agents. And Callen Reeve, a cybersecurity professor with a dark-ops past who sees right through her mask.

The winter is coming again. But this time, Talia won't be the one bleeding on the floor.

The world took a girl. It's about to get back a weapon.